We set out about eight in the morning, and breakfasted at Ellon. The
landlady said to me, 'Is not this the great Doctor that is going about
through the country?' I said, 'Yes.' 'Ay,' said she, 'we heard of him,
I made an errand into the room on purpose to see him. There's
something great in his appearance: it is a pleasure to have such a man
in one's house; a man who does so much good. If I had thought of it, I
would have shewn him a child of mine, who has had a lump on his throat
for some time.' 'But,' said I, 'he is not a doctor of physick.' 'Is he
an oculist?' said the landlord. 'No,' said I, 'he is only a very
learned man.' LANDLORD. 'They say he is the greatest man in England,
except Lord Mansfield.' Dr Johnson was highly entertained with this,
and I do think he was pleased too. He said, 'I like the exception: to
have called me the greatest man in England, would have been an
unmeaning compliment: but the exception marked that the praise was in
earnest; and, in SCOTLAND, the exception must be LORD MANSFIELD,
or--SIR JOHN PRINGLE.'
He told me a good story of Dr Goldsmith. Graham, who wrote Telemachus,
a Masque, was sitting one night with him and Dr Johnson, and was half
drunk. He rattled away to Dr Johnson: 'You are a clever fellow, to be
sure; but you cannot write an essay like Addison, or verses like the
Rape of the Lock.' At last he said, [Footnote: I am sure I have
related this story exactly as Dr Johnson told it to me: but a friend
who has often heard him tell it, informs me that he usually introduced
a circumstance which ought not to be omitted. 'At last, sir, Graham,
having now got to about the pitch of looking at one man, and talking
to another, said DOCTOR &c. 'What effect.' Dr Johnson used to add,
'this had on Goldsmith, who was as irascible as a hornet, may be
easily conceived.'] 'DOCTOR, I should be happy to see you at Eaton.'
'I shall be glad to wait on you,' answered Goldsmith. 'No,' said
Graham, ''tis not you I mean, Dr MINOR; 'tis Dr MAJOR, there.'
Goldsmith was excessively hurt by this. He afterwards spoke of it
himself. 'Graham,' said he, 'is a fellow to make one commit suicide.'
We had received a polite invitation to Slains castle. We arrived there
just at three o'clock, as the bell for dinner was ringing. Though,
from its being just on the north-east Ocean, no trees will grow here,
Lord Errol has done all that can be done. He has cultivated his fields
so as to bear rich crops of every kind, and he has made an excellent
kitchen-garden, with a hot-house. I had never seen any of the family:
but there had been a card of invitation written by the honourable
Charles Boyd, the earl's brother. We were conducted into the house,
and at the dining-room door were met by that gentleman, whom both of
us at first took to be Lord Errol; but he soon corrected our mistake.
My lord was gone to dine in the neighbourhood, at an entertainment
given by Mr Irvine of Drum. Lady Errol received us politely, and was
very attentive to us during the time of dinner. There was nobody at
table but her ladyship, Mr Boyd, and some of the children, their
governour and governess. Mr Boyd put Dr Johnson in mind of having
dined with him at Cumming the Quaker's, along with Mr Hall and Miss
Williams: this was a bond of connection between them. For me, Mr
Boyd's acquaintance with my father was enough. After dinner, Lady
Errol favoured us with a sight of her young family, whom she made
stand up in a row. There were six daughters and two sons. It was a
very pleasing sight.
Dr Johnson proposed our setting out. Mr Boyd said, he hoped we would
stay all night; his brother would be at home in the evening, and would
be very sorry if he missed us. Mr Boyd was called out of the room. I
was very desirous to stay in so comfortable a house, and I wished to
see Lord Errol. Dr Johnson, however, was right in resolving to go, if
we were not asked again, as it is best to err on the safe side in such
cases, and to be sure that one is quite welcome. To my great joy, when
Mr Boyd returned, he told Dr Johnson that it was Lady Errol who had
called him out, and said that she would never let Dr Johnson into the
house again, if he went away that night; and that she had ordered the
coach, to carry us to view a great curiosity on the coast, after which
we should see the house. We cheerfully agreed.
