Books: The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D.

J >> James Boswell >> The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28

This day was passed in looking at a small island adjoining
Inchkenneth, which afforded nothing worthy of observation; and in such
social and gay entertainments as our little society could furnish.

Tuesday, 19th October

After breakfast we took leave of the young ladies, and of our
excellent companion Col, to whom we had been so much obliged. He had
now put us under the care of his chief; and was to hasten back to Sky.
We parted from him with very strong feelings of kindness and
gratitude; and we hoped to have had some future opportunity of proving
to him the sincerity of what we felt; but in the following year he was
unfortunately lost in the Sound between Ulva and Mull; and this
imperfect memorial, joined to the high honour of being tenderly and
respectfully mentioned by Dr Johnson, is the only return which the
uncertainty of human events has permitted us to make to this deserving
young man.

Sir Allan, who obligingly undertook to accompany us to Icolmkill had a
strong good boat, with four stout rowers. We coasted along Mull till
we reached Gribon, where is what is called Mackinnon's cave, compared
with which that at Ulinish is inconsiderable. It is in a rock of a
great height, close to the sea. Upon the left of its entrance there is
a cascade, almost perpendicular from the top to the bottom of the
rock. There is a tradition that it was conducted thither artificially,
to supply the inhabitants of the cave with water. Dr Johnson gave no
credit to this tradition. As, on the one hand, his faith in the
Christian religion is firmly founded upon good grounds; so, on the
other, he is incredulous when there is no sufficient reason for
belief; being in this respect just the reverse of modern infidels,
who, however nice and scrupulous in weighing the evidences of
religion, are yet often so ready to believe the most absurd and
improbable tales of another nature, that Lord Hailes well observed, a
good essay might be written Sur la credulite des Incredules.

The height of this cave I cannot tell with any tolerable exactness:
but it seemed to be very lofty, and to be a pretty regular arch. We
penetrated, by candlelight, a great way; by our measurement, no less
than four hundred and eighty-five feet. Tradition says, that a piper
and twelve men once advanced into this cave, nobody can tell how far;
and never returned. At the distance to which we proceeded the air was
quite pure; for the candle burned freely, without the least appearance
of the flame growing globular; but as we had only one, we thought it
dangerous to venture farther, lest, should it have been extinguished,
we should have had no means of ascertaining whether we could remain
without danger. Dr Johnson said, this was the greatest natural
curiosity he had ever seen.

We saw the island of Staffa, at no very great distance, but could not
land upon it, the surge was so high on its rocky coast.

Sir Allan, anxious for the honour of Mull, was still talking of its
woods, and pointing them out to Dr Johnson, as appearing at a distance
on the skirts of that island, as we sailed along. JOHNSON. 'Sir, I saw
at Tobermorie. what they called a wood, which I unluckily took for
HEATH. If you shew me what I shall take for FURZE, it will be
something.'

In the afternoon we went ashore on the coast of Mull, and partook of a
cold repast, which we carried with us. We hoped to have procured some
rum or brandy for our boatmen and servants, from a publick-house near
where we landed; but unfortunately a funeral a few days before had
exhausted all their store. Mr Campbell however, one of the Duke of
Argyle's tacksmen, who lived in the neighbourhood, on receiving a
message from Sir Allan, sent us a liberal supply.

We continued to coast along Mull, and passed by Nuns' Island, which,
it is said, belonged to the nuns of Icolmkill, and from which, we were
told, the stone for the buildings there was taken. As we sailed along
by moonlight, in a sea somewhat rough, and often between black and
gloomy rocks, Dr Johnson said, 'If this be not ROVING AMONG THE
HEBRIDES, nothing is.' The repetition of words which he had so often
previously used, made a strong impression on my imagination; and, by a
natural course of thinking, led me to consider how our present
adventures would appear to me at a future period.

I have often experienced, that scenes through which a man has passed,
improve by lying in the memory: they grow mellow. Acti labores sunt
jucundi. This may be owing to comparing them with present listless
ease. Even harsh scenes acquire a softness by length of time:
[Footnote: I have lately observed that this thought has been elegantly
expressed by Cowley:

Things which offend when present and affright.
In memory, well painted, move delight.]

and some are like very loud sounds, which do not please, or at least
do not please so much, till you are removed to a certain distance.
They may be compared to strong coarse pictures, which will not bear to
be viewed near. Even pleasing scenes improve by time, and seem more
exquisite in recollection, than when they were present; if they have
not faded to dimness in the memory. Perhaps, there is so much evil in
every human enjoyment, when present--so much dross mixed with it--that
it requires to be refined by time; and yet I do not see why time
should not melt away the good and the evil in equal proportions; why
the shade should decay, and the light remain in preservation.

