[437] Spain, in 1719, sent a strong force under the Duke of Ormond to
Scotland in behalf of the Chevalier. Owing to storms only a few hundred
men landed. These were joined by a large body of Highlanders, but being
attacked by General Wightman, the clansmen dispersed and the Spaniards
surrendered. Smollett's _England_, ed. 1800, ii. 382.
[438] Boswell mentions this _ante_, i. 41, as a proof of Johnson's
'perceptive quickness.'
[439] Dr. Johnson, in his _Journey_, thus beautifully describes his
situation here:--'I sat down on a bank, such as a writer of romance
might have delighted to feign. I had, indeed, no trees to whisper over
my head; but a clear rivulet streamed at my feet. The day was calm, the
air soft, and all was rudeness, silence, and solitude. Before me, and on
either side, were high hills, which, by hindering the eye from ranging,
forced the mind to find entertainment for itself. Whether I spent the
hour well, I know not; for here I first conceived the thought of this
narration.' The _Critical Reviewers_, with a spirit and expression
worthy of the subject, say,--'We congratulate the publick on the event
with which this quotation concludes, and are fully persuaded that the
hour in which the entertaining traveller conceived this narrative will
be considered, by every reader of taste, as a fortunate event in the
annals of literature. Were it suitable to the task in which we are at
present engaged, to indulge ourselves in a poetical flight, we would
invoke the winds of the Caledonian Mountains to blow for ever, with
their softest breezes, on the bank where our author reclined, and
request of Flora, that it might be perpetually adorned with the gayest
and most fragrant productions of the year.' BOSWELL. Johnson thus
described the scene to Mrs. Thrale:--'I sat down to take notes on a
green bank, with a small stream running at my feet, in the midst of
savage solitude, with mountains before me and on either hand covered
with heath. I looked around me, and wondered that I was not more
affected, but the mind is not at all times equally ready to be put in
motion.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 131.
[440] 'The villagers gathered about us in considerable numbers, I
believe without any evil intention, but with a very savage wildness of
aspect and manner.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 38.
[441] The M'Craas, or Macraes, were since that time brought into the
king's army, by the late Lord Seaforth. When they lay in Edinburgh
Castle in 1778, and were ordered to embark for Jersey, they with a
number of other men in the regiment, for different reasons, but
especially an apprehension that they were to be sold to the East-India
Company, though enlisted not to be sent out of Great-Britain without
their own consent, made a determined mutiny, and encamped upon the lofty
mountain, _Arthur's seat_, where they remained three days and three
nights; bidding defiance to all the force in Scotland. At last they came
down, and embarked peaceably, having obtained formal articles of
capitulation, signed by Sir Adolphus Oughton, commander in chief,
General Skene, deputy commander, the Duke of Buccleugh, and the Earl of
Dunmore, which quieted them. Since the secession of the Commons of Rome
to the _Mons Sacer_, a more spirited exertion has not been made. I gave
great attention to it from first to last, and have drawn up a particular
account of it. Those brave fellows have since served their country
effectually at Jersey, and also in the East-Indies, to which, after
being better informed, they voluntarily agreed to go. BOSWELL. The line
which Boswell quotes is from _The Chevalier's Muster Roll_:--
'The laird of M'Intosh is coming,
M'Crabie & M'Donald's coming,
M'Kenzie & M'Pherson's coming,
And the wild M'Craw's coming.
Little wat ye wha's coming,
Donald Gun and a's coming.'
Hogg's _Jacobite Relics_, i. 152.
Horace Walpole (_Letters_, vii. 198) writing on May 9, 1779, tells how
on May 1 'the French had attempted to land [on Jersey], but Lord
Seaforth's new-raised regiment of 700 Highlanders, assisted by some
militia and some artillery, made a brave stand and repelled the
intruders.'
[442] 'One of the men advised her, with the cunning that clowns never
can be without, to ask more; but she said that a shilling was enough. We
gave her half a crown, and she offered part of it again.' _Piozzi
Letters_, i. 133.
[443] Of this part of the journey Johnson wrote:--'We had very little
entertainment as we travelled either for the eye or ear. There are, I
fancy, no singing birds in the Highlands.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 135. It
is odd that he should have looked for singing birds on the first of
September.
[444] Act iii. sc. 4.
