Life Of Johnson, Volume 5 - Boswell
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At three the drum beat for dinner. I, for a little while, fancied myself
a military man, and it pleased me. We went to Sir Eyre Coote's, at the
governour's house, and found him a most gentleman-like man. His lady is
a very agreeable woman, with an uncommonly mild and sweet tone of voice.
There was a pretty large company: Mr. Ferne, Major Brewse, and several
officers. Sir Eyre had come from the East-Indies by land, through the
Desarts of Arabia. He told us, the Arabs could live five days without
victuals, and subsist for three weeks on nothing else but the blood of
their camels, who could lose so much of it as would suffice for that
time, without being exhausted. He highly praised the virtue of the
Arabs; their fidelity, if they undertook to conduct any person; and
said, they would sacrifice their lives rather than let him be robbed.
Dr. Johnson, who is always for maintaining the superiority of civilized
over uncivilized men[393], said, 'Why, Sir, I can see no superiour
virtue in this. A serjeant and twelve men, who are my guard, will die,
rather than that I shall be robbed.' Colonel Pennington, of the 37th
regiment, took up the argument with a good deal of spirit and
ingenuity. PENNINGTON. 'But the soldiers are compelled to this by fear
of punishment. 'JOHNSON. 'Well, Sir, the Arabs are compelled by the fear
of infamy.' PENNINGTON. 'The soldiers have the same fear of infamy, and
the fear of punishment besides; so have less virtue; because they act
less voluntarily.' Lady Coote observed very well, that it ought to be
known if there was not, among the Arabs, some punishment for not being
faithful on such occasions.
We talked of the stage. I observed, that we had not now such a company
of actors as in the last age; Wilks[394], Booth[395], &c. &c. JOHNSON.
'You think so, because there is one who excels all the rest so much: you
compare them with Garrick, and see the deficiency. Garrick's great
distinction is his universality[396]. He can represent all modes of
life, but that of an easy fine bred gentleman[397].' PENNINGTON. 'He
should give over playing young parts.' JOHNSON. 'He does not take them
now; but he does not leave off those which he has been used to play,
because he does them better than any one else can do them. If you had
generations of actors, if they swarmed like bees, the young ones might
drive off the old. Mrs. Cibber[398], I think, got more reputation than
she deserved, as she had a great sameness; though her expression was
undoubtedly very fine. Mrs. Clive[399] was the best player I ever saw.
Mrs. Prichard[400] was a very good one; but she had something affected
in her manner: I imagine she had some player of the former age in her
eye, which occasioned it.' Colonel Pennington said, Garrick sometimes
failed in emphasis[401]; as for instance, in _Hamlet_,
'I will speak _daggers_ to her; but use _none_[402].'
instead of
'I will _speak_ daggers to her; but _use_ none.'
We had a dinner of two complete courses, variety of wines, and the
regimental band of musick playing in the square, before the windows,
after it. I enjoyed this day much. We were quite easy and cheerful. Dr.
Johnson said, 'I shall always remember this fort with gratitude.' I
could not help being struck with some admiration, at finding upon this
barren sandy point, such buildings,--such a dinner,--such company: it
was like enchantment. Dr. Johnson, on the other hand, said to me more
rationally, that 'it did not strike _him_ as any thing extraordinary;
because he knew, here was a large sum of money expended in building a
fort; here was a regiment. If there had been less than what we found, it
would have surprised him.' _He_ looked coolly and deliberately through
all the gradations: my warm imagination jumped from the barren sands to
the splendid dinner and brilliant company, to borrow the expression of
an absurd poet,
'Without ands or ifs,
I leapt from off the sands upon the cliffs.'
The whole scene gave me a strong impression of the power and excellence
of human art.
We left the fort between six and seven o'clock: Sir Eyre Coote, Colonel
Pennington, and several more accompanied us down stairs, and saw us into
our chaise. There could not be greater attention paid to any visitors.
Sir Eyre spoke of the hardships which Dr. Johnson had before him.
BOSWELL. 'Considering what he has said of us, we must make him feel
something rough in Scotland.' Sir Eyre said to him, 'You must change
your name, Sir.' BOSWELL. 'Ay, to Dr. M'Gregor[403].' We got safely to
Inverness, and put up at Mackenzie's inn. Mr. Keith, the collector of
Excise here, my old acquaintance at Ayr, who had seen us at the Fort,
visited us in the evening, and engaged us to dine with him next day,
promising to breakfast with us, and take us to the English chapel; so
that we were at once commodiously arranged.
