[452] See his Latin verses addressed to Dr. Johnson, in this APPENDIX.
BOSWELL.
[453] See _ante_, ii. 157.
[454] See _ante_, i. 449.
[455] See _ante_, ii. 99.
[456] See _ante_, iii 198, note 1.
[457] 'Such is the laxity of Highland conversation, that the inquirer is
kept in continual suspense, and by a kind of intellectual retrogradation
knows less as he hears more.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 47. 'They are not
much accustomed to be interrogated by others, and seem never to have
thought upon interrogating themselves; so that if they do not know what
they tell to be true, they likewise do not distinctly perceive it to be
false. Mr. Boswell was very diligent in his inquiries; and the result of
his investigations was, that the answer to the second question was
commonly such as nullified the answer to the first.' _Ib._, p. 114.
[458] Mr. Carruthers, in his edition of Boswell's _Hebrides_, says (p.
xiv):--'The new management and high rents took the tacksmen, or larger
tenants, by surprise. They were indignant at the treatment they
received, and selling off their stock they emigrated to America. In the
twenty years from 1772 to 1792, sixteen vessels with emigrants sailed
from the western shores of Inverness-shire and Ross-shire, containing
about 6400 persons, who carried with them in specie at least £38,400. A
desperate effort was made by the tacksmen on the estate of Lord
Macdonald. They bound themselves by a solemn oath not to offer for any
farm that might become vacant. The combination failed of its object, but
it appeared so formidable in the eyes of the "English-bred chieftain,"
that he retreated precipitately from Skye and never afterwards
returned.'
[459] Dr. Johnson seems to have forgotten that a Highlander going armed
at this period incurred the penalty of serving as a common soldier for
the first, and of transportation beyond sea for a second offence. And as
for 'calling out his clan,' twelve Highlanders and a bagpipe made a
rebellion. WALTER SCOTT.
[460] Mackintosh (_Life_ ii. 62) says that in Mme. du Deffand's
_Correspondence_ there is 'an extraordinary confirmation of the talents
and accomplishments of our Highland Phoenix, Sir James Macdonald. A
Highland chieftain, admired by Voltaire, could have been no
ordinary man.'
[461] This extraordinary young man, whom I had the pleasure of knowing
intimately, having been deeply regretted by his country, the most minute
particulars concerning him must be interesting to many. I shall
therefore insert his two last letters to his mother, Lady Margaret
Macdonald, which her ladyship has been pleased to communicate to me.
'Rome, July 9th, 1766. 'My DEAR MOTHER, 'Yesterday's post brought me
your answer to the first letter in which I acquainted you of my illness.
Your tenderness and concern upon that account are the same I have always
experienced, and to which I have often owed my life. Indeed it never was
in so great danger as it has been lately; and though it would have been
a very great comfort to me to have had you near me, yet perhaps I ought
to rejoice, on your account, that you had not the pain of such a
spectacle. I have been now a week in Rome, and wish I could continue to
give you the same good accounts of my recovery as I did in my last; but
I must own that, for three days past, I have been in a very weak and
miserable state, which however seems to give no uneasiness to my
physician. My stomach has been greatly out of order, without any visible
cause; and the palpitation does not decrease. I am told that my stomach
will soon recover its tone, and that the palpitation must cease in time.
So I am willing to believe; and with this hope support the little
remains of spirits which I can be supposed to have, on the forty-seventh
day of such an illness. Do not imagine I have relapsed;--I only recover
slower than I expected. If my letter is shorter than usual, the cause of
it is a dose of physick, which has weakened me so much to-day, that I am
not able to write a long letter. I will make up for it next post, and
remain always 'Your most sincerely affectionate son, 'J. MACDONALD.' He
grew gradually worse; and on the night before his death he wrote as
follows from Frescati:--'MY DEAR MOTHER, 'Though I did not mean to
deceive you in my last letter from Rome, yet certainly you would have
very little reason to conclude of the very great and constant danger I
have gone through ever since that time. My life, which is still almost
entirely desperate, did not at that time appear to me so, otherwise I
should have represented, in its true colours, a fact which acquires very
little horror by that means, and comes with redoubled force by
deception. There is no circumstance of danger and pain of which I have
not had the experience, for a continued series of above a fortnight;
during which time I have settled my affairs, after my death, with as
much distinctness as the hurry and the nature of the thing could admit
of. In case of the worst, the Abbé Grant will be my executor in this
part of the world, and Mr. Mackenzie in Scotland, where my object has
been to make you and my younger brother as independent of the eldest as
possible.' BOSWELL. Horace Walpole (Letters, vii. 291), in 1779, thus
mentions this 'younger brother':--'Macdonald abused Lord North in very
gross, yet too applicable, terms; and next day pleaded he had been
drunk, recanted, and was all admiration and esteem for his Lordship's
talents and virtues.'
