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

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We talked of one of our friends taking ill, for a length of time, a
hasty expression of Dr Johnson's to him, on his attempting to
prosecute a subject that had a reference to religion, beyond the
bounds within which the Doctor thought such topicks should be confined
in a mixed company. JOHNSON. 'What is to become of society, if a
friendship of twenty years is to be broken off for such a cause?' As
Bacon says,

Who then to frail mortality shall trust,
But limns the water, or but writes in dust.

I said, he should write expressly in support of Christianity; for
that, although a reverence for it shines through his works in several
places, that is not enough. 'You know,' said I, 'what Grotius has
done, and what Addison has done. You should do also.' He replied, 'I
hope I shall.'

Monday, 23d August

Principal Campbell, Sir Alexander Gordon, Professor Gordon, and
Professor Ross, visited us in the morning, as did Dr Gerard, who had
come six miles from the country on purpose. We went and saw the
Marischal College, [Footnote: Dr Beattie was so kindly entertained in
England, that he had not yet returned home.] and at one o'clock we
waited on the magistrates in the town hall, as they had invited us in
order to present Dr Johnson with the freedom of the town, which
Provost Jopp did with a very good grace. Dr Johnson was much pleased
with this mark of attention, and received it very politely. There was
a pretty numerous company assembled. It was striking to hear all of
them drinking?'Dr Johnson! Dr Johnson!' in the town-hall of Aberdeen,
and then to see him with his burgess-ticket, or diploma, [Footnote: Dr
Johnson's burgess-ticket was in these words:

Aberdoniae, vigesimo tertio die mensis Augusti, anno Domini millesimo
septingentesimo septuagesimo tertio, in presentia honorabilium
virorum, Jacobi Jopp, armigeri, praepositi, Adami Duff, Gulielmi
Young, Georgii Marr, et Gulielmi Forbes, Balivorum, Gulielmi Rainie
Decani guildae, et Joannis Nicoll Thesaurarii dicti burgi.

Quo die vir generosus et doctrina clarus, Samuel Johnson, LL. D.
receptus et admissus fuit in municipes et fratres guildae praefati
burgi de Aberdeen. In deditissimi amoris et affectus ac eximiae
observantiae tesseram, quibus dicti Magistratus eum amplectuntur.
Extractum per me, ALEX. CARNEGIE.] in his hat, which he wore as he
walked along the street, according to the usual custom. It gave me
great satisfaction to observe the regard, and indeed fondness too,
which every body here had for my father.

While Sir Alexander Gordon conducted Dr Johnson to old Aberdeen,
Professor Gordon and I called on Mr Riddoch, whom I found to be a
grave worthy clergyman. He observed, that, whatever might be said of
Dr Johnson while he was alive, he would, after he was dead, be looked
upon by the world with regard and astonishment, on account of his
Dictionary.

Professor Gordon and I walked over to the Old College, which Dr
Johnson had seen by this time. I stepped into the chapel, and looked
at the tomb of the founder, Archbishop Elphinston, of whom I shall
have occasion to write in my History of James IV of Scotland, the
patron of my family.

We dined at Sir Alexander Gordon's. The Provost, Professor Ross,
Professor Dunbar, Professor Thomas Gordon, were there. After dinner
came in Dr Gerard, Professor Leslie, Professor Macleod. We had little
or no conversation in the morning; now we were but barren. The
professors seemed afraid to speak.

Dr Gerard told us that an eminent printer was very intimate with
Warburton. JOHNSON. 'Why, sir, he has printed some of his works, and
perhaps bought the property of some of them. The intimacy is such as
one of the professors here may have with one of the carpenters who is
repairing the college.' 'But,' said Gerard, 'I saw a letter from him
to this printer, in which he says, that the one half of the clergy of
the Church of Scotland are fanaticks, and the other half infidels.'
JOHNSON. 'Warburton has accustomed himself to write letters just as he
speaks, without thinking any more of what he throws out. When I read
Warburton first, and observed his force, and his contempt of mankind,
I thought he had driven the world before him; but I soon found that
was not the case; for Warburton, by extending his abuse, rendered it
ineffectual.'