Not finding a letter here that I expected, I felt a momentary impatience
to be at home. Transient clouds darkened my imagination, and in those
clouds I saw events from which I shrunk; but a sentence or two of the
_Rambler's_ conversation gave me firmness, and I considered that I was
upon an expedition for which I had wished for years, and the
recollection of which would be a treasure to me for life.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 29.
Mr. Keith breakfasted with us. Dr. Johnson expatiated rather too
strongly upon the benefits derived to Scotland from the Union[404], and
the bad state of our people before it. I am entertained with his copious
exaggeration upon that subject; but I am uneasy when people are by, who
do not know him as well as I do, and may be apt to think him
narrow-minded[405]. I therefore diverted the subject.
The English chapel, to which we went this morning, was but mean. The
altar was a bare fir table, with a coarse stool for kneeling on, covered
with a piece of thick sail-cloth doubled, by way of cushion. The
congregation was small. Mr. Tait, the clergyman, read prayers very well,
though with much of the Scotch accent. He preached on '_Love your
Enemies_[406].' It was remarkable that, when talking of the connections
amongst men, he said, that some connected themselves with men of
distinguished talents, and since they could not equal them, tried to
deck themselves with their merit, by being their companions. The
sentence was to this purpose. It had an odd coincidence with what might
be said of my connecting myself with Dr. Johnson[407].
After church we walked down to the Quay. We then went to Macbeth's
castle[408]. I had a romantick satisfaction in seeing Dr. Johnson
actually in it. It perfectly corresponds with Shakspear's description,
which Sir Joshua Reynolds has so happily illustrated, in one of his
notes on our immortal poet[409]:
'This castle hath a pleasant seat: the air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle sense,' &c.[410]
Just as we came out of it, a raven perched on one of the chimney-tops,
and croaked. Then I repeated
'----The raven himself is hoarse,
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements[411].'
We dined at Mr. Keith's. Mrs. Keith was rather too attentive to Dr.
Johnson, asking him many questions about his drinking only water. He
repressed that observation, by saying to me, 'You may remember that Lady
Errol took no notice of this.'
Dr. Johnson has the happy art (for which I have heard my father praise
the old Earl of Aberdeen) of instructing himself, by making every man he
meets tell him something of what he knows best. He led Keith to talk to
him of the Excise in Scotland, and, in the course of conversation,
mentioned that his friend Mr. Thrale, the great brewer, paid twenty
thousand pounds a year to the revenue; and that he had four casks, each
of which holds sixteen hundred barrels,--above a thousand hogsheads.
After this there was little conversation that deserves to be remembered.
I shall therefore here again glean what I have omitted on former days.
Dr. Gerrard, at Aberdeen, told us, that when he was in Wales, he was
shewn a valley inhabited by Danes, who still retain their own language,
and are quite a distinct people. Dr. Johnson thought it could not be
true, or all the kingdom must have heard of it. He said to me, as we
travelled, 'these people, Sir, that Gerrard talks of, may have somewhat
of a _peregrinity_ in their dialect, which relation has augmented to a
different language.' I asked him if _peregrinity_ was an English word:
he laughed, and said, 'No.' I told him this was the second time that I
had heard him coin a word[412]. When Foote broke his leg, I observed
that it would make him fitter for taking off George Faulkner as Peter
Paragraph[413], poor George having a wooden leg. Dr. Johnson at that
time said, 'George will rejoice at the _depeditation_ of Foote;' and
when I challenged that word, laughed, and owned he had made it, and
added that he had not made above three or four in his _Dictionary_[414].
Having conducted Dr. Johnson to our inn, I begged permission to leave
him for a little, that I might run about and pay some short visits to
several good people of Inverness. He said to me 'You have all the
old-fashioned principles, good and bad' I acknowledge I have. That of
attention to relations in the remotest degree, or to worthy persons, in
every state whom I have once known, I inherit from my father. It gave me
much satisfaction to hear every body at Inverness speak of him with
uncommon regard. Mr. Keith and Mr. Grant, whom we had seen at Mr.
M'Aulay's, supped with us at the inn. We had roasted kid, which Dr.
Johnson had never tasted before. He relished it much.
MONDAY, AUGUST 30.
This day we were to begin our _equitation,_ as I said; for _I_ would
needs make a word too. It is remarkable, that my noble, and to me most
constant friend, the Earl of Pembroke[415], (who, if there is too much
ease on my part, will please to pardon what his benevolent, gay, social
intercourse, and lively correspondence have insensibly produced,) has
since hit upon the very same word. The title of the first edition of his
lordship's very useful book was, in simple terms, _A Method of breaking
Horses and teaching Soldiers to ride._ The title of the second edition
is, 'MILITARY EQUITATION[416].'
