[145] See _ante_, i. 437, and _post_, p. 72.
[146]
'What is't to us, if taxes rise or fall,
Thanks to our fortune we pay none at all.
No statesman e'er will find it worth his pains
To tax our labours and excise our brains.
Burthens like these vile earthly buildings bear,
No tribute's laid on _Castles_ in the _Air_'
Churchill's _Poems, Night,_ ed. 1766, i. 89.
[147] Pitt, in 1784, laid a tax of ten shillings a year on every horse
'kept for the saddle, or to be put in carriages used solely for
pleasure.'_Parl. Hist._ xxiv. 1028.
[148] In 1763 he published the following description of himself in his
_Correspondence with Erskine_, ed. 1879, p.36. 'The author of the _Ode
to Tragedy_ is a most excellent man; he is of an ancient family in the
west of Scotland, upon which he values himself not a little. At his
nativity there appeared omens of his future greatness. His parts are
bright; and his education has been good. He has travelled in
post-chaises miles without number. He is fond of seeing much of the
world. He eats of every good dish, especially apple-pie. He drinks old
hock. He has a very fine temper. He is somewhat of an humorist, and a
little tinctured with pride. He has a good manly countenance, and he
owns himself to be amorous. He has infinite vivacity, yet is observed at
times to have a melancholy cast. He is rather fat than lean, rather
short than tall, rather young than old.' He is oddly enough described in
Arighi's _Histoire de Pascal Paoli_, i. 231, 'En traversant la
Mediterranée sur de frêles navires pour venir s'asseoir au foyer de la
nationalité Corse, des hommes _graves_ tels que Boswel et Volney
obéissaient sans doute à un sentiment bien plus élevé qu'au besoin
vulgaire d'une puérile curiosité'
[149] See _ante_, i. 400.
[150] For _respectable_, see _ante_, iii. 241, note 2.
[151] Boswell, in the last of his _Hypochondriacks_, says:--'I perceive
that my essays are not so lively as I expected they would be, but they
are more learned. And I beg I may not be charged with excessive
arrogance when I venture to say that they contain a considerable portion
of original thinking.'_London Mag_. 1783, p. 124.
[152] Burns, in _The Author's Earnest Cry and Prayer_, says:--
'But could I like Montgomeries fight,
Or gab like Boswell.'
Boswell and Burns were born within a few miles of each other, Boswell
being the elder by eighteen years.
[153]
'For pointed satire I would Buckhurst choose,
The best good man, with the worst-natured muse.'
Rochester's _Imitations of Horace, Sat_. i. 10.
[154] Johnson's _Works_, ix. i. See _ante_, ii. 278, where he wrote to
Boswell:--'I have endeavoured to do you some justice in the first
paragraph [of the _Journey_].' The day before he started for Scotland he
wrote to Dr. Taylor:--'Mr. Boswell, an active lively fellow, is to
conduct me round the country.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. v. 422. 'His
inquisitiveness,' he said, 'is seconded by great activity.' _Works_, ix.
8. On Oct. 7 he wrote from Skye:--'Boswell will praise my resolution and
perseverance; and I shall in return celebrate his good humour and
perpetual cheerfulness.... It is very convenient to travel with him, for
there is no house where he is not received with kindness and respect.'
_Piozzi Letters_, i. 198. He told Mrs. Knowles that 'Boswell was the
best travelling companion in the world.' _Ante_, iii. 294. Mr. Croker
says (_Croker's Boswell_, p. 280):--'I asked Lord Stowell in what
estimation he found Boswell amongst his countrymen. "Generally liked as
a good-natured jolly fellow," replied his lordship. "But was he
respected?" "Well, I think he had about the proportion of respect that
you might guess would be shown to a jolly fellow." His lordship thought
there was more regard than respect.' _Hebrides,_ p. 40.
[155] See _ante_, ii. 103, 411.
[156] There were two quarto volumes of this Diary; perhaps one of them
Johnson took with him. Boswell had 'accidently seen them and had read a
great deal in them,' as he owned to Johnson (_ante_, under Dec. 9,
1784), and moreover had, it should seem, copied from them (_ante_, i.
251). The 'few fragments' he had received from Francis Barber
(_ante_, i. 27).
[157] In the original 'how much we lost _at separation_' Johnson's
_Works_, ix. I. Mr. William Nairne was afterwards a Judge of the Court
of Sessions by the title of Lord Dunsinnan. Sir Walter Scott wrote of
him:--'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 reversed.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 280.
[158]
'Non illic urbes, non tu mirabere silvas:
Una est injusti caerula forma maris.
_Ovid. Amor._ L. II. El. xi.
Nor groves nor towns the ruthless ocean shows;
Unvaried still its azure surface flows.