[462] See _ante_, iii. 85, and _post_, Oct. 28.
[463] Cheyne's English Malady, ed. 1733, p. 229.
[464] 'Weary, stale, flat and unprofitable.' _Hamlet_, act i. sc. 2. See
_ante_, iii. 350, where Boswell is reproached by Johnson with 'bringing
in gabble,' when he makes this quotation.
[465] VARIOUS READINGS. Line 2. In the manuscript, Dr. Johnson, instead
of _rupibus obsita_, had written _imbribus uvida_, and _uvida nubibus_,
but struck them both out. Lines 15 and 16. Instead of these two lines,
he had written, but afterwards struck out, the following:--
Parare posse, utcunque jactet
Grandiloquus nimis alta Zeno.
BOSWELL. In Johnson's _Works_, i. 167, these lines are given with some
variations, which perhaps are in part due to Mr. Langton, who, we are
told (_ante_, Dec. 1784), edited some, if not indeed all, of Johnson's
Latin poems.
[466] Cowper wrote to S. Rose on May 20, 1789:--'Browne was an
entertaining companion when he had drunk his bottle, but not before;
this proved a snare to him, and he would sometimes drink too much.'
Southey's _Cowper_, vi. 237. His _De Animi Immortalitate_ was published
in 1754. He died in 1760, aged fifty-four. See _ante_, ii. 339.
[467] Boswell, in one of his _Hypochondriacks_ (_ante_, iv. 179)
says:--'I do fairly acknowledge that I love Drinking; that I have a
constitutional inclination to indulge in fermented liquors, and that if
it were not for the restraints of reason and religion, I am afraid I
should be as constant a votary of Bacchus as any man.... Drinking is in
reality an occupation which employs a considerable portion of the time
of many people; and to conduct it in the most rational and agreeable
manner is one of the great arts of living. Were we so framed that it
were possible by perpetual supplies of wine to keep ourselves for ever
gay and happy, there could be no doubt that drinking would be the
_summum bonum_, the chief good, to find out which philosophers have been
so variously busied. But we know from humiliating experience that men
cannot be kept long in a state of elevated drunkenness.'
[468] That my readers may have my narrative in the style of the country
through which I am travelling, it is proper to inform them, that the
chief of a clan is denominated by his _surname_ alone, as M'Leod,
M'Kinnon, M'lntosh. To prefix _Mr._ to it would be a degradation from
_the_ M'Leod, &c. My old friend, the Laird of M'Farlane, the great
antiquary, took it highly amiss, when General Wade called him Mr.
M'Farlane. Dr. Johnson said, he could not bring himself to use this mode
of address; it seemed to him to be too familiar, as it is the way in
which, in all other places, intimates or inferiors are addressed. When
the chiefs have _titles_ they are denominated by them, as _Sir James
Grant_, _Sir Allan M'Lean_. The other Highland gentlemen, of landed
property, are denominated by their _estates_, as _Rasay_, _Boisdale_;
and the wives of all of them have the title of _ladies_. The _tacksmen_,
or principal tenants, are named by their farms, as _Kingsburgh_,
_Corrichatachin_; and their wives are called the _mistress_ of
Kingsburgh, the _mistress_ of Corrichatachin.--Having given this
explanation, I am at liberty to use that mode of speech which generally
prevails in the Highlands and the Hebrides. BOSWELL.
