Hebrid. Mr. Maclaurin's learning and talents enabled Tour to him to do his part very well in Dr. Johnson's company. He produced two epitaphs upon his father, the celebrated mathematician. One was in English, of which Dr. Johnson did not change one word. In the other, which was in Latin, he made several alterations. In place of the very words of Virgil, “Ubi luctus et pavor et plurima mortis imago," he wrote “Ubi luctus regnant et pavor." He introduced the word prorsus into the line "Mortalibus prorsus non absit solatium," and after " Hujus enim scripta evolve," he added, " Mentemque tantarum rerum capacem corpori caduco superstitem crede;" which is quite applicable to Dr. Johnson himself. fabulous (or at least apocryphal) beauty like Jane Shore, whose story, even if true, was obsolete; or that of a foreigner, like Mlle. De La Vallière, little known and less cared for amongst us, is not only tasteless but inaccurate; for Mlle. De La Vallière's beauty was quite as much questioned by her cotemporaries as Miss Sedley's. Bussy Rabutin was exiled for sneering at Louis's admiration of her mouth, which he calls 66 -un bec amoureux, Qui d'une oreille à l'autre va.” And Madame Du Plessis-Belièvre writes to Fouquet, “Mlle. De La Vallière a fait la capable envers moi. Je l'ay encensée par sa beauté, qui n'est pourtant pas grande." And, finally, after Lord Hailes had clipped down the name of De La Vallière into Vallière, his ear might have told him that it did not even yet fit the metre.—ED.] 1 [Mr. Maclaurin, advocate, son of the great mathematician, and afterwards a judge of session by the title of Lord Dreghorn. He wrote some indifferent English poems; but was a good Latin scholar, and a man of wit and accomplishment. His quotations from the classics were particularly apposite. In the famous case of Knight, which determined the right of a slave to freedom if he landed in Scotland, Maclaurin pleaded the cause of the negro. The counsel opposite was the celebrated Wight, an excellent lawyer, but of a very homely appearance, with heavy features, a blind eye, which projected from the socket, a swag belly, and a limp. To him Maclaurin applied the lines of Virgil, "Quamvis ille niger, quamvis tu candidus esses. O formose puer, nimium ne crede colori." Mr. Maclaurin wrote an essay against the Homerick tale of " Troy divine," I believe, for the sole purpose of introducing a happy motto, "Non anni domuere decem, non mille carinæ."-WALTER SCOTT.] 'Mr. Maclaurin's epitaph, as engraved on a marble tombstone, in the Grayfriars churchyard, Edinburgh: Infra situs est COLIN MACLAURIN, Mathes. olim in Acad. Edin. Prof. Non ut nomini paterno consulat, Tour to Mr. Murray, advocate, who married a niece of Lord Mansfield's, and is now one of the judges of Scotland, by the title of Lord Henderland, sat with us a part of the evening; but did not venture to say any thing that I remember, though he is certainly possessed of talents which would have enabled him to have shown himself to advantage if too great anxiety had not prevented him. At supper we had Dr. Alexander Webster1, who, though not learned, had such a knowledge of mankind, such a fund of information and entertainment, so clear a head, and such accommodating manners, that Dr. Johnson found him a very agreeable companion. When Dr. Johnson and I were left by ourselves, I read to him my notes of the opinions of our judges upon the questions of literary property. He did not like them; and said, "they make me think of your judges not with that respect which I should wish to do." To the argument of one of them, that there can be no property in blasphemy or nonsense, he answered, "then your rotten sheep are mine!-By that rule, when a man's house falls into decay, he must lose it"." I mentioned an argument of Sed ut in hoc infelici campo, Corpori caduco superstitem crede. [Johnson probably changed the "very words" of Virgil, not thinking an exact and ostentatious quotation from a heathen poet quite appropriate to a christian epitaph. The whole is, as it now stands, a very beautiful and affecting inscription. ED.] 1 [Dr. Alexander Webster was remarkable for the talent with which he at once supported his place in convivial society, and a high character as a leader of the strict and rigid presbyterian party in the church of Scotland, which certainly seemed to require very different qualifications. He was ever gay amid the gayest: when it once occurred to some one present to ask, what one of his Elders would think, should he see his pastor in such a merry mood." Think!" replied the doctor, "why he would not believe his own eyes."-WALTER SCOTT.] [Dr. Johnson's illustration is sophistical, and might have been retorted upon him; for if a man's sheep are so rotten as to render the meat unwholesome, or, if his house be so decayed as to threaten mischief to passengers, the law will confiscate the mutton and abate the house, without any regard to property, which Hebrid. mine, that literary performances are not taxed. As Tour to Churchill says, "No statesman yet has thought it worth his pains To tax our labours, or excise our brains ;" 66 and therefore they are not property. “ Yet," said he, "we hang a man for stealing a horse, and horses are not taxed." Mr. Pitt has since put an end to that argument. Wednesday, 18th August.