Beyond any special reasons which there may be for the failure of Boswell in his legal career, there is a more general cause for all his disappointment. We must remember that Boswell throughout his life was, like many men in the eighteenth century less gifted than himself, a thorough-going place-hunter. He hoped even in his early life for some advantages through his great patrons, Lord Somerville,[13] Sir David Dalrymple,[14] Lord Eglintoun,[13] Lord Mount Stuart,[15] Sir Andrew Mitchell[16]; he had obtained by their means a number of introductions. The ardour with which he pursued the acquaintance of the great must have been prompted in some degree by an interested expectation, and we may suppose that from the friendship of Chatham, which he was so eager to cultivate, he had flattered himself with a hope of political advancement, a hope of fulfilling the dreams that he had dreamt, with Temple, in University days, of their future greatness. They were but vague hopes in those early years, since he could hardly have expected an immediate recognition of his particular services. But Boswell when he grew older attached himself more definitely to particular patrons. There are a number of names--Lord Pembroke, Lord Lisburne, Lord Lonsdale, Burke, Dundas.[17] To these in turn he seems to have pinned his faith and almost to have expected some promotion to have fallen upon him. And from all his great acquaintances he was to get but one poor post, the Recordership of Carlisle. We can hardly be surprised from what we have seen already of Boswell's methods of approaching his patrons that he had no great success in these schemes of advancement. We have quoted already a letter to Chatham, which was designed to impress that Minister with the fact that he was a rising young man, and to solicit his favour. There is another letter of a later date[18] intended to further his acquaintance with Burke. The great orator might have one day at his disposal some Government posts; his memory must not be allowed to lapse: Dear Sir,--Upon my honour I began a letter to you some time ago, and did not finish it, because I imagined you were then near your apotheosis--as poor Goldsmith said upon a former occasion, when he thought your party was coming into administration; and being one of your old barons of Scotland, my pride could not brook the appearance of paying my court to a Minister, amongst the crowd of interested expectants on his accession.