[469] See _ante_, iii. 275.
[470] Boswell implies that Sir A. Macdonald's table had not been
furnished plentifully. Johnson wrote:--'At night we came to a tenant's
house of the first rank of tenants, where we were entertained better
than at the landlord's.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 141.
[471] 'Little did I once think,' he wrote to her the same day, 'of
seeing this region of obscurity, and little did you once expect a
salutation from this verge of European life. I have now the pleasure of
going where nobody goes, and seeing what nobody sees.' _Piozzi Letters_,
i. 120. About fourteen years since, I landed in Sky, with a party of
friends, and had the curiosity to ask what was the first idea on every
one's mind at landing. All answered separately that it was this Ode.
WALTER SCOTT.
[472] See Appendix B.
[473] 'I never was in any house of the islands, where I did not find
books in more languages than one, if I staid long enough to want them,
except one from which the family was removed.' Johnson's _Works_, ix.
50. He is speaking of 'the higher rank of the Hebridians,' for on p. 61
he says:--'The greater part of the islanders make no use of books.'
[474] There was a Mrs. Brooks, an actress, the daughter of a Scotchman
named Watson, who had forfeited his property by 'going out in the '45.'
But according to _The Thespian Dictionary_ her first appearance on the
stage was in 1786.
[475] Boswell mentions, _post_, Oct. 5, 'the famous Captain of
Clanranald, who fell at Sherrif-muir.'
[476] See _ante_, p. 95.
[477] By John Macpherson, D.D. See _post_, Sept. 13.
[478] Sir Walter Scott, when in Sky in 1814, wrote:--'We learn that most
of the Highland superstitions, even that of the second sight, are still
in force.' Lockhart's _Scott_, ed. 1839, iv. 305. See _.ante_, ii.
10, 318.
[479] Of him Johnson wrote:--'One of the ministers honestly told me that
he came to Sky with a resolution not to believe it.' _Works_, ix. 106.
[480] 'By the term _second sight_ seems to be meant a mode of seeing
superadded to that which nature generally bestows. In the Erse it is
called _Taisch_; which signifies likewise a spectre or a vision.'
_Johnson's Works_, ix. 105.
[481] Gray's _Ode on a distant prospect of Eton College_, 1. 44.
[482] A tonnage bounty of thirty shillings a ton was at this time given
to the owners of busses or decked vessels for the encouragement of the
white herring fishery. Adam Smith (_Wealth of Nations_, iv. 5) shews how
mischievous was its effect.
[483] The Highland expression for Laird of Rasay. BOSWELL.
[484] 'In Sky I first observed the use of brogues, a kind of artless
shoes, stitched with thongs so loosely, that, though they defend the
foot from stones, they do not exclude water.' Johnson's _Works_, ix 46.
[485] To evade the law against the tartan dress, the Highlanders used to
dye their variegated plaids and kilts into blue, green, or any single
colour. WALTER SCOTT.
[486] See _post_, Oct. 5.
[487] The Highlanders were all well inclined to the episcopalian form,
_proviso_ that the right _king_ was prayed for. I suppose Malcolm meant
to say, 'I will come to your church because you are honest folk,' viz.
_Jacobites_. WALTER SCOTT.
[488] See _ante_, i. 450, and ii. 291.
[489] Perhaps he was thinking of Johnson's letter of June 20, 1771
(_ante_, ii. 140), where he says:--'I hope the time will come when we
may try our powers both with cliffs and water.'
[490] 'The wind blew enough to give the boat a kind of dancing
agitation.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 142. 'The water was calm and the rowers
were vigorous; so that our passage was quick and pleasant.' Johnson's
_Works_, ix. 54.
[491]
'Caught in the wild Aegean seas,
The sailor bends to heaven for ease.'
FRANCIS. Horace, 2, _Odes_, xvi. 1.
[492] See _ante_, iv. Dec. 9, 1784, note.
[493] Such spells are still believed in. A lady of property in Mull, a
friend of mine, had a few years since much difficulty in rescuing from
the superstitious fury of the people, an old woman, who used a _charm_
to injure her neighbour's cattle. It is now in my possession, and
consists of feathers, parings of nails, hair, and such like trash, wrapt
in a lump of clay. WALTER SCOTT.