We might have taken a chaise to Fort Augustus, but, had we not hired
horses at Inverness, we should not have found them afterwards: so we
resolved to begin here to ride. We had three horses, for Dr. Johnson,
myself, and Joseph, and one which carried our portmanteaus, and two
Highlanders who walked along with us, John Hay and Lauchland Vass, whom
Dr. Johnson has remembered with credit in his JOURNEY[417], though he
has omitted their names. Dr. Johnson rode very well. About three miles
beyond Inverness, we saw, just by the road, a very complete specimen of
what is called a Druid's temple. There was a double circle, one of very
large, the other of smaller stones. Dr. Johnson justly observed, that
'to go and see one druidical temple is only to see that it is nothing,
for there is neither art nor power in it; and seeing one is
quite enough.'
It was a delightful day. Lochness, and the road upon the side of it,
shaded with birch trees, and the hills above it, pleased us much. The
scene was as sequestered and agreeably wild as could be desired, and for
a time engrossed all our attention[418].
To see Dr. Johnson in any new situation is always an interesting object
to me; and, as I saw him now for the first time on horseback, jaunting
about at his ease in quest of pleasure and novelty, the very different
occupations of his former laborious life, his admirable productions, his
_London_, his _Rambler_, &c. &c., immediately presented themselves to my
mind, and the contrast made a strong impression on my imagination.
When we had advanced a good way by the side of Lochness, I perceived a
little hut, with an old-looking woman at the door of it. I thought here
might be a scene that would amuse Dr. Johnson; so I mentioned it to him.
'Let's go in,' said he. We dismounted, and we and our guides entered the
hut. It was a wretched little hovel of earth only, I think, and for a
window had only a small hole, which was stopped with a piece of turf,
that was taken out occasionally to let in light. In the middle of the
room or space which we entered, was a fire of peat, the smoke going out
at a hole in the roof. She had a pot upon it, with goat's flesh,
boiling. There was at one end under the same roof, but divided by a kind
of partition made of wattles, a pen or fold in which we saw a good
many kids.
Dr. Johnson was curious to know where she slept. I asked one of the
guides, who questioned her in Erse. She answered with a tone of emotion,
saying, (as he told us,) she was afraid we wanted to go to bed to her.
This _coquetry_, or whatever it may be called, of so wretched a being,
was truly ludicrous. Dr. Johnson and I afterwards were merry upon it. I
said it was he who alarmed the poor woman's virtue. 'No, Sir, (said he,)
she'll say "there came a wicked young fellow, a wild dog, who I believe
would have ravished me, had there not been with him a grave old
gentleman, who repressed him: but when he gets out of the sight of his
tutor, I'll warrant you he'll spare no woman he meets, young or old."'
'No, Sir, (I replied,) she'll say, "There was a terrible ruffian who
would have forced me, had it not been for a civil decent young man who,
I take it, was an angel sent from heaven to protect me."'
Dr. Johnson would not hurt her delicacy, by insisting on 'seeing her
bed-chamber,' like _Archer_ in the _Beaux Stratagem_[419]. But my
curiosity was more ardent; I lighted a piece of paper, and went into the
place where the bed was. There was a little partition of wicker, rather
more neatly done than that for the fold, and close by the wall was a
kind of bedstead of wood with heath upon it by way of bed! at the foot
of which I saw some sort of blankets or covering rolled up in a heap.
The woman's name was Fraser; so was her husband's. He was a man of
eighty. Mr. Fraser of Balnain allows him to live in this hut, and keep
sixty goats, for taking care of his woods, where he then was. They had
five children, the eldest only thirteen. Two were gone to Inverness to
buy meal[420]; the rest were looking after the goats. This contented
family had four stacks of barley, twenty-four sheaves in each. They had
a few fowls. We were informed that they lived all the spring without
meal, upon milk and curds and whey alone. What they get for their goats,
kids, and fowls, maintains them during the rest of the year. She asked
us to sit down and take a dram. I saw one chair. She said she was as
happy as any woman in Scotland. She could hardly speak any English
except a few detached words. Dr. Johnson was pleased at seeing, for the
first time, such a state of human life. She asked for snuff. It is her
luxury, and she uses a great deal. We had none; but gave her sixpence a
piece. She then brought out her whiskey bottle. I tasted it; as did
Joseph and our guides, so I gave her sixpence more. She sent us away
with many prayers in Erse.
We dined at a publick house called the General's Hut[421], from General
Wade, who was lodged there when he commanded in the North. Near it is
the meanest parish _Kirk_ I ever saw. It is a shame it should be on a
high road. After dinner, we passed through a good deal of mountainous
country. I had known Mr. Trapaud, the deputy governour of Fort Augustus,
twelve years ago, at a circuit at Inverness, where my father was judge.