[445] It is amusing to observe the different images which this being
presented to Dr. Johnson and me. The Doctor, in his _Journey_, compares
him to a Cyclops. BOSWELL. 'Out of one of the beds on which we were to
repose, started up at our entrance, a man black as a Cyclops from the
forge.' _Works_, ix. 44. Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'When we were
taken up stairs, a dirty fellow bounced out of the bed where one of us
was to lie. Boswell blustered, but nothing could be got'. _Piozzi
Letters_, i, 136. Macaulay (_Essays_, ed. 1843, i. 404) says: 'It is
clear that Johnson himself did not think in the dialect in which he
wrote. The expressions which came first to his tongue were simple,
energetic, and picturesque. When he wrote for publication, he did his
sentences out of English into Johnsonese. His letters from the Hebrides
to Mrs. Thrale are the original of that work of which the _Journey to
the Hebrides_ is the translation; and it is amusing to compare the two
versions.' Macaulay thereupon quotes these two passages. See _ante_,
under Aug. 29, 1783.
[446] 'We had a lemon and a piece of bread, which supplied me with my
supper.'_Piozzi Letters_, i, 136. Goldsmith, who in his student days had
been in Scotland, thus writes of a Scotch inn:--'Vile entertainment is
served up, complained of, and sent down; up comes worse, and that also
is changed, and every change makes our wretched cheer more unsavoury.'
_Present State of Polite Learning_, ch. 12.
[447] General Wolfe, in his letter from Head-quarters on Sept. 2, 1759,
eleven days before his death wrote:--'In this situation there is such a
choice of difficulties that I own myself at a loss how to determine.'
_Ann. Reg._ 1759, p. 246.
[448] See _ante_, p. 89.
[449] See _ante_, ii. 169, note 2.
[450] Boswell, in a note that he added to the second edition (see
_post_, end of the _Journal_), says that he has omitted 'a few
observations the publication of which might perhaps be considered as
passing the bounds of a strict decorum,' In the first edition (p. 165)
the next three paragraphs were as follows:--'Instead of finding the head
of the Macdonalds surrounded with his clan, and a festive entertainment,
we had a small company, and cannot boast of our cheer. The particulars
are minuted in my Journal, but I shall not trouble the publick with
them. I shall mention but one characteristick circumstance. My shrewd
and hearty friend Sir Thomas (Wentworth) Blacket, Lady Macdonald's
uncle, who had preceded us in a visit to this chief, upon being asked by
him if the punch-bowl then upon the table was not a very handsome one,
replied, "Yes--if it were full." 'Sir Alexander Macdonald having been an
Eton scholar, Dr. Johnson had formed an opinion of him which was much
diminished when he beheld him in the isle of Sky, where we heard heavy
complaints of rents racked, and the people driven to emigration. Dr.
Johnson said, "It grieves me to see the chief of a great clan appear to
such disadvantage. This gentleman has talents, nay some learning; but he
is totally unfit for this situation. Sir, the Highland chiefs should not
be allowed to go farther south than Aberdeen. A strong-minded man, like
his brother Sir James, may be improved by an English education; but in
general they will be tamed into insignificance." 'I meditated an escape
from this house the very next day; but Dr. Johnson resolved that we
should weather it out till Monday.' Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'We
saw the isle of Skie before us, darkening the horizon with its rocky
coast. A boat was procured, and we launched into one of the straits of
the Atlantick Ocean. We had a passage of about twelve miles to the point
where ---- ---- resided, having come from his seat in the middle of the
island to a small house on the shore, as we believe, that he might with
less reproach entertain us meanly. If he aspired to meanness, his
retrograde ambition was completely gratified... Boswell was very angry,
and reproached him with his improper parsimony.' _Piozzi Letters_, i.
137. A little later he wrote:--'I have done thinking of ---- whom we now
call Sir Sawney; he has disgusted all mankind by injudicious parsimony,
and given occasion to so many stories, that ---- has some thoughts of
collecting them, and making a novel of his life.' _Ib_. p. 198. The last
of Rowlandson's _Caricatures_ of Boswell's _Journal_ is entitled
_Revising for the Second Edition_. Macdonald is represented as seizing
Boswell by the throat and pointing with his stick to the _Journal_ that
lies open at pages 168, 169. On the ground lie pages 165, 167, torn out.
Boswell, in an agony of fear, is begging for mercy.
[451]
'Here, in Badenoch, here in Lochaber anon, in Lochiel, in
Knoydart, Moydart, Morrer, Ardgower, and Ardnamurchan,
Here I see him and here: I see him; anon I lose him.'