After a tedious sail, which, by our following various turnings of the
coast of Mull, was extended to about forty miles, it gave us no small
pleasure to perceive a light in the village of Icolmkill, in which
almost all the inhabitants of the island live, close to where the
ancient building stood. As we approached the shore, the tower of the
cathedral, just discernable in the air, was a picturesque object.

When we had landed upon the sacred place, which, as long as I can
remember, I had thought on with veneration, Dr Johnson and I cordially
embraced. We had long talked of visiting Icolmkill; and, from the
lateness of the season, were at times very doubtful whether we should
be able to effect our purpose. To have seen it, even alone, would have
given me great satisfaction; but the venerable scene was rendered much
more pleasing by the company of my great and pious friend, who was no
less affected by it than I was; and who has described the impressions
it should make on the mind, with such strength of thought, and energy
of language, that I shall quote his words, as conveying my own
sensations much more forcibly than I am capable of doing:

We are now treading that illustrious island, which was once the
luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence savage clans and roving
barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge, and the blessings of
religion. To abstract the mind from all local emotion would be
impossible, if it were endeavoured, and would be foolish if it were
possible. Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses, whatever
makes the past, the distant, or the future, predominate over the
present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me,
and from my friends, be such frigid philosophy as may conduct us
indifferent and unmoved over any ground which has been dignified by
wisdom, bravery or virtue. That man is little to be envied, whose
patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose
piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona! [Footnote: Had
our tour produced nothing else but this sublime passage, the world
must have acknowledged that it was not made in vain. The present
respectable President of the Royal Society was so much struck on
reading it, that he clasped his hands together, and remained for some
time in an attitude of silent admiration.]

Upon hearing that Sir Allan M'Lean was arrived, the inhabitants, who
still consider themselves as the people of M'Lean, to whom the island
formerly belonged, though the Duke of Argyle has at present possession
of it, ran eagerly to him.

We were accommodated this night in a large barn, the island affording
no lodging that we should have liked so well. Some good hay was
strewed at one end of it, to form a bed for us, upon which we lay with
our clothes on; and we were furnished with blankets from the village.
Each of us had a portmanteau for a pillow. When I awaked in the
morning, and looked round me, I could not help smiling at the idea of
the Chief of the M'Leans, the great English moralist, and myself,
lying thus extended in such a situation.

Wednesday, 20th October

Early in the morning we surveyed the remains of antiquity at this
place, accompanied by an illiterate fellow, as cicerone, who called
himself a descendant of a cousin of Saint Columba, the founder of the
religious establishment here. As I knew that many persons had already
examined them, and as I saw Dr Johnson inspecting and measuring
several of the ruins of which he has since given so full an account,
my mind was quiescent; and I resolved; to stroll among them at my
ease, to take no trouble to investigate minutely, and only receive the
general impression of solemn antiquity, and the particular ideas of
such objects as should of themselves strike my attention.

We walked from the monastery of nuns to the great church or cathedral,
as they call it, along an old broken causeway. They told us, that this
had been a street; and that there were good houses built on each side.
Dr Johnson doubted if it was any thing more than a paved road for the
nuns. The convent of monks, the great church, Oran's chapel, and four
other chapels, are still to be discerned. But I must own that
Icolmkill did not answer my expectations; for they were high, from
what I had read of it, and still more from what I had heard and
thought of it, from my earliest years. Dr Johnson said, it came up to
his expectations, because he had taken his impression from an account
of it subjoined to Sacheverel's History of the Isle of Man, where it
is said, there is not much to be seen here. We were both disappointed,
when we were shewn what are called the monuments of the kings of
Scotland, Ireland, and Denmark, and of a king of France. There are
only some grave-stones flat on the earth, and we could see no
inscriptions. How far short was this of marble monuments, like those
in Westminster Abbey, which I had imagined here! The grave-stones of
Sir Allan M'Lean's family, and of that of M'Quarrie, had as good an
appearance as the royal grave-stones; if they were royal, we doubted.