I sent forward one of our guides, and Joseph, with a card to him, that
he might know Dr. Johnson and I were coming up, leaving it to him to
invite us or not[422]. It was dark when we arrived. The inn was
wretched. Government ought to build one, or give the resident governour
an additional salary; as in the present state of things, he must
necessarily be put to a great expence in entertaining travellers. Joseph
announced to us, when we alighted, that the governour waited for us at
the gate of the fort. We walked to it. He met us, and with much civility
conducted us to his house. It was comfortable to find ourselves in a
well-built little square, and a neatly furnished house, in good company,
and with a good supper before us; in short, with all the conveniences of
civilised life in the midst of rude mountains. Mrs. Trapaud, and the
governour's daughter, and her husband, Captain Newmarsh, were all most
obliging and polite. The governour had excellent animal spirits, the
conversation of a soldier, and somewhat of a Frenchman, to which his
extraction entitles him. He is brother to General Cyrus Trapaud. We
passed a very agreeable evening.[423]
TUESDAY, AUGUST 31.
The governour has a very good garden. We looked at it, and at the rest
of the fort, which is but small, and may be commanded from a variety of
hills around. We also looked at the galley or sloop belonging to the
fort, which sails upon the Loch, and brings what is wanted for the
garrison. Captains Urie and Darippe, of the 15th regiment of foot,
breakfasted with us. They had served in America, and entertained Dr.
Johnson much with an account of the Indians.[424] He said, he could make
a very pretty book out of them, were he to stay there. Governour Trapaud
was much struck with Dr. Johnson. 'I like to hear him, (said he,) it is
so majestick. I should be glad to hear him speak in your court.' He
pressed us to stay dinner; but I considered that we had a rude road
before us, which we could more easily encounter in the morning, and that
it was hard to say when we might get up, were we to sit down to good
entertainment, in good company: I therefore begged the governour would
excuse us. Here too, I had another very pleasing proof how much my
father is regarded. The governour expressed the highest respect for him,
and bade me tell him, that, if he would come that way on the Northern
circuit, he would do him all the honours of the garrison.
Between twelve and one we set out, and travelled eleven miles, through a
wild country, till we came to a house in Glenmorison, called _Anoch_,
kept by a McQueen[425]. Our landlord was a sensible fellow; he had
learned his grammar[426], and Dr. Johnson justly observed, that 'a man
is the better for that as long as he lives.' There were some books here:
_a Treatise against Drunkenness_, translated from the French; a volume
of _The Spectator_; a volume of _Prideaux's Connection_, and _Cyrus's
Travels_[427]. McQueen said he had more volumes; and his pride seemed to
be much piqued that we were surprised at his having books.
Near to this place we had passed a party of soldiers, under a serjeant's
command, at work upon the road. We gave them two shillings to drink.
They came to our inn, and made merry in the barn. We went and paid them
a visit, Dr. Johnson saying, 'Come, let's go and give 'em another
shilling a-piece.' We did so; and he was saluted 'MY LORD' by all of
them. He is really generous, loves influence, and has the way of gaining
it. He said, 'I am quite feudal, Sir.' Here I agree with him. I said, I
regretted I was not the head of a clan; however, though not possessed of
such an hereditary advantage, I would always endeavour to make my
tenants follow me. I could not be a _patriarchal_ chief, but I would be
a _feudal_ chief.
The poor soldiers got too much liquor. Some of them fought, and left
blood upon the spot, and cursed whiskey next morning. The house here was
built of thick turfs, and thatched with thinner turfs and heath. It had
three rooms in length, and a little room which projected. Where we sat,
the side-walls were _wainscotted_, as Dr. Johnson said, with wicker,
very neatly plaited. Our landlord had made the whole with his own hands.
After dinner, McQueen sat by us a while, and talked with us. He said,
all the Laird of Glenmorison's people would bleed for him if they were
well used; but that seventy men had gone out of the Glen to America.
That he himself intended to go next year; for that the rent of his farm,
which twenty years ago was only five pounds, was now raised to twenty
pounds. That he could pay ten pounds and live; but no more.[428] Dr.
Johnson said, he wished M'Queen laird of Glenmorison, and the laird to
go to America. M'Queen very generously answered, he should be sorry for
it; for the laird could not shift for himself in America as he could do.
I talked of the officers whom we had left to-day; how much service they
had seen, and how little they got for it, even of fame. JOHNSON. 'Sir, a
soldier gets as little as any man can get.' BOSWELL. 'Goldsmith has
acquired more fame than all the officers last war, who were not
Generals.'[429] JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, you will find ten thousand fit to do
what they did, before you find one who does what Goldsmith has done. You
must consider, that a thing is valued according to its rarity. A pebble
that paves the street is in itself more useful than the diamond upon a
lady's finger.' I wish our friend Goldsmith had heard this.[430]
I yesterday expressed my wonder that John Hay, one of our guides, who
had been pressed aboard a man of war, did not choose to continue in it
longer than nine months, after which time he got off. JOHNSON. 'Why,
Sir, no man will be a sailor, who has contrivance enough to get himself
into a jail; for, being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of
being drowned.'[431] We had tea in the afternoon, and our landlord's
daughter, a modest civil girl, very neatly drest, made it for us. She
told us, she had been a year at Inverness, and learnt reading and
writing, sewing, knotting[432], working lace, and pastry. Dr. Johnson
made her a present of a book which he had bought at Inverness[433].
The room had some deals laid across the joists, as a kind of ceiling.
There were two beds in the room, and a woman's gown was hung on a rope
to make a curtain of separation between them. Joseph had sheets, which
my wife had sent with us, laid on them. We had much hesitation, whether
to undress, or lie down with our clothes on. I said at last, 'I'll
plunge in! There will be less harbour for vermin about me, when I am
stripped!' Dr. Johnson said, he was like one hesitating whether to go
into the cold bath. At last he resolved too. I observed he might serve a
campaign. JOHNSON. 'I could do all that can be done by patience: whether
I should have strength enough, I know not.' He was in excellent humour.
To see the Rambler as I saw him to-night, was really an amusement. I
yesterday told him, I was thinking of writing a poetical letter to him,
_on his return from Scotland_, in the style of Swift's humorous epistle
in the character of Mary Gulliver to her husband, Captain Lemuel
Gulliver, on his return to England from the country of the HOUYHNHUMS:--
'At early morn I to the market haste,
Studious in ev'ry thing to please thy taste.
A curious _fowl_ and _sparagrass_ I chose;
(For I remember you were fond of those:)
Three shillings cost the first, the last sev'n groats;
Sullen you turn from both, and call for OATS[434]:'
He laughed, and asked in whose name I would write it. I said, in Mrs.
Thrale's. He was angry. 'Sir, if you have any sense of decency or
delicacy, you won't do that!' BOSWELL. 'Then let it be in Cole's, the
landlord of the _Mitre tavern_; where we have so often sat together.'
JOHNSON. 'Ay, that may do.'
After we had offered up our private devotions, and had chatted a little
from our beds, Dr. Johnson said, 'GOD bless us both, for Jesus Christ's
sake! Good night!' I pronounced 'Amen.' He fell asleep immediately. I
was not so fortunate for a long time. I fancied myself bit by
innumerable vermin under the clothes; and that a spider was travelling
from the _wainscot_ towards my mouth. At last I fell into insensibility.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1.
I awaked very early. I began to imagine that the landlord, being about
to emigrate, might murder us to get our money, and lay it upon the
soldiers in the barn. Such groundless fears will arise in the mind,
before it has resumed its vigour after sleep! Dr. Johnson had had the
same kind of ideas; for he told me afterwards, that he considered so
many soldiers, having seen us, would be witnesses, should any harm be
done, and that circumstance, I suppose, he considered as a
security.[435] When I got up, I found him sound asleep in his miserable
_stye_, as I may call it, with a coloured handkerchief tied round his
head. With difficulty could I awaken him. It reminded me of Henry the
Fourth's fine soliloquy on sleep; for there was here as _uneasy a
pallet_[436] as the poet's imagination could possibly conceive.
A _red coat_ of the 15th regiment, whether officer, or only serjeant, I
could not be sure, came to the house, in his way to the mountains to
shoot deer, which it seems the Laird of Glenmorison does not hinder any
body to do. Few, indeed, can do them harm. We had him to breakfast with
us. We got away about eight. M'Queen walked some miles to give us a
convoy. He had, in 1745, joined the Highland army at Fort Augustus, and
continued in it till after the battle of Culloden. As he narrated the
particulars of that ill-advised, but brave attempt, I could not refrain
from tears. There is a certain association of ideas in my mind upon that
subject, by which I am strongly affected. The very Highland names, or
the sound of a bagpipe, will stir my blood, and fill me with a mixture
of melancholy and respect for courage; with pity for an unfortunate and
superstitious regard for antiquity, and thoughtless inclination for war;
in short, with a crowd of sensations with which sober rationality has
nothing to do.