E-text prepared by Clare Boothby, Linda Cantoni, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/c/) Transcriber's note: Inconsistencies and idiosyncrasies of spelling, punctuation, hyphenation, capitalization, and use of diacriticals are preserved as they appear in the original text. BOSWELL'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE HONOURABLE ANDREW ERSKINE AND HIS JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO CORSICA (Reprinted from the Original Editions) Edited With a Preface, Introduction, and Notes by GEORGE BIRKBECK HILL, D.C.L. Author of "Dr. Johnson: His Friends and His Critics." London: Thos. De La Rue & Co. 1879 Printed by Thomas De La Rue and Co., Bunhill Row, London. CONTENTS. PREFACE i LETTERS BETWEEN THE HONOURABLE ANDREW ERSKINE AND JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. 3 INTRODUCTION TO THE JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO CORSICA 101 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 125 PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION 135 THE JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO CORSICA 137 APPENDIX 239 BOSWELL AND ERSKINE'S LETTERS. PREFACE. Boswell did not bring out his "Life of Johnson" till he was past his fiftieth year. His "Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides" had appeared more than five years earlier. While it is on these two books that his fame rests, yet to the men of his generation he was chiefly known for his work on Corsica and for his friendship with Paoli. His admiration for Johnson he had certainly proclaimed far and wide. He had long been off, in the words of his father, "wi' the land-louping scoundrel of a Corsican, and had pinned himself to a dominie--an auld dominie who keeped a schule and cau'd it an acaadamy." Nevertheless it was to Corsica and its heroic chief that he owed the position that he undoubtedly held among men of letters. He was Corsica Boswell and Paoli Boswell long before he became famous as Johnson Boswell.