We got up between seven and eight, and found Mr Boyd in the
dining-room, with tea and coffee before him, to give us breakfast. We
were in an admirable humour. Lady Errol had given each of us a copy of
an ode by Beattie, on the birth of her son, Lord Hay. Mr Boyd asked Dr
Johnson, how he liked it. Dr Johnson, who did not admire it, got off
very well, by taking it out, and reading the second and third stanzes
of it with much melody. This, without his saying a word, pleased Mr
Boyd. He observed, however, to Dr Johnson, that the expression as to
the family of Errol,
A thousand years have seen it shine compared with what went before,
was an anticlimax, and that it would have been better
Ages have seen, etc.
Dr Johnson said, 'So great a number as a thousand is better. Dolus
latet in universalibus. Ages might be only two ages.' He talked of the
advantage of keeping up the connections of relationship, which produce
much kindness. 'Every man,' said he, 'who comes into the world, has
need of friends. If he has to get them for himself, half his life is
spent, before his merit is known. Relations are a man's ready friends
who support him. When a man is in real distress, he flies into the
arms of his relations. An old lawyer, who had much experience in
making wills, told me, that after people had deliberated long, and
thought of many for their executors, they settled at last by fixing on
their relations. This shews the universality of the principle.'
I regretted the decay of respect for men of family, and that a Nabob
now would carry an election from them. JOHNSON. 'Why, sir, the Nabob
will carry it by means of his wealth, in a country where money is
highly valued, as it must be where nothing can be had without money;
but, if it comes to personal preference, the man of family will always
carry it. There is generally a scoundrelism about a low man.' Mr Boyd
said, that was a good ism.
I said, I believed mankind were happier in the ancient feudal state of
subordination, than they are in the modern state of independency.
JOHNSON. To be sure, the CHIEF was: but we must think of the number of
individuals. That THEY were less happy, seems plain; for that state
from which all escape as soon as they can, and to which none return
after they have left it, must be less happy; and this is the case with
the state of dependance on a chief or great man.'
I mentioned the happiness of the French in their subordination, by the
reciprocal benevolence and attachment between the great and those in
lower rank. Mr Boyd gave us an instance of their gentlemanly spirit.
An old Chevalier de Malthe, of ancient noblesse, but in low
circumstances, was in a coffee-house at Paris, where was Julien, the
great manufacturer at the Gobelins, of the fine tapestry, so much
distinguished both for the figures and the colours. The chevalier's
carriage was very old. Says Julien, with a plebeian insolence, 'I
think, sir, you had better have your carriage new painted.' The
chevalier looked at him with indignant contempt, and answered, 'Well,
sir. you may take it home and DYE it!' All the coffee-house rejoiced
at Julien's confusion.
We set out about nine. Dr Johnson was curious to see one of those
structures which northern antiquarians call a Druid's temple. I had a
recollection of one at Strichen; which I had seen fifteen years ago:
so we went four miles out of our road, after passing Old Deer, and
went thither. Mr Fraser, the proprietor, was at home, and shewed it to
us. But I had augmented it in my mind; for all that remains is two
stones set up on end, with a long one laid upon them, as was usual and
one stone at a little distance from them. That stone was the capital
one of the circle which surrounded what now remains. Mr Fraser was
very hospitable. [Footnote: He is the worthy son of a worthy father,
the late Lord Strichen, one of our judges, to whose kind notice I was
much obliged. Lord Strichen was a man not only honest, but highly
generous: for after his succession to the family estate, he paid a
large sum of debts contracted by his predecessor, which he was not
under any obligation to pay. Let me here, for the credit of Ayrshire,
my own county, record a noble instance of liberal honesty in William
Hutchison, drover, in Lanehead, Kyle, who formerly obtained a full
discharge from his creditors upon a composition of his debts: but upon
being restored to good circumstances, invited his creditors last
winter to a dinner, without telling the reason, and paid them their
full sums, principal and interest. They presented him with a piece of
plate, with an inscription to commemorate this extraordinary instance
of true worth; which should make some people in Scotland blush, while,
though mean themselves, they strut about under the protection of great
alliance conscious of the wretchedness of numbers who have lost by
them, to whom they never think of making reparation, but indulge
themselves and their families in most unsuitable expence.] There was a
fair at Strichen; and he had several of his neighbours from it at
dinner. One of them, Dr Fraser, who had been in the army, remembered
to have seen Dr Johnson at a lecture on experimental philosophy, at
Lichfield. The doctor recollected being at the lecture; and he was
surprised to find here somebody who knew him.