[494] Sir Walter Scott, writing in Skye in 1814, says:--'Macleod and Mr.
Suter have both heard a tacksman of Macleod's recite the celebrated
Address to the Sun; and another person repeat the description of
Cuchullin's car. But all agree as to the gross infidelity of Macpherson
as a translator and editor.' Lockhart's _Scott_, iv. 308.
[495] See _post_, Nov. 10.
[496] 'The women reaped the corn, and the men bound up the sheaves. The
strokes of the sickle were timed by the modulation of the harvest-song,
in which all their voices were united.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 58.
[497] 'The money which he raises annually by rent from all his
dominions, which contain at least 50,000 acres, is not believed to
exceed £250; but as he keeps a large farm in his own hands, he sells
every year great numbers of cattle ... The wine circulates vigorously,
and the tea, chocolate, and coffee, however they are got, are always at
hand.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 142. 'Of wine and punch they are very
liberal, for they get them cheap; but as there is no custom-house on the
island, they can hardly be considered as smugglers.' _Ib_. p. 160.
'Their trade is unconstrained; they pay no customs, for there is no
officer to demand them; whatever, therefore, is made dear only by impost
is obtained here at an easy rate.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 52.
[498] 'No man is so abstemious as to refuse the morning dram, which they
call a _skalk_.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. p. 51.
[499] Alexander Macleod, of Muiravenside, advocate, became extremely
obnoxious to government by his zealous personal efforts to engage his
chief Macleod, and Macdonald of Sky, in the Chevalier's attempts of
1745. Had he succeeded, it would have added one third at least to the
Jacobite army. Boswell has oddly described _M'Cruslick_, the being whose
name was conferred upon this gentleman, as something between Proteus and
Don Quixote. It is the name of a species of satyr, or _esprit follet_, a
sort of mountain Puck or hobgoblin, seen among the wilds and mountains,
as the old Highlanders believed, sometimes mirthful, sometimes
mischievous. Alexander Macleod's precarious mode of life and variable
spirits occasioned the _soubriquet_. WALTER SCOTT.
[500] Johnson also complained of the cheese. 'In the islands they do
what I found it not very easy to endure. They pollute the tea-table by
plates piled with large slices of Cheshire cheese, which mingles its
less grateful odours with the fragrance of the tea.' _Works_, ix. 52.
[501] 'The estate has not, during four hundred years, gained or lost a
single acre.' _Ib_. p. 55.
[502] Lord Stowell told me, that on the road from Newcastle to Berwick,
Dr. Johnson and he passed a cottage, at the entrance of which were set
up two of those great bones of the whale, which are not unfrequently
seen in maritime districts. Johnson expressed great horror at the sight
of these bones; and called the people, who could use such relics of
mortality as an ornament, mere savages. CROKER.
[503] In like manner Boswell wrote:--'It is divinely cheering to me to
think that there is a Cathedral so near Auchinleck [as Carlisle].'
_Ante_, iii. 416.
[504] 'It is not only in Rasay that the chapel is unroofed and useless;
through the few islands which we visited we neither saw nor heard of any
house of prayer, except in Sky, that was not in ruins. The malignant
influence of Calvinism has blasted ceremony and decency together... It
has been for many years popular to talk of the lazy devotion of the
Romish clergy; over the sleepy laziness of men that erected churches we
may indulge our superiority with a new triumph, by comparing it with the
fervid activity of those who suffer them to fall.' Johnson's _Works_,
ix. 61. He wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'By the active zeal of Protestant
devotion almost all the chapels have sunk into ruin.' _Piozzi
Letters_, i. 152.
[505] 'Not many years ago,' writes Johnson, 'the late Laird led out one
hundred men upon a military expedition.' _Works_, ix. 59. What the
expedition was he is careful not to state.
[506] 'I considered this rugged ascent as the consequence of a form of
life inured to hardships, and therefore not studious of nice
accommodations. But I know not whether for many ages it was not
considered as a part of military policy to keep the country not easily
accessible. The rocks are natural fortifications.' Johnson's _Works_,
ix. p. 54.