-On this day we set out from Edinburgh. We should gladly have had Mr. Scott to go with us, but he was obliged to return to England. I have given a sketch of Dr. Johnson: my readers may wish to know a little of his fellowtraveller. Think, then, of a gentleman of ancient blood, the pride of which was his predominant passion. He was then in his thirty-third year, and had been about four years happily married. His inclination was to be a soldier, but his father, a respectable judge, had pressed him into the profession of the law. He had travelled a good deal, and seen many varieties of human life. He had thought more than any body had supposed, and had a pretty good stock of general learning and knowledge. He had all Dr. Johnson's principles, with some degree of relaxation. He had rather too little than too much prudence; and, his imagination being lively, he often said things of which the effect was very different from the intention. He resembled sometimes "The best good man, with the worst-natured muse." He cannot deny himself the vanity of finishing with the owner thus abuses. Moreover, Johnson should have discriminated between a criminal offence and a civil right Blasphemy is a crime; would it not be in the highest degree absurd, that there should be a right of property in a crime, or that the law should be called upon to protect that which is illegal? If this be true in law, it is much more so in equity, as he who applies for the extraordinary assistance of a court of equity should have a right, consistent at least with equity and morals; and a late question was so decided, and upon that principle, by the greatest judge of modern times, Lord Eldon.—ED.] Heb il. Tour to the encomium of Dr. Johnson, whose friendly partiality to the companion of his tour represents him as one, "whose acuteness would help my inquiry, and whose gaiety of conversation, and civility of manners, are sufficient to counteract the inconveniences of travel, in countries less hospitable than we have passed'." Dr. Johnson thought it unnecessary to put himself to the additional expense of bringing with him Francis Barber, his faithful black servant; so we were attended only by my man, Joseph Ritter2, a Bohemian, a fine stately fellow above six feet high, who had been over a great part of Europe, and spoke many languages. He was the best servant I ever saw. Let not my readers disdain his introduction. For Dr. Johnson gave him this character: "Sir, he is a civil man, and a wise man." From an erroneous apprehension of violence, Dr. Johnson had provided a pair of pistols, some gunpowder, and a quantity of bullets: but upon being assured we should run no risk of meeting any robbers, he left his arms and ammunition in an open drawer, of which he gave my wife the charge. He also left in that drawer one volume of a pretty full and curious Diary of his Life, of which I have a few fragments; but the book has been destroyed. I wish female curiosity had been strong enough to have had it all transcribed, which might easily have been done, and I should think the theft, being pro bono publico, might have been forgiven. But I may be wrong. My wife told me she never once looked into it. She did not seem quite easy when we left her: but away we went! [He omits the tendency to hypochondriasis, (see ante, vol. i. p. 37, n.), of which, however, several instances will appear in the course of the tour, and which was a very important feature in his character.-ED.] 2 * [See ante, vol. i. p. 49. Joseph Ritter afterwards undertook the management of the large inn at Paisley, called the Abercorn Arms, but did not succeed in that concern. WALTER SCOTT.] Hebrid. Mr. Nairne', advocate, was to go with us as far Tour to as St. Andrews. It gives me pleasure that, by mentioning his name, I connect his title to the just and handsome compliment paid him by Dr. Johnson, in his book: "A gentleman who could stay with us only long enough to make us know how much we lost by his leaving us." When we came to Leith, I talked with perhaps too boasting an air, how pretty the Frith of Forth looked; as indeed, after the prospect from Constantinople, of which I have been told, and that from Naples, which I have seen, I believe the view of that Frith and its environs, from the Castle-hill of Edinburgh, is the finest prospect in Europe. Ay," said Dr. Johnson, "that is the state of the world. Water is the same every where. Una est injusti cærula forma maris 2." I told him the port here was the mouth of the river or water of Leith. "Not Lethe," said Mr. Nairne. 66 Why, sir," said Dr. Johnson, "when a Scotchman sets out from this port for England, he forgets his native country." NAIRNE. "I hope, sir, you will forget England here." JOHNSON. "Then 'twill be still more Lethe." He observed of the pier or quay, "you have no occasion for so large a one, your trade does not require it: but you are not only for like a shopkeeper who takes a shop, 1 [Mr. William Nairne, afterwards Sir William, and a judge of the court of session, by the title, made classical by Shakspeare, of Lord Dunsinnan. He was a man of scrupulous integrity. When sheriff depute of Perthshire, he found, upon reflection, that he had decided a poor man's case erroneously; and as the only remedy, supplied the litigant privately with money to carry the suit to the supreme court, where his judgment was revers. d. Sir William was of the old school of manners, somewhat formal, but punctiliously well bred.-WALTER SCOTT.] VOL. II. 2 Non illic urbes, non tu mirabere silvas : Ovid. Amor. 1. ii. el. xi. Nor groves nor towns the ruthless ocean shows, BOSWELL. U |