Mr Fraser sent a servant to conduct us by a short passage into the
high-road. I observed to Dr Johnson, that I had a most disagreeable
notion of the life of country gentlemen; that I left Mr Fraser just
now, as one leaves a prisoner in a jail. Dr Johnson said, that I was
right in thinking them unhappy; for that they had not enough to keep
their minds in motion.
I started a thought this afternoon which amused us a great part of the
way. 'If,' said I, 'our club should come and set up in St Andrews, as a
college, to teach all that each of us can, in the several departments
of learning and taste, we should rebuild the city: we should draw a
wonderful concourse of students.' Dr Johnson entered fully into the
spirit of this project. We immediately fell to distributing the
offices. I was to teach civil and Scotch law; Burke, politicks and
eloquence; Garrick, the art of publick speaking; Langton was to be our
Grecian, Colman our Latin professor; Nugent to teach physick; Lord
Charlemont, modern history; Beauclerk, natural philosophy; Vesey,
Irish antiquities, or Celtick learning;[Footnote: Since the first
edition, it has been suggested by one of the clubs, who knew Mr Vesey
better than Dr Johnson and I, that we did not assign him a proper
place; for he was quite unskilled in Irish antiquities and Celtick
learning, but might with propriety have been made professor of
architecture, which he understood well, and has left a very good
specimen of his knowledge and taste in that art, by an elegant house
built on a plan of his own formation, at Lucan, a few miles from
Dublin.] Jones, Oriental learning; Goldsmith, poetry and ancient
history; Chamier, commercial politicks; Reynolds, painting, and the
arts which have beauty for their object; Chambers, the law of England.
Dr Johnson at first said. 'I'll trust theology to nobody but myself.'
But, upon due consideration, that Percy is a clergyman, it was agreed
that Percy should teach practical divinity and British antiquities; Dr
Johnson himself, logick, metaphysicks and scholastick divinity. In
this manner did we amuse ourselves, each suggesting, and each varying
or adding, till the whole was adjusted. Dr Johnson said, we only
wanted a mathematician since Dyer died, who was a very good one; but
as to every thing else, we should have a very capital university,
[Footnote: Our club, originally at the Turk's Head, Gerrard Street,
then at Prince's, Sackville Street, now at Baxter's Dover Street,
which at Mr Garrick's funeral acquired a name for the first time, and
was called The Literary Club, was instituted in 1764, and now consists
of thirty-five members. It has, since 1773, been greatly augmented;
and though Dr Johnson with justice observed, that, by losing
Goldsmith, Garrick, Nugent, Chamier, Beauclerk, we had lost what would
make an eminent club, yet when I mention, as an accession, Mr Fox, Dr
George Fordyce, Sir Charles Bunbury, Lord Offory, Mr Gibbon, Dr Adam
Smith, Mr R. B. Sheridan, the Bishops of Kilaloe and St Asaph, Dean
Marlay, Mr Steevens, Mr Dunning, Sir Joseph Banks, Dr Scott of the
Commons, Earl Spencer, Mr Windham of Norfolk, Lord Elliot, Mr Malone,
Dr Joseph Warton, the Rev. Thomas Warton, Lord Lucan, Mr Burke junior,
Lord Palmerston, Dr Burney, Sir William Hamilton, and Dr Warren, it
will be acknowledged that we might establish a second university of
high reputation.]
We got at night to Banff. I sent Joseph on to Duff house: but Earl
Fife was not at home, which I regretted much, as we should have had a
very elegant reception from his lordship. We found here but an
indifferent inn. [Footnote: Here, unluckily the windows had no
pullies; and Dr Johnson, who was constantly eager for fresh air, had
much struggling to get one of them kept open. Thus he had a notion
impressed upon him, that this wretched defect was general in Scotland;
in consequence of which he has erroneously enlarged upon it in his
Journey. I regretted that he did not allow me to read over his book
before it was printed. I should have changed very little; but I should
have suggested an alteration in a few places where he has laid himself
open to be attacked. I hope I should have prevailed with him to omit
or soften his assertion, that 'a Scotsman must be a sturdy moralist,
who does not prefer Scotland to truth', for I really think it is not
founded; and it is harshly said.] Dr Johnson wrote a long letter to
Mrs Thrale. I wondered to see him write so much so easily. He verified
his own doctrine that 'a man may always write when he will set himself
DOGGEDLY to it'.