Hebrid. to secure my eternal peace, more than if I had been Tour to certified I should die within the day: nor to mind any thing that my secular obligations and duties demanded of me, less than if I had been ensured to live fifty years more.' I must here observe, that though Dr. Johnson appeared now to be philosophically calm, yet his genius did not shine forth as in companies, where I have listened to him with admiration. The vigour of his mind was, however, sufficiently manifested, by his discovering no symptoms of feeble relaxation in the dull, "weary, flat, and unprofitable" state in which we now were placed. I am inclined to think that it was on this day he composed the following ode upon the Isle of Sky, which a few days afterwards he showed me at Rasay: "ODA. "Ponti profundis clausa recessibus, Strepens procellis, rupibus obsita, "His cura, credo, sedibus exulat; "At non cavata rupe latescere, "Humana virtus non sibi sufficit, Secta crepet nimis alta fallax. "Exæstuantis pectoris impetum, Rex summe, solus tu regis arbiter, Various Readings.-Line 2. In the manuscript, Dr. Johnson, instead of VOL. II. CC Tour to After supper, Dr. Johnson told us, that Isaac Hebrid. Hawkins Browne drank freely for thirty years, and that he wrote his poem, "De Animi Immortalitate," in some of the last of these years. I listened to this with the eagerness of one, who, conscious of being himself fond of wine, is glad to hear that a man of so much genius and good thinking as Browne had the same propensity. Monday, 6th September.-We set out, accompanied by Mr. Donald M'Leod, late of Canna, as our guide. We rode for some time along the district of Slate, near the shore. The houses in general are made of turf, covered with grass. The country seemed well peopled. We came into the district of Strath, and passed along a wild moorish tract of land till we arrived at the shore. There we found good verdure, and some curious whin-rocks, or collections of stones, like the ruins of the foundations of old buildings. We saw also three cairns of considerable size. About a mile beyond Broadfoot is Corrichatachin, a farm of Sir Alexander Macdonald's, possessed by rupibus obsita, had written imbribus uvida, and uvida nubibus, but struck them both out. Lines 15 and 16. Instead of these two lines, he had written, but afterwards struck out, the following: [It is very curious that, in ALL the editions of JOHNSON'S WORKS, which the Editor has seen, even down to the Oxford edition of 1825, this poem is given with certain variations, which the Editor confesses he does not understand. The first amendment, noted by Mr. Boswell, "obsita rupibus” is adopted, but the second is not, and the two lines rejected by Dr. Johnson are replaced. But this is not all: the words "e scopulo," in the 12th line, are changed into "In specula," of which the sense is not obvious; and in the penultimate line, "surgunt," which seems necessary to the meaning, is altered to “fluctus," which appears wholly unintelligible. These last variations look like mere errors of the press; but is it possible, that Johnson's Latin poetry has been so little attended to, that the public has been, for forty years past, acquiescing in what appears to be stark nonsense? In the last line, too, "resident" is printed for "recidunt," but that is of minor importance. It seems wonderful that Mr. Murphy (who was himself a Latin poet) and the late Oxford editor should, in their splendid editions, have overlooked these errors.-ED.] Hebrid. Mr. M'Kinnon', who received us with a hearty Tour to welcome, as did his wife, who was what we call in Scotland a lady-like woman. Mr. Pennant, in the course of his tour to the Hebrides, passed two nights at this gentleman's house. On its being mentioned, that a present had here been made to him of a curious specimen of Highland antiquity, Dr. Johnson said, “Sir, it was more than he deserved: the dog is a whig 3" We here enjoyed the comfort of a table plentifully furnished, the satisfaction of which was heightened by a numerous and cheerful company; and we, for the first time, had a specimen of the joyous social manners of the inhabitants of the Highlands. They talked in their own ancient language, with fluent vivacity, and sung many Erse songs with such spirit, that, though Dr. Johnson was treated with the greatest respect and attention, there were moments in which he seemed to be forgotten. For myself, though but a Lowlander, having picked up a few words of the language, I presumed to mingle in their mirth, and joined in the choruses with as much glee as any of the company. Dr. Johnson being fatigued That my readers may have my narrative in the style of the country through which I am travelling, it is proper to inform them, that the chief of a clan is denominated by his surname alone, as