My easiness to give credit to what I heard in the course of our tour
was too great. Dr Johnson's peculiar accuracy of investigation
detected much traditional fiction, and many gross mistakes. It is not
to be wondered at, that he was provoked by people carelessly telling
him, with the utmost readiness and confidence, what he found, on
questioning them a little more, was erroneous. Of this there were
innumerable instances.

I left him and Sir Allan to breakfast in our barn, and stole back
again to the cathedral, to indulge in solitude and devout meditation.
While contemplating the venerable ruins, I reflected with much
satisfaction, that the solemn scenes of piety never lose their
sanctity and influence, though the cares and follies of life may
prevent us from visiting them, or may even make us fancy that their
effects are only 'as yesterday, when it is past', and never again to
be perceived. I hoped, that, ever after having been in this holy
place, I should maintain an exemplary conduct. One has a strange
propensity to fix upon some point of time from whence a better course
of life may begin.

Being desirous to visit the opposite shore of the island, where Saint
Columba is said to have landed, I procured a horse from one M'Ginnis,
who ran along as my guide. The M'Ginnises are said to be a branch of
the clan of M'Lean. Sir Allan had been told that this man had refused
to send him some rum, at which the knight was in great indignation.
'You rascal!' said he. 'Don't you know that I can hang you, if I
please?' Not averting to the chieftain's power over his clan, I
imagined that Sir Allan had known of some capital crime that the
fellow had committed, which he could discover, and so get him
condemned; and said, 'How so?' 'Why,' said Sir Allan, 'are they not
all my people?' Sensible in my inadvertency, and most willing to
contribute what I could towards the continuation of feudal authority,
'Very true,' said I. Sir Allan went on: 'Refuse to send rum to me, you
rascal! Don't you know that, if I order you to go and cut a man's
throat, you are to do it?' 'Yes, an't please your honour! and my own
too, and hang myself too.' The poor fellow denied that he had refused
to send the rum. His making these professions was not merely a
pretence in presence of his chief; for after he and I were out of Sir
Allan's hearing, he told me, 'Had he sent his dog for the rum, I would
have given it: I would cut my bones for him.' It was very remarkable
to find such an attachment to a chief, though he had then no
connection with the island, and had not been there for fourteen years.
Sir Allan, by way of upbraiding the fellow, said, 'I believe you are a
CAMPBELL.'

The place which I went to see is about two miles from the village.
They call it Portawherry, from the wherry in which Columba came;
though, when they shew the length of his vessel, as marked on the
beach by two heaps of stones, they say, 'Here is the length of the
currach,' using the Erse word.

Icolmkill is a fertile island. The inhabitants export some cattle and
grain; and I was told, they import nothing but iron and salt. They are
industrious, and make their own woollen and linen cloth; and they brew
a good deal of beer, which we did not find in any of the other
islands.

We set sail again about mid-day, and in the evening landed on Mull,
near the house of the Reverend Mr Neal M'Leod, who having been
informed of our coming, by a message from Sir Allan, came out to meet
us. We were this night very agreeably entertained at his house. Dr
Johnson observed to me, that he was the cleanest-headed man that he
had met in the Western islands. He seemed to be well acquainted with
Dr Johnson's writings, and courteously said, 'I have been often
obliged to you, though I never had the pleasure of seeing you before.'

He told us, he had lived for some time in St Kilda, under the tuition
of the minister or catechist there, and had there first read Horace
and Virgil. The scenes which they describe must have been a strong
contrast to the dreary waste around him.

Thursday, 21st October

This morning the subject of politicks was introduced. JOHNSON.
'Pulteney was as paltry a fellow as could be. He was a Whig, who
pretended to be honest; and you know it is ridiculous for a Whig to
pretend to be honest. He cannot hold it out.' He called Mr Pitt a
meteor; Sir Robert Walpole a fixed star. He said, 'It is wonderful to
think that all the force of government was required to prevent Wilkes
from being chosen the chief magistrate of London, though the liverymen
knew he would rob their shops, knew he would debauch their daughters.'
[Footnote: I think it incumbent on me to make some observation on this
strong satirical sally on my classical companion, Mr Wilkes. Reporting
it lately from memory, in his presence, I expressed it thus: 'They
knew he would rob their shops, IF HE DURST; they knew he would debauch
their daughters, IF HE COULD, which, according to the French phrase,
may be said rencherir on Dr Johnson; but on looking into my Journal, I
found it as above, and would by no means make any addition. Mr Wilkes
received both readings with a good humour that I cannot enough admire.
Indeed both he and I (as, with respect to myself, the reader has more
than once had occasion to observe in the course of this Journal) are
too fond of a bon mot, not to relish it, though we should be ourselves
the object of it.