He told me, when we were by ourselves, that he thought it very wrong
in the printer, to shew Warburton's letter, as it was raising a body
of enemies against him. He thought it foolish in Warburton to write so
to the printer; and added, 'Sir, the worst way of being intimate, is
by scribbling.' He called Warburton's Doctrine of Grace a poor
performance, and so he said was Wesley's Answer. 'Warburton,' he
observed, 'had laid himself very open. In particular, he was weak
enough to say, that, in some disorders of the imagination, people had
spoken with tongues, had spoken languages which they never knew
before; a thing as absurd as to say, that, in some disorders of the
imagination, people had been known to fly.'

I talked of the difference of genius, to try if I could engage Gerard
in a disquisition with Dr Johnson; but I did not succeed. I mentioned,
as a curious fact, that Locke had written verses. JOHNSON. 'I know of
none, sir, but a kind of exercise prefixed to Dr Sydenham's Works, in
which he has some conceits about the dropsy, in which water and
burning are united; and how Dr Sydenham removed fire by drawing off
water, contrary to the usual practice, which is to extinguish fire by
bringing water upon it. I am not sure that there is a word of all
this; but it is such kind of talk.' [Footnote: All this, as Dr Johnson
suspected at the time, was the immediate invention of his own lively
imagination; for there is not one word of it in Mr Locke's
complimentary performance. My readers will, I have no doubt, like to
be satisfied, by comparing them: and, at any rate, it may entertain
them to read verses composed by our great metaphysician, when a
Bachelor in Physick.

AUCTORI, IN TRACTATUM EJUS DE FEBRIBUS.

Febriles aestus, victumque ardoribus orbem
Flevit, non tantis par Medicina malis.
Et post mille artes, medicae tentamina curae,
Ardet adhuc Febris; nec velit arte regi.
Praeda sumus flammis; solum hoc speramus ab igne,
Ut restet paucus, quem capit urna, cinis.
Dum quaerit medicus febris caussamque, modumque,
Flammarum et tenebras, et sine luce faces;
Quas tractat patitur flammas, et febre calescens,
Corruit ipse suis victima rapta focis.
Qui tardos potuit morbos, artusque trementes,
Sistere, febrili se videt igne rapi.
Sic faber exesos fulsit tibicine muros;
Dum trahit antiquas lenta ruina domos.
Sed si flamma vorax miseras incenderit aedes,
Unica flagrantes tunc sepelire salus.
Fit fuga, tectonicas nemo tunc invocat artes;
Cum perit artificis non minus usta domus.
Se tandem Sydenham febrisque Scholaeque furori]

We spoke of Fingal. Dr Johnson said calmly, 'If the poems were really
translated, they were certainly first written down. Let Mr Macpherson
deposite the manuscript in one of the colleges at Aberdeen, where
there are people who can judge; and, if the professors certify the
authenticity, then there will be an end of the controversy. If he does
not take this obvious and easy method, he gives the best reason to
doubt; considering too, how much is against it a priori.'

We sauntered after dinner in Sir Alexander's garden, and saw his
little grotto, which is hung with pieces of poetry written in a fair
hand. It was

