I awaked at noon, with a severe head-ach. I was much vexed that I
should have been guilty of such a riot, and afraid of a reproof from
Dr Johnson. I thought it very inconsistent with that conduct which I
ought to maintain, while the companion of the Rambler. About one he
came into my room, and accosted me, 'What, drunk yet?' His tone of
voice was not that of severe upbraiding; so I was relieved a little.
'Sir,' said I, 'they kept me up.' He answered, 'No, you kept them up,
you drunken dog.' This he said with good-humoured English pleasantry.
Soon afterwards, Corrichatachin, Col, and other friends assembled
round my bed. Corri had a brandy-bottle and glass with him, and
insisted I should take a dram. 'Ay,' said Dr Johnson, 'fill him drunk
again. Do it in the morning, that we may laugh at him all day. It is a
poor thing for a fellow to get drunk at night, and sculk to bed, and
let his friends have no sport.' Finding him thus jocular, I became
quite easy; and when I offered to get up, he very good-naturedly said,
'You need be in no such hurry now.' [Footnote: My ingenuously relating
this occasional instance of intemperance has I find been made the
subject both of serious criticism and ludicrous banter. With the
banterers I shall not trouble myself, but I wonder that those who
pretend to the appellation of serious criticks should not have had
sagacity enough to perceive that here, as in every other part of the
present work, my principal object was to delineate Dr Johnson's
manners and character. In justice to him I would not omit an anecdote,
which, though in some degree to my own disadvantage, exhibits in so
strong a light the indulgence and good humour with which he could
treat those excesses in his friends, of which he highly disapproved.
In some other instances, the criticks have been equally wrong as to
the true motive of my recording particulars, the objections to which I
saw as clearly as they. But it would be an endless talk for an authour
to point out upon every occasion the precise object he has in view.
Contenting himself with the approbation of readers of discernment and
taste, he ought not to complain that some are found who cannot or will
not understand him.] I took my host's advice, and drank some brandy,
which I found an effectual cure for my head-ach. When I rose, I went
into Dr Johnson's room, and taking up Mrs M'Kinnon's prayer-book, I
opened it at the twentieth Sunday after Trinity, in the epistle for
which I read, 'And be not drunk with wine, wherein there is excess.'
Some would have taken this as a divine interposition.
Mrs M'Kinnon told us at dinner, that old Kingsburgh, her father, was
examined at Mugstot, by General Campbell, as to the particulars of the
dress of the person who had come to his house in woman's clothes,
along with Miss Flora M'Donald; as the General had received
intelligence of that disguise. The particulars were taken down in
writing, that it might be seen how far they agreed with the dress of
the 'Irish girl' who went with Miss Flora from the Long Island.
Kingsburgh, she said, had but one song, which he always sung when he
was merry over a glass. She dictated the words to me, which are
foolish enough:
Green sleeves and pudding pies,
Tell me where my mistress lies,
And I'll be with her before the rise,
Fiddle and aw' together.
May our affairs abroad succeed,
And may our king come home with speed,
And all pretenders shake for dread,
And let HIS health go round.
To all our injured friends in need,
This side and beyond the Tweed!
Let all pretenders shake for dread,
And let HIS health go round.
Green sleeves, &c.
While the examination was going on, the present Talisker, who was
there as one of M'Leod's militia, could not resist the pleasantry of
asking Kingsburgh, in allusion to his only song, 'Had she GREEN
SLEEVES?' Kingsburgh gave him no answer. Lady Margaret M'Donald was
very angry at Talisker for joking on such a serious occasion, as
Kingsburgh was really in danger of his life. Mrs M'Kinnon added that
Lady Margaret was quite adored in Sky. That when she travelled through
the island, the people ran in crowds before her, and took the stones
off the road, lest her horse should stumble and she be hurt. Her
husband, Sir Alexander, is also remembered with great regard. We were
told that every week a hogshead of claret was drunk at his table.
This was another day of wind and rain; but good cheer and good society
helped to beguile the time. I felt myself comfortable enough in the
afternoon. I then thought that my last night's riot was no more than
such a social excess as may happen without much moral blame; and
recollected that some physicians maintained, that a fever produced by
it was, upon the whole, good for health: so different are our
reflections on the same subject, at different periods; and such the
excuses with which we palliate what we know to be wrong.