Mr Boyd was engaged, in 1745-6, on the same side with many unfortunate
mistaken noblemen and gentlemen. He escaped, and lay concealed for a
year in the island of Arran, the ancient territory of the Boyds. He
then went to France, and was about twenty years on the continent. He
married a French lady, and now lived very comfortably at Aberdeen, and
was much at Slains castle. He entertained us with great civility. He
had a pompousness or formal plenitude in his conversation which I did
not dislike. Dr Johnson said, there was too much elaboration in his
talk. It gave me pleasure to see him, a steady branch of the family,
setting forth all its advantages with much zeal. He told us that Lady
Errol was one of the most pious and sensible women in the island; had
a good head, and as good a heart. He said, she did not use force or
fear in educating her children. JOHNSON. 'Sir, she is wrong; I would
rather have the rod to be the general terror to all, to make them
learn, than tell a child, if you do thus or thus, you will be more
esteemed than your brothers or sisters. The rod produces an effect
which terminates itself. A child is afraid of being whipped, and gets
his task, and there's an end on't; whereas, by exciting emulation, and
comparisons of superiority, you lay the foundation of lasting
mischief; you make brothers and sisters hate each other.'
During Mr Boyd's stay in Arran, he had found a chest of medical books,
left by a surgeon there, and had read them till he acquired some skill
in physick, in consequence of which he is often consulted by the poor.
There were several here waiting for him as patients. We walked round
the house till stopped by a cut made by the influx of the sea. The
house is built quite upon the shore; the windows look upon the main
ocean, and the King of Denmark is Lord Errol's nearest neighbour on
the north-east.
We got immediately into the coach, and drove to Dunbui, a rock near
the shore, quite covered with sea-fowls; then to a circular bason of
large extent, surrounded with tremendous rocks. On the quarter next
the sea, there is a high arch in the rock, which the force of the
tempest has driven out. This place is called Buchan's Buller, or the
Buller of Buchan, and the country people call it the Pot. Mr Boyd said
it was so called from the French Bouloir. It may be more simply traced
from Boiler in our own language. We walked round this monstrous
cauldron. In some places, the rock is very narrow; and on each side
there is a sea deep enough for a man of war to ride in; so that it is
somewhat horrid to move along. However, there is earth and grass upon
the rock, and a kind of road marked out by the print of feet; so that
one makes it out pretty safely: yet it alarmed me to see Dr Johnson
striding irregularly along. He insisted on taking a boat, and sailing
into the Pot. We did so. He was stout, and wonderfully alert. The
Buchan-men all shewing their teeth, and speaking with that strange
sharp accent which distinguishes them, was to me a matter of
curiosity. He was not sensible of the difference of pronunciation in
the south and north of Scotland, which I wondered at.
As the entry into the Buller is so narrow that oars cannot be used as
you go in, the method taken is to row very hard when you come near it,
and give the boat such a rapidity of motion that it glides in. Dr
Johnson observed what an effect this scene would have had, were we
entering into an unknown place. There are caves of considerable depth;
I think, one on each side. The boatmen had never entered either of
them far enough to know the size. Mr Boyd told us that it is customary
for the company at Peterhead well, to make parties, and come and dine
in one of the caves here.
He told us, that, as Slains is at a considerable distance from
Aberdeen, Lord Errol, who has a very large family, resolved to have a
surgeon of his own. With this view he educated one of his tenant's
sons, who is now settled in a very neat house and farm just by, which
we saw from the road. By the salary which the earl allows him, and the
practice which he has had, he is in very easy circumstances. He had
kept an exact account of all that had been laid out on his education,
and he came to his lordship one day, and told him that he had arrived
at a much higher situation than ever he expected; that he was now able
to repay what his lordship had advanced, and begged he would accept of
it. The earl was pleased with the generous gratitude and genteel offer
of the man; but refused it. Mr Boyd also told us, Cumming the Quaker
first began to distinguish himself, by writing against Dr Leechman on
prayer, to prove it unnecessary, as God knows best what should be, and
will order it without our asking--the old hackneyed objection.
When we returned to the house we found coffee and tea in the
drawing-room. Lady Errol was not there, being, as I supposed, engaged
with her young family. There is a bow-window fronting the sea. Dr
Johnson repeated the ode, Jam satis terris, while Mr Boyd was with his
patients. He spoke well in favour of entails, to preserve lines of men
whom mankind are accustomed to reverence. His opinion was that so much
land should be entailed as that families should never fall into
contempt, and as much left free as to give them all the advantages of
property in case of any emergency. 'If,' said he, 'the nobility are
suffered to sink into indigence, they of course become corrupt; they
are ready to do whatever the king chooses; therefore it is fit they
should be kept from becoming poor, unless it is fixed that when they
fall below a certain standard of wealth they shall lose their
peerages. We know the House of Peers have made noble stands, when the
House of Commons durst not. The two last years of Parliament they dare
not contradict the populace.'
This room is ornamented with a number of fine prints, and with a whole
length picture of Lord Errol, by Sir Joshua Reynolds. This led Dr
Johnson and me to talk of our amiable and elegant friend, whose
panegyrick he concluded by saying, 'Sir Joshua Reynolds, sir, is the
most invulnerable man I know; the man with whom if you should quarrel,
you would find the most difficulty how to abuse.'