[Footnote: Opponens, morbi quaerit, et artis opem.
Non temere incusat tectae putedinis ignes;
Nec fictus, febres qui fovet, humor erit,
Non bilem ille movet, nulla hic pituita; Salutis
Quae spes, si fallax ardeat intus aqua
Nec doctas magno rixas ostentat hiatu,
Quis ipsis major febribus ardor inest.
Innocuas placide corpus jubet urere flammas,
Et justo rapidos temperat igne focos.
Quid febrim exstinguat; varius quid postulat usus,
Solari aegrotos, qua potes arte, docet.
Hactenus ipsa suum timuit Natura calorem,
Dum saepe incerto, quo calet, igne perit:
Dum reparat tacitos male provida sanguinis ignes,
Praelusit busto, fit calor iste rogus.
Jam secura suas foveant praecordia flammas,
Quem Natura negat, dat Medicina modum.
Nec solum faciles compescit sanguinis aestus,
Dum dubia est inter spemque metumque salus;
Sed fatale malum domuit, quodque astra malignum
Credimus, iratam vel genuisse Stygem.
Extorsit Lachesi cultros, Pestique venenum
Abstulit, et tantos non sinit esse metus.
Quis tandem arte nova domitam mitescere Pestem
Credat, et antiquas ponere posse minas
Post tot mille neces, cumulataque funera busto,
Victa jacet, parvo vulnere, dira Lues.
Aetheriae quanquam spargunt contagia flammae,
Quicquid inest istis ignibus, ignis erit.
Delapsae coelo flammae licet acrius urant,
Has gelida exstingui non nisi morte putas
Tu meliora paras victrix Medicina; tuusque,
Pestis qua superat cuncta, triumphus eris.
Vive liber, victis febrilibus ignibus; unus
Te simul et mundum qui manet, ignis erit.
J. LOCK, A. M. Ex. Aede Christi, Oxon.]

agreeable to observe the contentment and kindness of this quiet,
benevolent man. Professor Macleod was brother to Macleod of Talisker,
and brother-in-law to the Laird of Col. He gave me a letter to young
Col. I was weary of this day, and began to think wishfully of being
again in motion. I was uneasy to think myself too fastidious, whilst I
fancied Dr Johnson quite satisfied. But he owned to me that he was
fatigued and teased by Sir Alexander's doing too much to entertain
him. I said, it was all kindness. JOHNSON. 'True, sir: but sensation
is sensation.' BOSWELL. 'It is so: we feel pain equally from the
surgeon's probe, as from the sword of the foe.'

We visited two booksellers' shops, and could not find Arthur
Johnston's Poems. We went and sat near an hour at Mr Riddoch's. He
could not tell distinctly how much education at the college here
costs, which disgusted Dr Johnson. I had pledged myself that we should
go to the inn, and not stay supper. They pressed us, but he was
resolute. I saw Mr Riddoch did not please him. He said to me,
afterwards, 'Sir, he has no vigour in his talk.' But my friend should
have considered that he himself was not in good humour; so that it was
not easy to talk to his satisfaction. We sat contentedly at our inn.
He then became merry, and observed how little we had either heard or
said at Aberdeen: that the Aberdonians had not started a single mawkin
(the Scottish word for hare) for us to pursue.

Tuesday, 24th August

We set out about eight in the morning, and breakfasted at Ellon. The
landlady said to me, 'Is not this the great Doctor that is going about
through the country?' I said, 'Yes.' 'Ay,' said she, 'we heard of him,
I made an errand into the room on purpose to see him. There's
something great in his appearance: it is a pleasure to have such a man
in one's house; a man who does so much good. If I had thought of it, I
would have shewn him a child of mine, who has had a lump on his throat
for some time.' 'But,' said I, 'he is not a doctor of physick.' 'Is he
an oculist?' said the landlord. 'No,' said I, 'he is only a very
learned man.' LANDLORD. 'They say he is the greatest man in England,
except Lord Mansfield.' Dr Johnson was highly entertained with this,
and I do think he was pleased too. He said, 'I like the exception: to
have called me the greatest man in England, would have been an
unmeaning compliment: but the exception marked that the praise was in
earnest; and, in SCOTLAND, the exception must be LORD MANSFIELD,
or--SIR JOHN PRINGLE.'