[507] See _post_ Sept. 17.
[508] In Sky a price was set 'upon the heads of foxes, which, as the
number was diminished, has been gradually raised from three shillings
and sixpence to a guinea, a sum so great in this part of the world,
that, in a short time, Sky may be as free from foxes as England from
wolves. The fund for these rewards is a tax of sixpence in the pound,
imposed by the farmers on themselves, and said to be paid with great
willingness.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 57.
[509] Boswell means that the eastern coast of Sky is westward of Rasay.
CROKER.
[510] 'The Prince was hidden in his distress two nights in Rasay, and
the King's troops burnt the whole country, and killed some of the
cattle. You may guess at the opinions that prevail in this country; they
are, however, content with fighting for their King; they do not drink
for him. We had no foolish healths', _Piozzi Letters_, i. 145.
[511] See _ante_, iv. 217, where he said:--'You have, perhaps, no man
who knows as much Greek and Latin as Bentley.'
[512] See _ante_, ii. 61, and _post_, Oct. 1.
[513] See _ante_, i. 268, note 1.
[514] Steele had had the Duke of Marlborough's papers, and 'in some of
his exigencies put them in pawn. They then remained with the old
Duchess, who, in her will, assigned the task to Glover [the author of
_Leonidas_] and Mallet, with a reward of a thousand pounds, and a
prohibition to insert any verses. Glover rejected, I suppose with
disdain, the legacy, and devolved the whole work upon Mallet; who had
from the late Duke of Marlborough a pension to promote his industry, and
who talked of the discoveries which he had made; but left not, when he
died, any historical labours behind him.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 466.
The Duchess died in 1744 and Mallet in 1765. For more than twenty years
he thus imposed more or less successfully on the world. About the year
1751 he played on Garrick's vanity. 'Mallet, in a familiar conversation
with Garrick, discoursing of the diligence which he was then exerting
upon the _Life of Marlborough_, let him know, that in the series of
great men quickly to be exhibited, he should _find a niche_ for the hero
of the theatre. Garrick professed to wonder by what artifice he could be
introduced; but Mallet let him know, that by a dexterous anticipation he
should fix him in a conspicuous place. "Mr. Mallet," says Garrick in his
gratitude of exultation, "have you left off to write for the stage?"
Mallet then confessed that he had a drama in his hands. Garrick promised
to act it; and _Alfred_ was produced.' _Ib_. p. 465. See _ante_,
iii. 386.
[515] According to Dr. Warton (_Essay on Pope_, ii. 140) he received
£5000. 'Old Marlborough,' wrote Horace Walpole in March, 1742 (Letters,
i. 139), 'has at last published her _Memoirs_; they are digested by one
Hooke, who wrote a Roman history; but from her materials, which are so
womanish that I am sure the man might sooner have made a gown and
petticoat with them.'
[516] See _ante_, i. 153
[517] 'Hooke,' says Dr. Warton (_Essay on Pope_, ii. 141), 'was a Mystic
and a Quietist, and a warm disciple of Fénelon. It was he who brought a
Catholic priest to take Pope's confession on his death-bed.'
[518] See Cumberland's _Memoirs_, i. 344.
[519] Mr. Croker says that 'though he sold a great tract of land in
Harris, he left at his death in 1801 the original debt of £50,000
[Boswell says £40,000] increased to £70,000.' When Johnson visited
Macleod at Dunvegan, he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'Here, though poor
Macleod had been left by his grandfather overwhelmed with debts, we had
another exhibition of feudal hospitality. There were two stags in the
house, and venison came to the table every day in its various forms.