Dr Johnson observed, the situation here was the noblest he had ever
seen, better than Mount Edgecumbe, reckoned the first in England;
because, at
Mount Edgecumbe, the sea is bounded by land on the other side, and,
though there is there the grandeur of a fleet, there is also the
impression of there being a dock-yard, the circumstances of which are
not agreeable. At Slains is an excellent old house. The noble owner
has built of brick, along the square in the inside, a gallery, both on
the first and second story, the house being no higher; so that he has
always a dry walk, and the rooms, to which formerly there was no
approach but through each other, have now all separate entries from
the gallery, which is hung with Hogarth's works, and other prints. We
went and sat a while in the library. There is a valuable numerous
collection. It was chiefly made by Mr Falconer, husband to the late
Countess of Errol in her own right. This earl has added a good many
modern books.
About nine the earl came home. Captain Gordon of Park was with him.
His lordship put Dr Johnson in mind of their having dined together in
London, along with Mr Beauclerk. I was exceedingly pleased with Lord
Errol. His dignified person and agreeable countenance, with the most
unaffected affability, gave me high satisfaction. From perhaps a
weakness, or, as I rather hope, more fancy and warmth of feeling than
is quite reasonable, my mind is ever impressed with admiration for
persons of high birth, and I could, with the most perfect honesty,
expatiate on Lord Errol's good qualities; but he stands in no need of
my praise. His agreeable manners and softness of address prevented
that constraint which the idea of his being Lord High Constable of
Scotland might otherwise have occasioned. He talked very easily and
sensibly with his learned guest. I observed that Dr Johnson, though he
shewed that respect to his lordship, which, from principle, he always
does to high rank, yet, when they came to argument, maintained that
manliness which becomes the force and vigour of his understanding. To
shew external deference to our superiors, is proper: to seem to yield
to them in opinion, is meanness. [Footnote: Lord Chesterfield, in his
letters to his son, complains of one who argued in an indiscriminate
manner with men of all ranks. Probably the noble lord had felt with
some uneasiness what it was to encounter stronger abilities than his
own. If a peer will engage at foils with his inferior in station, he
must expect that his inferior in station will avail himself of every
advantage; otherwise it is not a fair trial of strength and skill. The
same will hold in a contest of reason, or of wit. A certain king
entered the lists of genius with Voltaire. The consequence was, that,
though the king had great and brilliant talents, Voltaire had such a
superiority that his majesty could not bear it; and the poet was
dismissed, or escaped, from that court. In the reign of James I of
England. Crichton, Lord Sanquhar, a peer of Scotland, from a vain
ambition to excel a fencing-master in his own art, played at rapier
and dagger with him. The fencing-master, whose fame and bread were at
stake, put out one of his lordship's eyes. Exasperated at this. Lord
Sanquhar hired ruffians, and had the fencing-master assassinated; for
which his lordship was capitally tried, condemned, and hanged. Not
being a peer of England, he was tried by the name of Robert Crichton,
Esq.; but he was admitted to be a baron of three hundred years
standing. See the State Trials; and the History of England by Hume,
who applauds the impartial justice executed upon a man of high rank.]
The earl said grace, both before and after supper, with much decency.
He told us a story of a man who was executed at Perth, some years ago,
for murdering a woman who was with child by him, and a former child he
had by her. His hand was cut off: he was then pulled up; but the rope
broke, and he was forced to lie an hour on the ground, till another
rope was brought from Perth, the execution being in a wood at some
distance, at the place where the murders were committed. 'There,' said
my lord, 'I see the hand of Providence.' I was really happy here. I
saw in this nobleman the best dispositions and best principles; and I
saw him, in my mind's eye, to be the representative of the ancient
Boyds of Kilmarnock. I was afraid he might have urged drinking, as, I
believe, he used formerly to do, but he drank port and water out of a
large glass himself, and let us do as we pleased. He went with us to
our rooms at night; said, he took the visit very kindly; and told me,
my father and he were very old acquaintances; that I now knew the way
to Slains, and he hoped to see me there again.
I had a most elegant room; but there was a fire in it which blazed;
and the sea, to which my windows looked, roared; and the pillows were
made of the feathers of some sea-fowl, which had to me a disgreeable
smell: so that, by all these causes, I was kept awake a good while. I
saw, in imagination, Lord Errol's father, Lord Kilmarnock (who was
beheaded on Tower Hill in 1746), and I was somewhat dreary. But the
thought did not last long, and I fell asleep.