The weather was worse than yesterday. I felt as if imprisoned. Dr.
Johnson said, it was irksome to be detained thus: yet he seemed to have
less uneasiness, or more patience, than I had. What made our situation
worse here was, that we had no rooms that we could command; for the good
people had no notion that a man could have any occasion but for a mere
sleeping-place; so, during the day, the bed chambers were common to all
the house. Servants eat in Dr. Johnson's; and mine was a kind of general
rendezvous of all under the roof, children and dogs not excepted. As the
gentlemen occupied the parlour, the ladies had no place to sit in,
during the day, but Dr. Johnson's room. I had always some quiet time for
writing in it, before he was up; and, by degrees, I accustomed the
ladies to let me sit in it after breakfast, at my _Journal_, without
minding me.
Dr. Johnson was this morning for going to see as many islands as we
could; not recollecting the uncertainty of the season, which might
detain us in one place for many weeks. He said to me, 'I have more the
spirit of adventure than you.' For my part, I was anxious to get to
Mull, from whence we might almost any day reach the main land.
Dr. Johnson mentioned, that the few ancient Irish gentlemen yet
remaining have the highest pride of family; that Mr. Sandford, a friend
of his, whose mother was Irish, told him, that O'Hara (who was true
Irish, both by father and mother) and he, and Mr. Ponsonby, son to the
Earl of Besborough, the greatest man of the three, but of an English
family, went to see one of those ancient Irish, and that he
distinguished them thus: 'O'Hara, you are welcome! Mr. Sandford, your
mother's son is welcome! Mr. Ponsonby, you may sit down.'
He talked both of threshing and thatching. He said, it was very
difficult to determine how to agree with a thresher. 'If you pay him by
the day's wages, he will thresh no more than he pleases; though to be
sure, the negligence of a thresher is more easily detected than that of
most labourers, because he must always make a sound while he works. If
you pay him by the piece, by the quantity of grain which he produces, he
will thresh only while the grain comes freely, and, though he leaves a
good deal in the ear, it is not worth while to thresh the straw over
again; nor can you fix him to do it sufficiently, because it is so
difficult to prove how much less a man threshes than he ought to do.
Here then is a dilemma: but, for my part, I would engage him by the day:
I would rather trust his idleness than his fraud.' He said, a roof
thatched with Lincolnshire reeds would last seventy years, as he was
informed when in that county; and that he told this in London to a great
thatcher, who said, he believed it might be true. Such are the pains
that Dr. Johnson takes to get the best information on every
subject[714].
He proceeded:--'It is difficult for a farmer in England to find
day-labourers, because the lowest manufacturers can always get more than
a day-labourer. It is of no consequence how high the wages of
manufacturers are; but it would be of very bad consequence to raise the
wages of those who procure the immediate necessaries of life, for that
would raise the price of provisions. Here then is a problem for
politicians. It is not reasonable that the most useful body of men
should be the worst paid; yet it does not appear how it can be ordered
otherwise. It were to be wished, that a mode for its being otherwise
were found out. In the mean time, it is better to give temporary
assistance by charitable contributions to poor labourers, at times when
provisions are high, than to raise their wages; because, if wages are
once raised, they will never get down again[715].'
Happily the weather cleared up between one and two o'clock, and we got
ready to depart; but our kind host and hostess would not let us go
without taking a _snatch_, as they called it; which was in truth a very
good dinner. While the punch went round, Dr. Johnson kept a close
whispering conference with Mrs. M'Kinnon, which, however, was loud
enough to let us hear that the subject of it was the particulars of
Prince Charles's escape. The company were entertained and pleased to
observe it. Upon that subject, there was something congenial between the
soul of Dr. Samuel Johnson, and that of an isle of Sky farmer's wife. It
is curious to see people, how far so ever removed from each other in the
general system of their lives, come close together on a particular point
which is common to each. We were merry with Corrichatachin, on Dr.
Johnson's whispering with his wife. She, perceiving this, humourously
cried, 'I am in love with him. What is it to live and not to love?' Upon
her saying something, which I did not hear, or cannot recollect, he
seized her hand eagerly, and kissed it.
As we were going, the Scottish phrase of '_honest man_!' which is an
expression of kindness and regard, was again and again applied by the
company to Dr. Johnson. I was also treated with much civility; and I
must take some merit from my assiduous attention to him, and from my
contriving that he shall be easy wherever he goes, that he shall not be
asked twice to eat or drink any thing (which always disgusts him), that
he shall be provided with water at his meals, and many such little
things, which, if not attended to, would fret him. I also may be allowed
to claim some merit in leading the conversation: I do not mean leading,
as in an orchestra, by playing the first fiddle; but leading as one does
in examining a witness--starting topics, and making him pursue them. He
appears to me like a great mill, into which a subject is thrown to be
ground. It requires, indeed, fertile minds to furnish materials for this
mill. I regret whenever I see it unemployed; but sometimes I feel myself
quite barren, and have nothing to throw in. I know not if this mill be a
good figure; though Pope makes his mind a mill for turning verses[716].
We set out about four. Young Corrichatachin went with us. We had a fine
evening, and arrived in good time at _Ostig_, the residence of Mr.
Martin M'Pherson, minister of Slate. It is a pretty good house, built by
his father, upon a farm near the church. We were received here with much
kindness by Mr. and Mrs. M'Pherson, and his sister, Miss M'Pherson, who
pleased Dr. Johnson much, by singing Erse songs, and playing on the
guittar. He afterwards sent her a present of his _Rasselas_. In his
bed-chamber was a press stored with books, Greek, Latin, French, and
English, most of which had belonged to the father of our host, the
learned Dr. M'Pherson; who, though his _Dissertations_ have been
mentioned in a former page[717] as unsatisfactory, was a man of
distinguished talents. Dr. Johnson looked at a Latin paraphrase of the
song of Moses, written by him, and published in the _Scots Magazine_ for
1747, and said, 'It does him honour; he has a good deal of Latin, and
good Latin.' Dr. M'Pherson published also in the same magazine, June
1739, an original Latin ode, which he wrote from the isle of Barra,
where he was minister for some years. It is very poetical, and exhibits
a striking proof how much all things depend upon comparison: for Barra,
it seems, appeared to him so much worse than Sky, his _natale
solum_[718], that he languished for its 'blessed mountains,' and thought
himself buried alive amongst barbarians where he was. My readers will
probably not be displeased to have a specimen of this ode:--
'Hei mihi! quantos patior dolores,
Dum procul specto juga ter beata;
Dum ferae Barrae steriles arenas
Solus oberro.
'Ingemo, indignor, crucior, quod inter
Barbaros Thulen lateam colentes;
Torpeo languens, morior sepultus,
Carcere coeco.'
After wishing for wings to fly over to his dear country, which was in
his view, from what he calls _Thule_, as being the most western isle of
Scotland, except St. Kilda; after describing the pleasures of society,
and the miseries of solitude, he at last, with becoming propriety, has
recourse to the only sure relief of thinking men,--_Sursum
corda_[719]--the hope of a better world, disposes his mind to
resignation:--
'Interim fiat, tua, rex, voluntas:
Erigor sursum quoties subit spes
Certa migrandi Solymam supernam,
Numinis aulam.'