He told me a good story of Dr Goldsmith. Graham, who wrote Telemachus,
a Masque, was sitting one night with him and Dr Johnson, and was half
drunk. He rattled away to Dr Johnson: 'You are a clever fellow, to be
sure; but you cannot write an essay like Addison, or verses like the
Rape of the Lock.' At last he said, [Footnote: I am sure I have
related this story exactly as Dr Johnson told it to me: but a friend
who has often heard him tell it, informs me that he usually introduced
a circumstance which ought not to be omitted. 'At last, sir, Graham,
having now got to about the pitch of looking at one man, and talking
to another, said DOCTOR &c. 'What effect.' Dr Johnson used to add,
'this had on Goldsmith, who was as irascible as a hornet, may be
easily conceived.'] 'DOCTOR, I should be happy to see you at Eaton.'
'I shall be glad to wait on you,' answered Goldsmith. 'No,' said
Graham, ''tis not you I mean, Dr MINOR; 'tis Dr MAJOR, there.'
Goldsmith was excessively hurt by this. He afterwards spoke of it
himself. 'Graham,' said he, 'is a fellow to make one commit suicide.'

We had received a polite invitation to Slains castle. We arrived there
just at three o'clock, as the bell for dinner was ringing. Though,
from its being just on the north-east Ocean, no trees will grow here,
Lord Errol has done all that can be done. He has cultivated his fields
so as to bear rich crops of every kind, and he has made an excellent
kitchen-garden, with a hot-house. I had never seen any of the family:
but there had been a card of invitation written by the honourable
Charles Boyd, the earl's brother. We were conducted into the house,
and at the dining-room door were met by that gentleman, whom both of
us at first took to be Lord Errol; but he soon corrected our mistake.
My lord was gone to dine in the neighbourhood, at an entertainment
given by Mr Irvine of Drum. Lady Errol received us politely, and was
very attentive to us during the time of dinner. There was nobody at
table but her ladyship, Mr Boyd, and some of the children, their
governour and governess. Mr Boyd put Dr Johnson in mind of having
dined with him at Cumming the Quaker's, along with Mr Hall and Miss
Williams: this was a bond of connection between them. For me, Mr
Boyd's acquaintance with my father was enough. After dinner, Lady
Errol favoured us with a sight of her young family, whom she made
stand up in a row. There were six daughters and two sons. It was a
very pleasing sight.

Dr Johnson proposed our setting out. Mr Boyd said, he hoped we would
stay all night; his brother would be at home in the evening, and would
be very sorry if he missed us. Mr Boyd was called out of the room. I
was very desirous to stay in so comfortable a house, and I wished to
see Lord Errol. Dr Johnson, however, was right in resolving to go, if
we were not asked again, as it is best to err on the safe side in such
cases, and to be sure that one is quite welcome. To my great joy, when
Mr Boyd returned, he told Dr Johnson that it was Lady Errol who had
called him out, and said that she would never let Dr Johnson into the
house again, if he went away that night; and that she had ordered the
coach, to carry us to view a great curiosity on the coast, after which
we should see the house. We cheerfully agreed.

Mr Boyd was engaged, in 1745-6, on the same side with many unfortunate
mistaken noblemen and gentlemen. He escaped, and lay concealed for a
year in the island of Arran, the ancient territory of the Boyds. He
then went to France, and was about twenty years on the continent. He
married a French lady, and now lived very comfortably at Aberdeen, and
was much at Slains castle. He entertained us with great civility. He
had a pompousness or formal plenitude in his conversation which I did
not dislike. Dr Johnson said, there was too much elaboration in his
talk. It gave me pleasure to see him, a steady branch of the family,
setting forth all its advantages with much zeal. He told us that Lady
Errol was one of the most pious and sensible women in the island; had
a good head, and as good a heart. He said, she did not use force or
fear in educating her children. JOHNSON. 'Sir, she is wrong; I would
rather have the rod to be the general terror to all, to make them
learn, than tell a child, if you do thus or thus, you will be more
esteemed than your brothers or sisters. The rod produces an effect
which terminates itself. A child is afraid of being whipped, and gets
his task, and there's an end on't; whereas, by exciting emulation, and
comparisons of superiority, you lay the foundation of lasting
mischief; you make brothers and sisters hate each other.'