Macleod, besides his estate in Sky, larger I suppose than some English
counties, is proprietor of nine inhabited isles; and of his isles
uninhabited I doubt if he very exactly knows the number, I told him that
he was a mighty monarch. Such dominions fill an Englishman with envious
wonder; but when he surveys the naked mountain, and treads the quaking
moor; and wanders over the wild regions of gloomy barrenness, his wonder
may continue, but his envy ceases. The unprofitableness of these vast
domains can be conceived only by the means of positive instances. The
heir of Col, an island not far distant, has lately told me how wealthy
he should be if he could let Rum, another of his islands, for twopence
halfpenny an acre; and Macleod has an estate which the surveyor reports
to contain 80,000 acres, rented at £600 a year.' _Piozzi Letters_,
i. 154.
[520] They were abolished by an act passed in 1747, being 'reckoned
among the principal sources of the rebellions. They certainly kept the
common people in subjection to their chiefs. By this act they were
legally emancipated from slavery; but as the tenants enjoyed no leases,
and were at all times liable to be ejected from their farms, they still
depended on the pleasure of their lords, notwithstanding this
interposition of the legislature, which granted a valuable consideration
in money to every nobleman and petty baron, who was thus deprived of one
part of his inheritance.' Smollett's _England_, iii. 206. See _ante_, p.
46, note 1, and _post_, Oct. 22.
[521] 'I doubt not but that since the regular judges have made their
circuits through the whole country, right has been everywhere more
wisely and more equally distributed; the complaint is, that litigation
is grown troublesome, and that the magistrates are too few and therefore
often too remote for general convenience... In all greater questions
there is now happily an end to all fear or hope from malice or from
favour. The roads are secure in those places through which forty years
ago no traveller could pass without a convoy...No scheme of policy has
in any country yet brought the rich and poor on equal terms to courts of
judicature. Perhaps experience improving on experience may in time
effect it.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 90.
[522] He described Rasay as 'the seat of plenty, civility, and
cheerfulness.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 152.
[523] 'We heard the women singing as they _waulked_ the cloth, by
rubbing it with their hands and feet, and screaming all the while in a
sort of chorus. At a distance the sound was wild and sweet enough, but
rather discordant when you approached too near the performers.'
Lockhart's _Scott_, iv. 307.
[524] She had been some time at Edinburgh, to which she again went, and
was married to my worthy neighbour, Colonel Mure Campbell, now Earl of
Loudoun, but she died soon afterwards, leaving one daughter. BOSWELL.
'She is a celebrated beauty; has been admired at Edinburgh; dresses her
head very high; and has manners so lady-like that I wish her head-dress
was lower.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 144. See _ante_, iii. 118.
[525]
'Yet hope not life from _grief_ or danger free,
_Nor_ think the doom of man reversed for thee.'
_The Vanity of Human Wishes_.
[526] 'Rasay accompanied us in his six-oared boat, which he said was his
coach and six. It is indeed the vehicle in which the ladies take the air
and pay their visits, but they have taken very little care for
accommodations. There is no way in or out of the boat for a woman but by
being carried; and in the boat thus dignified with a pompous name there
is no seat but an occasional bundle of straw.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 152.
In describing the distance of one family from another, Johnson
writes:--'Visits last several days, and are commonly paid by water; yet
I never saw a boat furnished with benches.' _Works_, ix. 100.
[527] See _ante_, ii. 106, and iii. 154.
[528] 'They which forewent us did leave a Roome for us, and should wee
grieve to doe the same to these which should come after us? Who beeing
admitted to see the exquisite rarities of some antiquaries cabinet is
grieved, all viewed, to have the courtaine drawen, and give place to new
pilgrimes?' _A Cypresse Grove_, by William Drummond of Hawthorne-denne,
ed. 1630, p. 68.
[529] See _ante_, iii. 153, 295.
[530]
'While hoary Nestor, by experience wise,
To reconcile the angry monarch tries.'
FRANCIS. Horace, i _Epis_. ii. II.
[531] _See ante_, p. 16.
[532] Lord Elibank died Aug. 3, 1778, aged 75. _Gent. Mag._ 1778, p.
391.
[533] A term in Scotland for a special messenger, such as was formerly
sent with dispatches by the lords of the council.
[534] Yet he said of him:--'There is nothing _conclusive_ in his talk.'
_Ante_ iii. 57.
[535] 'I believe every man has found in physicians great liberality and
dignity of sentiment, very prompt effusion of beneficence, and
willingness to exert a lucrative art where there is no hope of lucre.'