M'Leod, M'Kinnon, M-Intosh. To prefix Mr. to it would be a degradation from the M'Leod, &c. My old friend, the Laird of M'Farlane, the great antiquary, took it highly amiss, when General Wade called him Mr. M'Farlane. Dr. Johnson said, he could not bring himself to use this mode of address; it seemed to him to be too familiar, as it is the way in which, in all other places, intimates or inferiors are addressed. When the chiefs have titles, they are denominated by them, as Sir James Grant, Sir Allan M'Lean. The other Highland gentlemen, of landed property, are denominated by their estates, as Rasay, Boisdale; and the wives of all of them have the title of ladies. The tacksmen, or principal tenants, are named by their farms, as Kingsburgh, Corrichatachin; and their wives are called the mistress of Kingsburgh, the mistress of Corrichatachin. Having given this explanation, I am at liberty to use that mode of speech which generally prevails in the Highlands and the Hebrides.-BOSWELL. * [The Editor has not been able to discover that these words have any different meaning in Scotland from that attached to them in England.-ED.] 3 [Mr. Boswell does not do full justice to Dr. Johnson, when he leaves it in doubt, whether this was not said (as surely it was) in a spirit of jocularity. Johnson seems to have had a regard for Pennant.-ÉD.] Hebrid. Tour to with his journey, retired early to his chamber, where he composed the following Ode, addressed to Mrs. Thrale1: Tuesday, 7th September.-Dr. Johnson was much pleased with his entertainment here. There were many good books in the house: Hector Boethius in Latin; Cave's Lives of the Fathers; Baker's Chro 1 [About fourteen years since, I landed in Sky, with a party of friends, and had the curiosity to ask what was the first idea on every one's mind at landing. All answered separately that it was this Ode.-WALTER SCOTT.] 2 [Gibbon says, that he veiled indelicacy under the obscurity of a learned language. Johnson seems to have done the same with ingratitude. Surely, after the jocund and hospitable scene which we have just left, the "hominum ferorum," and the "vita nullo decorata cultu," and the "squallet informis," might have been spared. The "ignota strepitus loquela" is amusing and not offensive; but whatever may be said of the Doctor's gratitude to his friends in Sky, the classical reader will not have failed to observe how much his taste, and even his Latinity, have improved since the days of the ode "Ad Urbanum,” and the epigrams to Savage and Eliza. His verses "In Theatro," and those in Sky and in Inch Kenneth, and this ode to Mrs. Thrale are, if the Editor may venture to give his opinion, much more natural in their thoughts, and more elegant in their expressions, than his earlier attempts in this line.-ED.] Hebrid. nicle; Jeremy Collier's Church History; Dr. John- Tour to son's small Dictionary; Craufurd's Officers of State, and several more:-a mezzotinto of Mrs. Brooks the actress (by some strange chance in Sky1;) and also a print of Macdonald of Clanranald, with a Latin inscription about the cruelties after the battle of Culloden, which will never be forgotten. It was a very wet stormy day; we were therefore obliged to remain here, it being impossible to cross the sea to Rasay. I employed a part of the forenoon in writing this journal. The rest of it was somewhat dreary, from the gloominess of the weather, and the uncertain state which we were in, as we could not tell but it might clear up every hour. Nothing is more painful to the mind than a state of suspense, especially when it depends upon the weather, concerning which there can be so little calculation. As Dr. Johnson said of our weariness on the Monday at Aberdeen, "Sensation is sensation:" Corrichatachin, which was last night a hospitable house, was, in my mind, changed to-day into a prison. After dinner I read some of Dr. Macpherson's "Dissertations on the Ancient Caledonians." I was disgusted by the unsatisfactory conjectures as to antiquity, before the days of record. I was happy when tea came. Such, I take it, is the state of those who live in the country'. Meals are wished for from the cravings of vacuity of mind, as well as from the desire of eating. I was hurt to find even such a temporary feebleness, and that I was so 1 [Mrs. Brooks's father was a Scotchman of the name of Watson.-ED.] 2 Mr. Boswell should have recollected, that he and Dr. Johnson were probably the only persons of the party who had nothing to do. A country gentleman's life would be miserable, if he had no more business or interest in the scenes around him than the visitor of a few days at a stranger's house can have. M'Kinnon would probably have been more, and with more reason, ennuyé in Bolt Court than Johnson and Boswell were at Corrichatachin.—ED.] |