During Mr Boyd's stay in Arran, he had found a chest of medical books,
left by a surgeon there, and had read them till he acquired some skill
in physick, in consequence of which he is often consulted by the poor.
There were several here waiting for him as patients. We walked round
the house till stopped by a cut made by the influx of the sea. The
house is built quite upon the shore; the windows look upon the main
ocean, and the King of Denmark is Lord Errol's nearest neighbour on
the north-east.

We got immediately into the coach, and drove to Dunbui, a rock near
the shore, quite covered with sea-fowls; then to a circular bason of
large extent, surrounded with tremendous rocks. On the quarter next
the sea, there is a high arch in the rock, which the force of the
tempest has driven out. This place is called Buchan's Buller, or the
Buller of Buchan, and the country people call it the Pot. Mr Boyd said
it was so called from the French Bouloir. It may be more simply traced
from Boiler in our own language. We walked round this monstrous
cauldron. In some places, the rock is very narrow; and on each side
there is a sea deep enough for a man of war to ride in; so that it is
somewhat horrid to move along. However, there is earth and grass upon
the rock, and a kind of road marked out by the print of feet; so that
one makes it out pretty safely: yet it alarmed me to see Dr Johnson
striding irregularly along. He insisted on taking a boat, and sailing
into the Pot. We did so. He was stout, and wonderfully alert. The
Buchan-men all shewing their teeth, and speaking with that strange
sharp accent which distinguishes them, was to me a matter of
curiosity. He was not sensible of the difference of pronunciation in
the south and north of Scotland, which I wondered at.

As the entry into the Buller is so narrow that oars cannot be used as
you go in, the method taken is to row very hard when you come near it,
and give the boat such a rapidity of motion that it glides in. Dr
Johnson observed what an effect this scene would have had, were we
entering into an unknown place. There are caves of considerable depth;
I think, one on each side. The boatmen had never entered either of
them far enough to know the size. Mr Boyd told us that it is customary
for the company at Peterhead well, to make parties, and come and dine
in one of the caves here.

He told us, that, as Slains is at a considerable distance from
Aberdeen, Lord Errol, who has a very large family, resolved to have a
surgeon of his own. With this view he educated one of his tenant's
sons, who is now settled in a very neat house and farm just by, which
we saw from the road. By the salary which the earl allows him, and the
practice which he has had, he is in very easy circumstances. He had
kept an exact account of all that had been laid out on his education,
and he came to his lordship one day, and told him that he had arrived
at a much higher situation than ever he expected; that he was now able
to repay what his lordship had advanced, and begged he would accept of
it. The earl was pleased with the generous gratitude and genteel offer
of the man; but refused it. Mr Boyd also told us, Cumming the Quaker
first began to distinguish himself, by writing against Dr Leechman on
prayer, to prove it unnecessary, as God knows best what should be, and
will order it without our asking--the old hackneyed objection.

When we returned to the house we found coffee and tea in the
drawing-room. Lady Errol was not there, being, as I supposed, engaged
with her young family. There is a bow-window fronting the sea. Dr
Johnson repeated the ode, Jam satis terris, while Mr Boyd was with his
patients. He spoke well in favour of entails, to preserve lines of men
whom mankind are accustomed to reverence. His opinion was that so much
land should be entailed as that families should never fall into
contempt, and as much left free as to give them all the advantages of
property in case of any emergency. 'If,' said he, 'the nobility are
suffered to sink into indigence, they of course become corrupt; they
are ready to do whatever the king chooses; therefore it is fit they
should be kept from becoming poor, unless it is fixed that when they
fall below a certain standard of wealth they shall lose their
peerages. We know the House of Peers have made noble stands, when the
House of Commons durst not. The two last years of Parliament they dare
not contradict the populace.'

This room is ornamented with a number of fine prints, and with a whole
length picture of Lord Errol, by Sir Joshua Reynolds. This led Dr
Johnson and me to talk of our amiable and elegant friend, whose
panegyrick he concluded by saying, 'Sir Joshua Reynolds, sir, is the
most invulnerable man I know; the man with whom if you should quarrel,
you would find the most difficulty how to abuse.'