Let me add, in justice to the gentleman here mentioned, that at a
subsequent period, he was elected chief magistrate of London, and
discharged the duties of that high office with great honour to
himself, and advantage to the city. Some years before Dr Johnson died,
I was fortunate enough to bring him and Mr Wilkes together; the
consequence of which was, that they were ever afterwards on easy and
not unfriendly terms. The particulars I shall have great pleasure in
relating at large in my Life of Dr Johnson.]

BOSWELL. 'The history of England is so strange, that, if it were not
so well vouched as it is, it would hardly be credible.' JOHNSON. 'Sir,
if it were told as shortly, and with as little preparation for
introducing the different events, as the history of the Jewish kings,
it would be equally liable to objections of improbability.' Mr M'Leod
was much pleased with the justice and novelty of the thought. Dr
Johnson illustrated what he had said, as follows: 'Take, as an
instance, Charles the First's concessions to his parliament, which
were greater and greater, in proportion as the parliament grew more
insolent, and less deserving of trust. Had these concessions been
related nakedly, without any detail of the circumstances which
generally led to them, they would not have been believed.'

Sir Allan M'Lean bragged, that Scotland had the advantage of England,
by its having more water. JOHNSON, 'Sir, we would not have your water,
to take the vile bogs which produced it. You have too much! A man who
is drowned has more water than either of us'; and then he laughed.
(But this was surely robust sophistry: for the people of taste in
England, who have seen Scotland, own that its variety of rivers and
lakes makes it naturally more beautiful than England, in that
respect.) Pursuing his victory over Sir Allan, he proceeded: 'Your
country consists of two things, stone and water. There is, indeed, a
little earth above the stone in some places, but a very little; and
the stone is always appearing. It is like a man in rags; the naked
skin is still peeping out.'

He took leave of Mr M'Leod, saying, 'Sir, I thank you for your
entertainment, and your conversation.' Mr Campbell, who had been so
polite yesterday, came this morning on purpose to breakfast with us,
and very obligingly furnished us with horses to proceed on our journey
to Mr M'Lean's of Lochbuy, where we were to pass the night. We dined
at the house of Dr Alexander M'Lean, another physician in Mull, who
was so much struck with the uncommon conversation of Dr Johnson, that
he observed to me, 'This man is just a HOGSHEAD of sense.'

Dr Johnson said of the Turkish Spy, which lay in the room, that it
told nothing but what every body might have known at that time; and
that what was good in it, did not pay you for the trouble of reading
to find it.

After a very tedious ride, through what appeared to me the most gloomy
and desolate country I had ever beheld, we arrived, between seven and
eight o'clock, at Moy, the seat of the Laird of Lochbuy. Buy, in Erse,
signifies yellow, and I at first imagined that the loch or branch of
the sea here, was thus denominated, in the same manner as the Red Sea;
but I afterwards learned that it derived its name from a hill above
it, which being of a yellowish hue, has the epithet of Buy.

We had heard much of Lochbuy's being a great roaring braggadocio, a
kind of Sir John Falstaff, both in size and manners; but we found that
they had swelled him up to a fictitious size, and clothed him with
imaginary qualities. Col's idea of him was equally extravagant, though
very different: he told us, he was quite a Don Quixote; and said, he
would give a great deal to see him and Dr Johnson together. The truth
is, that Lochbuy proved to be only a bluff, comely, noisy old
gentleman, proud of his hereditary consequence, and a very hearty and
hospitable landlord. Lady Lochbuy was sister to Sir Allan M'Lean, but
much older. He said to me, 'They are quite Antediluvians.' Being told
that Dr Johnson did not hear well, Lochbuy bawled out to him, 'Are you
of the Johnstons of Glencro, or of Ardnamurchan?' Dr Johnson gave him
a significant look, but made no answer; and I told Lochbuy that he was
not Johnston, but Johnson, and that he was an Englishman.

