After a good night's rest, we breakfasted at our leisure. We talked of
Goldsmith's _Traveller_, of which Dr. Johnson spoke highly; and, while I
was helping him on with his great coat, he repeated from it the
character of the British nation, which he did with such energy, that the
tear started into his eye:--
'Stern o'er each bosom reason holds her state,
With daring aims irregularly great,
Pride in their port, defiance in their eye,
I see the lords of human kind pass by,
Intent on high designs, a thoughtful band,
By forms unfashion'd, fresh from nature's hand;
Fierce in their native hardiness of soul,
True to imagin'd right, above control,
While ev'n the peasant boasts these rights to scan,
And learns to venerate himself as man.'
We could get but one bridle here, which, according to the maxim _detur
digniori_, was appropriated to Dr. Johnson's sheltie. I and Joseph rode
with halters. We crossed in a ferry-boat a pretty wide lake[921], and on
the farther side of it, close by the shore, found a hut for our inn. We
were much wet. I changed my clothes in part, and was at pains to get
myself well dried. Dr. Johnson resolutely kept on all his clothes, wet
as they were, letting them steam before the smoky turf fire. I thought
him in the wrong; but his firmness was, perhaps, a species of heroism.
I remember but little of our conversation. I mentioned Shenstone's
saying of Pope, that he had the art of condensing sense more than any
body[922]. Dr. Johnson said, 'It is not true, Sir. There is more sense
in a line of Cowley than in a page (or a sentence, or ten lines,--I am
not quite certain of the very phrase) of Pope.' He maintained that
Archibald, Duke of Argyle[923], was a narrow man. I wondered at this;
and observed, that his building so great a house at Inverary was not
like a narrow man. 'Sir, (said he,) when a narrow man has resolved to
build a house, he builds it like another man. But Archibald, Duke of
Argyle, was narrow in his ordinary expences, in his quotidian
expences.'
The distinction is very just. It is in the ordinary expences of life
that a man's liberality or narrowness is to be discovered. I never heard
the word _quotidian_ in this sense, and I imagined it to be a word of
Dr. Johnson's own fabrication; but I have since found it in _Young's
Night Thoughts_, (Night fifth,)
'Death's a destroyer of quotidian prey,'
and in my friend's _Dictionary_, supported by the authorities of Charles
I. and Dr. Donne.
It rained very hard as we journied on after dinner. The roar of torrents
from the mountains, as we passed along in the dusk, and the other
circumstances attending our ride in the evening, have been mentioned
with so much animation by Dr. Johnson, that I shall not attempt to say
any thing on the subject[924].
We got at night to Inverary, where we found an excellent inn. Even here,
Dr. Johnson would not change his wet clothes.
The prospect of good accommodation cheered us much. We supped well; and
after supper, Dr. Johnson, whom I had not seen taste any fermented
liquor during all our travels, called for a gill of whiskey. 'Come,
(said he,) let me know what it is that makes a Scotchman happy[925]!' He
drank it all but a drop, which I begged leave to pour into my glass,
that I might say we had drunk whisky together. I proposed Mrs. Thrale
should be our toast. He would not have _her_ drunk in whisky, but rather
'some insular lady;' so we drank one of the ladies whom we had lately
left. He owned to-night, that he got as good a room and bed as at an
English inn.
I had here the pleasure of finding a letter from home, which relieved me
from the anxiety I had suffered, in consequence of not having received
any account of my family for many weeks. I also found a letter from Mr.
Garrick, which was a regale[926] as agreeable as a pine-apple would be
in a desert[927]. He had favoured me with his correspondence for many
years; and when Dr. Johnson and I were at Inverness, I had written to
him as follows:--
Inverness,
Sunday, 29 August, 1773.