Dr Johnson observed, the situation here was the noblest he had ever
seen, better than Mount Edgecumbe, reckoned the first in England;
because, at

Mount Edgecumbe, the sea is bounded by land on the other side, and,
though there is there the grandeur of a fleet, there is also the
impression of there being a dock-yard, the circumstances of which are
not agreeable. At Slains is an excellent old house. The noble owner
has built of brick, along the square in the inside, a gallery, both on
the first and second story, the house being no higher; so that he has
always a dry walk, and the rooms, to which formerly there was no
approach but through each other, have now all separate entries from
the gallery, which is hung with Hogarth's works, and other prints. We
went and sat a while in the library. There is a valuable numerous
collection. It was chiefly made by Mr Falconer, husband to the late
Countess of Errol in her own right. This earl has added a good many
modern books.

About nine the earl came home. Captain Gordon of Park was with him.
His lordship put Dr Johnson in mind of their having dined together in
London, along with Mr Beauclerk. I was exceedingly pleased with Lord
Errol. His dignified person and agreeable countenance, with the most
unaffected affability, gave me high satisfaction. From perhaps a
weakness, or, as I rather hope, more fancy and warmth of feeling than
is quite reasonable, my mind is ever impressed with admiration for
persons of high birth, and I could, with the most perfect honesty,
expatiate on Lord Errol's good qualities; but he stands in no need of
my praise. His agreeable manners and softness of address prevented
that constraint which the idea of his being Lord High Constable of
Scotland might otherwise have occasioned. He talked very easily and
sensibly with his learned guest. I observed that Dr Johnson, though he
shewed that respect to his lordship, which, from principle, he always
does to high rank, yet, when they came to argument, maintained that
manliness which becomes the force and vigour of his understanding. To
shew external deference to our superiors, is proper: to seem to yield
to them in opinion, is meanness. [Footnote: Lord Chesterfield, in his
letters to his son, complains of one who argued in an indiscriminate
manner with men of all ranks. Probably the noble lord had felt with
some uneasiness what it was to encounter stronger abilities than his
own. If a peer will engage at foils with his inferior in station, he
must expect that his inferior in station will avail himself of every
advantage; otherwise it is not a fair trial of strength and skill. The
same will hold in a contest of reason, or of wit. A certain king
entered the lists of genius with Voltaire. The consequence was, that,
though the king had great and brilliant talents, Voltaire had such a
superiority that his majesty could not bear it; and the poet was
dismissed, or escaped, from that court. In the reign of James I of
England. Crichton, Lord Sanquhar, a peer of Scotland, from a vain
ambition to excel a fencing-master in his own art, played at rapier
and dagger with him. The fencing-master, whose fame and bread were at
stake, put out one of his lordship's eyes. Exasperated at this. Lord
Sanquhar hired ruffians, and had the fencing-master assassinated; for
which his lordship was capitally tried, condemned, and hanged. Not
being a peer of England, he was tried by the name of Robert Crichton,
Esq.; but he was admitted to be a baron of three hundred years
standing. See the State Trials; and the History of England by Hume,
who applauds the impartial justice executed upon a man of high rank.]
The earl said grace, both before and after supper, with much decency.
He told us a story of a man who was executed at Perth, some years ago,
for murdering a woman who was with child by him, and a former child he
had by her. His hand was cut off: he was then pulled up; but the rope
broke, and he was forced to lie an hour on the ground, till another
rope was brought from Perth, the execution being in a wood at some
distance, at the place where the murders were committed. 'There,' said
my lord, 'I see the hand of Providence.' I was really happy here. I
saw in this nobleman the best dispositions and best principles; and I
saw him, in my mind's eye, to be the representative of the ancient
Boyds of Kilmarnock. I was afraid he might have urged drinking, as, I
believe, he used formerly to do, but he drank port and water out of a
large glass himself, and let us do as we pleased. He went with us to
our rooms at night; said, he took the visit very kindly; and told me,
my father and he were very old acquaintances; that I now knew the way
to Slains, and he hoped to see me there again.

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