Being informed that there was nothing worthy of observation in Ulva,
we took boat, and proceeded to Inchkenneth, where we were introduced
by our friend Col to Sir Allan M'Lean, the chief of his clan, and to
two young ladies, his daughters. Inchkenneth is a pretty little
island, a mile long, and about half a mile broad, all good land.
As we walked up from the shore, Dr Johnson's heart was cheered by the
sight of a road marked with cart-wheels, as on the main land; a thing
which we had not seen for a long time. It gave us a pleasure similar
to that which a traveller feels, when, whilst wandering on what he
fears is a desert island, he perceives the print of human feet.
Military men acquire excellent habits of having all conveniencies
about them. Sir Allan M'Lean, who had been long in the army, and had
now a lease of the island, had formed a commodious habitation, though
it consisted but of a few small buildings, only one story high. He
had, in his little apartments, more things than I could enumerate in a
page or two.
Among other agreeable circumstances, it was not the least, to find
here a parcel of the Caledonian Mercury, published since we left
Edinburgh; which I read with that pleasure which every man feels who
has been for some time secluded from the animated scenes of the busy
world.
Dr Johnson found books here. He bade me buy Bishop Gastrell's
Christian Institutes, which was lying in the room. He said, 'I do not
like to read any thing on a Sunday, but what is theological; not that
I would scrupulously refuse to look at any thing which a friend should
shew me in a newspaper; but in general, I would read only what is
theological. I read just now some of Drummond's Travels, before I
perceived what books were here. I then took up Derham's
Physico-Theology.
Every particular concerning this island having been so well described
by Dr Johnson, it would be superfluous in me to present the publick
with the observations that I made upon it, in my Journal.
I was quite easy with Sir Allan almost instantaneously. He knew the
great intimacy that had been between my father and his predecessor,
Sir Hector, and was himself of a very frank disposition. After dinner,
Sir Allan said he had got Dr Campbell about a hundred subscribers to
his Britannia Elucidata (a work since published under the title of A
Political Survey of Great Britain), of whom he believed twenty were
dead, the publication having been so long delayed. JOHNSON. 'Sir, I
imagine the delay of publication is owing to this; that, after
publication, there will be no more subscribers, and few will send the
additional guinea to get their books: in which they will be wrong; for
there will be a great deal of instruction in the work. I think highly
of Campbell. In the first place, he has very good parts. In the second
place, he has very extensive reading; not, perhaps, what is properly
called learning, but history, politicks, and, in short, that popular
knowledge which makes a man very useful. In the third place, he has
learned much by what is called the vox viva. He talks with a great
many people.'
Speaking of this gentleman, at Rasay, he told us, that he one day
called on him, and they talked of Tull's Husbandry. Dr Campbell said
something. Dr Johnson began to dispute it. 'Come,' said Dr Campbell,
'we do not want to get the better of one another: we want to encrease
each other's ideas.' Dr Johnson took it in good part, and the
conversation then went on coolly and instructively. His candour in
relating this anecdote does him much credit, and his conduct on that
occasion proves how easily he could be persuaded to talk from a better
motive than 'for victory'.
Dr Johnson here shewed so much of the spirit of a highlander, that he
won Sir Allan's heart: indeed, he has shewn it during the whole of our
tour. One night, in Col, he strutted about the room with a broad-sword
and target, and made a formidable appearance; and, another night, I
took the liberty to put a large blue bonnet on his head. His age, his
size, and his bushy grey wig, with this covering on it, presented the
image of a venerable senachi: and, however unfavourable to the Lowland
Scots, he seemed much pleased to assume the appearance of an ancient
Caledonian. We only regretted that he could not be prevailed with to
partake of the social glass. One of his arguments against drinking,
appears to me not convincing. He urged, that, 'in proportion as
drinking makes a man different from what he is before he has drunk, it
is bad; because it has so far affected his reason'. But may it not be
answered, that a man may be altered by it FOR THE BETTER; that his
spirits may be exhilarated, without his reason being affected? On the
general subject of drinking, however, I do not mean positively to take
the other side. I am dubius, non improbus.
In the evening, Sir Allan informed us that it was the custom of his
house to have prayers every Sunday; and Miss M'Lean read the evening
service, in which we all joined. I then read Ogden's second and ninth
sermons on prayer, which, with their other distinguished excellence,
have the merit of being short. Dr Johnson said, that it was the most
agreeable Sunday he had ever passed; and it made such an impression on
his mind, that he afterwards wrote the following Latin verses upon
Inchkenneth: