attended, and seemed to be in deep meditation, I thought there could be no harm in leaving him for a little while. He called me back with a tremendous shout, and was really in a passion with me for leaving him. I told him my intentions, but he was not satisfied, and said, "Do you know, I should as soon have thought of picking a pocket, as doing so." BOSWELL. "I am diverted with you, Sir." JOHNSON. "Sir, I could never be diverted with incivility. Doing such a thing makes one lose confidence in him who has done it, as one cannot tell what he may do next." His extraordinary warmth confounded me so much, that I justified myself but lamely to him; yet my intentions were not improper. I wished to get on, to see how we were to be lodged, and how we were to get a boat; all which I thought I could best settle myself, without his having any trouble. To apply his great mind to minute particulars is wrong: it is like taking an immense balance (such as is kept on quays for weighing cargoes of ships) to weigh a guinea. I knew I had neat little scales, which would do better; and that his attention to everything which falls in his way, and his uncommon desire to be always in the right, would make him weigh, if he knew of the particulars: it was right, therefore, for me to weigh them, and let him have them only in effect. I, however, continued to ride by him, finding he wished I should do so.

As we passed the barracks at Bernéra, I looked at them wishfully, as soldiers have always everything in the best order; but there was only a serjeant and a few men there. We came on to the inn at Glenelg. There was no provender for our horses; so they were sent to grass, with a man to watch them. A maid showed us up stairs into a room damp and dirty, with bare walls, a variety of bad smells, a coarse black greasy fir table, and forms of the same kind; and out of a wretched bed started a fellow from his sleep, like Edgar in King Lear, "Poor Tom's a cold."

This inn was furnished with not a single article that we could either eat or drink; but Mr. Murchison, factor to the Laird of Mac- · leod, in Glenelg, sent us a bottle of rum and some sugar, with

1 Benches.

2 It is amusing to observe the different images which this being presented to Dr. Jonnaos and me. The Doctor, in his "Journey," compares him to a Cyclops.

&TAT. 64.

GLENELG.

275

polite message, to acquaint us, that he was very sorry that he did not hear of us till we had passed his house, otherwise he should have insisted on our sleeping there that night; and that, if he were not obliged to set out for Inverness early next morning, he would have waited upon us. Such extraordinary attention from this

gentleman, to entire strangers, deserves the most honourable com memoration.

Our bad accommodation here made me uneasy, and almost fretful. Dr. Johnson was calm. I said he was so from vanity. JOHNSUN. "No, Sir; it is from philosophy." It pleased me to see that the Rambler could practise so well his own lessons.

I resumed the subject of my leaving him on the road, and endeavoured to defend it better. He was still violent upon that head, and said, "Sir, had you gone on, I was thinking that I should have returned with you to Edinburgh, and then have parted from you, and never spoken to you more."

I sent for fresh hay, with which we made beds for ourselves, exch in a room equally miserable. Like Wolfe, we had a "choice of diffi culties." Dr. Johnson made things easier by comparison. At M'Queen's, last night, he observed, that few were so well lodged in a ship. To-night, he said, we were better than if we had been upon the hill. He lay down buttoned up in his great coat. I had my sheets spread on the hay, and my clothes and great coat laid over me, by way of blankets."

1 This phrase, now so common, excited some surprise and criticism when used by General Wolfe, in his despatch from before Quebec.-C.

• Johnson thus describes this scene to Mrs. Thrale: "I ordered hay to be laid thick upon the bed, and slept upon it in my great coat. Boswell laid sheets upon his bed, and reposed in Inen, like a gentleman."—Q.

CHAPTER XV.

1773.

Glenelg Isle of Sky-Armidale-Sir Alexander Macdonald-Parish Church of Slate-Oda on Sky-Corrichatachin-Highland Hospitality-Ode to Mrs. Thrale-Country life-Mao pherson's Dissertations-Second Sight-Sail to Rasay-Fingal-Homer-Rasay-Infidelity Bentley-Mallet-Hooke-Duchess of Marlborough-Heritable Jurisdictions-Insular Life -Laird of Macleod,

Thursday, Sept. 2.-I HAD slept ill. Dr. Johnson's anger had affected me much. I considered that, without any bad intention, I might suddenly forfeit his friendship; and was impatient to see him this morning. I told him how uneasy he had made me by what he had said, and reminded him of his own remark at Aberdeen, upon old friendships being hastily broken off. He owned, he had spoken to me in passion; that he would not have done what he threatened; and that, if he had, he should have been ten times worse than I; that forming intimacies would indeed be " limning the water," were they liable to such sudden dissolution; and he added, "Let's think no more on't." BOSWELL. "Well then, Sir, I shall be easy. Remember, I am to have fair warning in case of any quarrel. You are never to spring a mine on me. It was absurd in me to believe you." JOHNSON. "You deserved about as much, as to believe me from night to morning."