Lochbuy some years ago tried to prove himself a weak man, liable to
imposition, or, as we term it in Scotland, a FACILE man, in order to
set aside a lease which he had granted; but failed in the attempt. On
my mentioning this circumstance to Dr Johnson, he seemed much
surprized that such a suit was admitted by the Scottish law, and
observed, that 'in England no man is allowed to STULTIFY himself.'
[Footnote: This maxim, however, has been controverted. See
Blackstone's Commentaries, Vol. II, p. 292; and the authorities there
quoted.] Sir Allan, Lochbuy, and I, had the conversation chiefly to
ourselves to-night: Dr Johnson, being extremely weary, went to bed
soon after supper.

Friday, 22d October

Before Dr Johnson came to breakfast, Lady Lochbuy said, 'he was a
DUNGEON of wit'; a very common phrase in Scotland to express a
profoundness of intellect, though he afterwards told me, that he never
had heard it. She proposed that he should have some cold sheep's head
for breakfast. Sir Allan seemed displeased at his sister's vulgarity,
and wondered how such a thought should come into her head. From a
mischievous love of sport, I took the lady's part; and very gravely
said, 'I think it is but fair to give him an offer of it. If he does
not choose it, he may let it alone.' 'I think so,' said the lady,
looking at her brother with an air of victory. Sir Allan, finding the
matter desperate, strutted about the room, and took snuff. When Dr
Johnson came in, she called to him, 'Do you choose any cold
sheep's-head, sir?' 'No, Madam,' said he, with a tone of surprise and
anger. 'It is here, sir,' said she, supposing he had refused it to
save the trouble of bringing it in. They thus went on at cross
purposes, till he confirmed his refusal in a manner not to be
misunderstood; while I sat quietly by, and enjoyed my success.

After breakfast, we surveyed the old castle, in the pit or dungeon of
which Lochbuy had some years before taken upon him to imprison several
persons; and though he had been fined a considerable sum by the Court
of Justiciary, he was so little affected by it, that while we were
examining the dungeon, he said to me, with a smile, 'Your father knows
something of this' (alluding to my father's having sat as one of the
judges on his trial). Sir Allan whispered me, that the laird could not
be persuaded, that he had lost his heritable jurisdiction.

We then set out for the ferry, by which we were to cross to the main
land of Argyleshire. Lochbuy and Sir Allan accompanied us. We were
told much of a war-saddle, on which this reputed Don Quixote used to
be mounted; but we did not see it, for the young laird had applied it
to a less noble purpose, having taken it to Falkirk fair WITH A DROVE
OF BLACK CATTLE.

We bade adieu to Lochbuy, and to our very kind conductor. Sir Allan
M'Lean, on the shore of Mull, and then got into the ferry-boat, the
bottom of which was strewed with branches of trees or bushes, upon
which we sat. We had a good day and a fine passage, and in the evening
landed at Oban, where we found a tolerable inn. After having been so
long confined at different times in islands, from which it was always
uncertain when we could get away, it was comfortable to be now on the
main land, and to know that, if in health, we might get to any place
in Scotland or England in a certain number of days.

Here we discovered from the conjectures which were formed, that the
people on the main land were intirely ignorant of our motions; for in
a Glasgow news-paper we found a paragraph, which, as it contains a
just and well-turned compliment to my illustrious friend, I shall
insert:

We are well assured that Dr Johnson is confined by tempestuous weather
to the isle of Sky; it being unsafe to venture, in a small boat upon
such a stormy surge as is very common there at this time of the year.
Such a philosopher, detained on an almost barren island, resembles a
whale left upon the strand. The latter will be welcome to every body,
on account of his oil, his bone, etc. and the other will charm his
companions, and the rude inhabitants, with his superior knowledge and
wisdom, calm resignation, and unbounded benevolence.

Saturday, 23d October

After a good night's rest, we breakfasted at our leisure. We talked of
Goldsmith's Traveller, of which Dr Johnson spoke highly; and, while I
was helping him on with his great coat, he repeated from it the
character of the British nation, which he did with such energy, that
the tear started into his eye:

'"Stern o'er each bosom reason holds her state.
With daring aims irregularly great,
Pride in their port, defiance in their eye,
I see the lords of humankind pass by,
Intent on high designs, a thoughtful band,
By forms unfashion'd; fresh from nature's hand;
Fierce in their native hardiness of soul,
True to imagin'd right, above control,
While ev'n the peasant boasts these rights to scan,
And learns to venerate himself as man."'

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28