Authors, Scottish -- 18th century -- Biography; Biographers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Boswell, James, 1740-1795
Next day being Sunday Bozzy's spirits were cheered by the climate and
the weather, but 'had I not had Dr Johnson to contemplate, I should have
been sunk into dejection, but his firmness supported me. I looked at
him as a man whose head is turning giddy at sea looks at a rock.'
Everywhere they met signs of the parting of the ways in the Highlands.
The old days of feudal power were merging in the industrial, the chiefs
were now landlords and exacting ones. Emigration was rife, and the pages
of the _Scots Magazine_ of the time dwell much on this. A month before,
four hundred men had left Strathglass and Glengarry; in June eight
hundred had sailed from Stornoway; Lochaber sent four hundred, 'the
finest set of fellows in the Highlands, carrying L6000 in ready cash
with them. The extravagant rents exacted by the landlords is the sole
cause given for this emigration which seems to be only in its infancy.'
The high price of provisions and the decrease of the linen trade in the
north of Ireland sent eight hundred this year from Stromness, when we
find the linen dealers thanking Boswell's old rival, as he supposed,
with Miss Blair, Sir Alexander Gilmour, M.P. for Midlothian, for his
efforts at providing better legislation.
Rasay is one of the happiest descriptions in the tour. 'This,' said
Johnson, 'is truly the patriarchal life; this is what we came to find.'
They heard from home and had letters. At Kingsburgh they were welcomed
by the lady of the house, 'the celebrated Miss Flora Macdonald, a little
woman of genteel appearance; and uncommonly mild and well-bred.' 'I was
in a cordial humour, and promoted a cheerful glass. Honest Mr M'Queen
observed that I was in high glee, "my governor being gone to bed." ...
The room where we lay was a celebrated one. Dr Johnson's bed was the
very bed in which the grandson of the unfortunate King James the Second
lay, on one of the nights after the failure of his rash attempt in
1745-6. To see Dr Samuel Johnson lying in that bed, in the Isle of Sky,
in the house of Miss Flora Macdonald, struck me with such a group of
ideas as it is not easy for words to describe, as they passed through
the mind. The room was decorated with a great variety of maps and
prints. Among others, was Hogarth's print of Wilkes grinning, with a cap
of liberty on a pole by him.' Certainly Bozzy had never thought of
finding a remembrance of his 'classic friend' in such circumstances.
Dunvegan and the castle of the Macleods received them in hospitable
style. 'Boswell,' said Johnson, in allusion to Sir Alexander's stinted
ways, 'we came in at the wrong end of the island;' the memories of their
visit had not been forgotten when Scott was there on his Lighthouse Tour
in 1814. The Rambler 'had tasted lotus, and was in danger of forgetting
he was ever to depart.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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