It rained much One of the boat

After breakfast, we got into a boat for Sky. when we set off, but cleared up as we advanced. men, who spoke English, said that a mile at land was two miles at sea. I then observed, that from Glenelg to Armidale in Sky, which was our present course, and is called twelve, was only six miles; but this he could not understand. "Well," said Dr. Johnson, "never talk to me of the native good sense of the Highlanders. Here is a fellow who calls one mile two, and yet cannot comprehend that twelve such imaginary miles make in truth but six"

MTAT. 64

ARMIDALE.

277

We reached the shore of Armidale before one o'clock. Sir Alex. ander Macdonald came down to receive us. He and his lady (for merly Miss Boswell,' of Yorkshire), were then in a house built by a tenant at this place, which is in the district of Slate, the family mansion here having been burned in Sir Donald Macdonald's time.

The most ancient seat of the chief of the Macdonalds in the Isle of Sky was at Duntulm, where there are the remains of a stately castle. The principal residence of the family is now at Mugstot, at which there is a considerable building. Sir Alexander and Lady Macdonald had come to Armidale in their way to Edinburgh, where it was necessary for them to be soon after this time.

In

Armidale is situated on a pretty bay of the narrow sea, which flows between the main land of Scotland and the Isle of Sky. front there is a grand prospect of the rude mountains of Moidart and Knoidart. Behind are hills gently rising and covered with a finer verdure than I expected to see in this climate, and the scene is enlivened by a number of little clear brooks."

Sir Alexander Macdonald having been an Eton scholar, and being a gentleman of talents, Dr. Johnson had been very well pleased with him in London. But my fellow-traveller and I were now full of the old Highland spirit, and were dissatisfied at hearing of rents racked and a chief not surrounded by his clan. Dr. John

1 The Yorkshire branch of the family have generally spelt the name Bosville. Their estates are now possessed by Lord Macdonald.

* Instead of finding the head of the Macdonalds surrounded with his clan, and a festive entertainment, we had a small company, and cannot boast of our cheer. The particulars are 'minuted in my "Journal," but I shall not trouble the public with them. I shall mention but one characteristic circumstance. My shrewd and hearty friend, Sir Thomas (Wentworth) Blacket, Lady Macdonald's uncle, who had preceded us in a visit to this chief, upon being asked by him, if the punch-bowl, then upon the table, was not a very handsome one, replied, "Yes, if it were full."--Boswell's First Edit.

Johnson, in a letter to Mrs. Thrale, says, "We had a passage of about twelve miles to the point where Sir Alexander Macdonald resided, having come from his seat, in the middle of the island, to a small house on the shore, as we believe, that he might with less reproach entertain us meanly. If he aspired to meanness, his retrograde ambition was completely gratified; but he did not succeed equally in escaping reproach. He had no cook, nor I suppose much provision; nor had the lady the common decencies of her tea-table: we picked up our sugar with our fingers. Boswell was very angry, and reproached him with his improper parsimony." Letters, vol. i. p. 187. And again: "I have done thinking of Sir Alexander Macdonald, whom we now call Sir Sawny; he has disgusted all mankind by injudicious parsimony, and given occasion to so many stories, that Boswell has some thoughts of sollerting them, an? making a novel of his life.

son said, "Sir, the Highland chiefs should not be allowed to go far ther south than Aberdeen. A strong-minded man, like (his brother) Sir James Macdonald, may be improved by an English education; but in general they will be tamed into insignificance."

We found here Mr. Janes of Aberdeenshire, a naturalist. Janes said he had been at Dr. Johnson's in London, with Furguson the astronomer. JOHNSON. JOHNSON. "It is strange that, in such distant places, I should meet with any one who knows me. I should have thought I might hide myself in Sky."

Friday, Sept. 3.-This day proving wet, we should have passed our time very uncomfortably, had we not found in the house two chests of books, which we eagerly ransacked. After dinner, when I alone was left at table with the few Highland gentlemen who were of the company, having talked with very high respect, of Sir James Macdonald, they were all so much affected as to shed tears. One of them was Mr. Donald Macdonald, who had been lieutenant of grenadiers in the Highland regiment, raised by Colonel Montgomery, now Earl of Eglintoune, in the war before last; one of those regiments which the late Lord Chatham prided himself in having brought from "the mountains of the north :" by doing which he contributed to extinguish in the Highlands the remains of disaffection to the present royal family. From this gentleman's conversation I first learnt how very popular his colonel was among the Highlanders; of which I had such continued proof, during the whole course of my Tour, that on my return I could not help telling the noble Earl himself, that I did not before know how great a man he`

was.

We were advised by some persons here to visit Rasay, in our way to Dunvegan, the seat of the Laird of Macleod. Being informed that the Rev. Mr. Donald M'Queen was the most intelligent nan in Sky, and having been favored with a letter of introduction

1 "But my fellow-traveller and I were now full of the old Highland spirit, and were dissatisfied at hearing heavy complaints of rents racked, and the people driven to emigration; and fnding a chief not summoned by his clan, Dr. Johnson said, 'It grieves me to see the hief of a great clan appear to such disadvantage. This gentleman has talents, nay, some learning; but he is totally unfit for his situation. I meditated an escape from the ouse the very next day; but Dr. Johnson resolved that we should weather it out till Mon day."-First Edit