About eight o'clock we went in the boat to Mr Simpson's vessel, and
took in Dr Johnson. He was quite well, though he had tasted nothing
but a dish of tea since Saturday night. On our expressing some
surprise at this, he said, that, 'when he lodged in the Temple, and
had no regular system of life, he had fasted for two days at a time,
during which he had gone about visiting, though not at the hours of
dinner or supper; that he had drunk tea, but eaten no bread; that this
was no intentional fasting, but happened just in the course of a
literary life'.
There was a little miserable publick-house close upon the shore, to
which we should have gone, had we landed last night: but this morning
Col resolved to take us directly to the house of Captain Lauchlan
M'Lean, a descendant of his family, who had acquired a fortune in the
East Indies, and taken a farm in Col. We had about an English mile to
go to it. Col and Joseph, and some others, ran to some little horses,
called here 'Shelties', that were running wild on a heath, and catched
one of them. We had a saddle with us, which was clapped upon it, and a
straw-halter was put on its head. Dr Johnson was then mounted, and
Joseph very slowly and gravely led the horse. I said to Dr Johnson, 'I
wish, sir, THE CLUB saw you in this attitude.' [Footnote: This curious
exhibition may perhaps remind some of my readers of the ludicrous
lines, made, during Sir Robert Walpole's administration, on Mr George
(afterwards Lord) Littelton, though the figures of the two personages
must be allowed to be very different:
But who is this astride the pony;
So long, so lean, so lank, so bony
Dat be de great orator, Littletony.]
It was a very heavy rain, and I was wet to the skin. Captain M'Lean
had but a poor temporary house, or rather hut; however, it was a very
good haven to us. There was a blazing peat-fire, and Mrs M'Lean,
daughter of the minister of the parish, got us tea. I felt still the
motion of the sea. Dr Johnson said, it was not in imagination, but a
continuation of motion on the fluids, like that of the sea itself
after the storm is over.
There were some books on the board which served as a chimney-piece.
Dr Johnson took up Burnet's History of his own Times. He said, 'The
first part of it is one of the most entertaining books in the English
language; it is quite dramatick: while he went about every where, saw
every where, and heard every where. By the first part, I mean so far
as it appears that Burnet himself was actually engaged in what he has
told; and this may be easily distinguished.' Captain M'Lean censured
Burnet, for his high praise of Lauderdale in a dedication, when he
shews him in his history to have been so bad a man. JOHNSON. 'I do not
myself think that a man should say in a dedication what he could not
say in a history. However, allowance should be made; for there is a
great difference. The known style of a dedication is flattery: it
professes to flatter. There is the same difference between what a man
says in a dedication, and what he says in a history, as between a
lawyer's pleading a cause, and reporting it.'
The day passed away pleasantly enough. The wind became fair for Mull
in the evening, and Mr Simpson resolved to sail next morning: but
having been thrown into the island of Col, we were unwilling to leave
it unexamined, especially as we considered that the Campbell-town
vessel would sail for Mull in a day or two, and therefore we
determined to stay.