Johnson's _Works_, vii. 402. See _ante_, iv. 263.
[536] Johnson says (_ib_. ix. 156) that when the military road was made
through Glencroe, 'stones were placed to mark the distances, which the
inhabitants have taken away, resolved, they said, "to have no
new miles."'
[537]
'The lawland lads think they are fine,
But O they're vain and idly gawdy;
How much unlike that graceful mien
And manly look of my highland laddie.'
From '_The Highland Laddie_, written long since by Allan Ramsay, and now
sung at Ranelagh and all the other gardens; often fondly encored, and
sometimes ridiculously hissed.' _Gent. Mag_. 1750, p. 325.
[538] 'She is of a pleasing person and elegant behaviour. She told me
that she thought herself honoured by my visit; and I am sure that
whatever regard she bestowed on me was liberally repaid.' _Piozzi
Letters_, i. 153. In his _Journey_ (_Works_, ix. 63) Johnson speaks of
Flora Macdonald, as 'a name that will be mentioned in history, and if
courage and fidelity be virtues, mentioned with honour.'
[539] This word, which meant much the same as, _fop_ or _dandy_, is
found in Bk. x. ch. 2 of Fielding's _Amelia_ (published in 1751):--'A
large assembly of young fellows, whom they call bucks.' Less than forty
years ago, in the neighbourhood of London, it was, I remember, still
commonly applied by the village lads to the boys of a boarding-school.
[540] This word was at this time often used in a loose sense, though
Johnson could not have so used it. Thus Horace Walpole, writing on May
16, 1759 (_Letters_, iii. 227), tells a story of the little Prince
Frederick. 'T'other day as he was with the Prince of Wales, Kitty Fisher
passed by, and the child named her; the Prince, to try him, asked who
that was? "Why, a Miss." "A Miss," said the Prince of Wales, "why are
not all girls Misses?" "Oh! but a particular sort of Miss--a Miss that
sells oranges."' Mr. Cunningham in a note on this says:--'Orange-girls
at theatres were invariably courtesans.'
[541] _Governor_ was the term commonly given to a tutor, especially a
travelling tutor. Thus Peregrine Pickle was sent first to Winchester and
afterwards abroad 'under the immediate care and inspection of a
governor.' _Peregrine Pickle_, ch. xv.
[542] He and his wife returned before the end of the War of
Independence. On the way back she showed great spirit when their ship
was attacked by a French man of war. Chambers's _Rebellion in
Scotland_, ii. 329.
[543] I do not call him _the Prince of Wales_, or _the Prince_, because
I am quite satisfied that the right which the _House of Stuart_ had to
the throne is extinguished. I do not call him, the _Pretender_, because
it appears to me as an insult to one who is still alive, and, I suppose,
thinks very differently. It may be a parliamentary expression; but it is
not a gentlemanly expression. I _know_, and I exult in having it in my
power to tell, that THE ONLY PERSON in the world who is intitled to be
offended at this delicacy, thinks and feels as I do; and has liberality
of mind and generosity of sentiment enough to approve of my tenderness
for what even _has been_ Blood Royal. That he is a _prince_ by
_courtesy_, cannot be denied; because his mother was the daughter of
Sobiesky, king of Poland. I shall, therefore, _on that account alone_,
distinguish him by the name of _Prince Charles Edward_. BOSWELL. To have
called him the _Pretender_ in the presence of Flora Macdonald would have
been hazardous. In her old age, 'such is said to have been the virulence
of the Jacobite spirit in her composition, that she would have struck
any one with her fist who presumed, in her hearing, to call Charles _the
Pretender_.' Chambers's _Rebellion in Scotland_, ii. 330.
[544] This, perhaps, was said in allusion to some lines ascribed to
_Pope_, on his lying, at John Duke of Argyle's, at Adderbury, in the
same bed in which Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, had slept:
'With no poetick ardour fir'd,
I press [press'd] the bed where Wilmot lay;
That here he liv'd [lov'd], or here expir'd,
Begets no numbers, grave or gay.'