We were now in a country not only '_of saddles and bridles_[1011],' but
of post-chaises; and having ordered one from Kilmarnock, we got to
Auchinleck[1012] before dinner.
My father was not quite a year and a half older than Dr. Johnson; but
his conscientious discharge of his laborious duty as a judge in
Scotland, where the law proceedings are almost all in writing,--a severe
complaint which ended in his death,--and the loss of my mother, a woman
of almost unexampled piety and goodness,--had before this time in some
degree affected his spirits[1013], and rendered him less disposed to
exert his faculties: for he had originally a very strong mind, and
cheerful temper. He assured me, he never had felt one moment of what is
called low spirits, or uneasiness, without a real cause. He had a great
many good stories, which he told uncommonly well, and he was remarkable
for 'humour, _incolumi gravitate_[1014],' as Lord Monboddo used to
characterise it. His age, his office, and his character, had long given
him an acknowledged claim to great attention, in whatever company he
was; and he could ill brook any diminution of it. He was as sanguine a
Whig and Presbyterian, as Dr. Johnson was a Tory and Church of England
man: and as he had not much leisure to be informed of Dr. Johnson's
great merits by reading his works, he had a partial and unfavourable
notion of him, founded on his supposed political tenets; which were so
discordant to his own, that instead of speaking of him with that respect
to which he was entitled, he used to call him 'a _Jacobite fellow_.'
Knowing all this, I should not have ventured to bring them together, had
not my father, out of kindness to me, desired me to invite Dr. Johnson
to his house.
I was very anxious that all should be well; and begged of my friend to
avoid three topicks, as to which they differed very widely; Whiggism,
Presbyterianism, and--Sir John Pringle.[1015] He said courteously, 'I
shall certainly not talk on subjects which I am told are disagreeable to
a gentleman under whose roof I am; especially, I shall not do so to
_your father_.'
Our first day went off very smoothly. It rained, and we could not get
out; but my father shewed Dr. Johnson his library, which in curious
editions of the Greek and Roman classicks, is, I suppose, not excelled
by any private collection in Great Britain. My father had studied at
Leyden, and been very intimate with the Gronovii, and other learned men
there. He was a sound scholar, and, in particular, had collated
manuscripts and different editions of _Anacreon_, and others of the
Greek Lyrick poets, with great care; so that my friend and he had much
matter for conversation, without touching on the fatal topicks of
difference.
Dr. Johnson found here Baxter's _Anacreon_[1016], which he told me he
had long enquired for in vain, and began to suspect there was no such
book. Baxter was the keen antagonist of Barnes[1017]. His life is in
the _Biographia Britannica_[1018]. My father has written many notes on
this book, and Dr. Johnson and I talked of having it reprinted.