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Transcriber’s note:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
A carat character is used to denote superscription. A
single character following the carat is superscripted
(example: Capt^n). Multiple superscripted characters are
enclosed by curly brackets (example: D^{r.}). The text
includes a few superscripted words which might be
construed as attempts at correction.
BOSWELLIANA.
[Illustration: James Boswell
From an original sketch by Langton.]
BOSWELLIANA
The Commonplace Book of James Boswell with a Memoir and Annotations
by the
REV. CHARLES ROGERS, LL.D.,
Historiographer of the Royal Historical Society, Fellow of the Society
of Antiquaries of Scotland, and Corresponding Member of
the Historical Society of New England.
And Introductory Remarks by the Right Honourable Lord Houghton.
London
Printed for the Grampian Club
1874
* * * * * *
MEMBERS OF THE GRAMPIAN CLUB.
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The University of Aberdeen.
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Joseph Bain, Esq., F.S.A. Scot.
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John Buchanan, Esq., LL.D.
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Charles Stewart, Esq., R.N., F.S.A. Scot.
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J. P. Wise, Esq., Rostellan Castle.
Miss Catherine Mary Watson.
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Mrs. W. Wilson.
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T. W. Spencer Waugh, Esq.
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Mrs. Wilkie.
Evan C. Sutherland Walker, Esq., of Skibo.
* * * * * *
PREFACE.
JAMES BOSWELL had not, by publishing his great work, the Life of Dr.
Samuel Johnson, completed his literary plans. He preserved the letters
he received from notable persons, and retained copies of his own.
For many years he kept a journal, in which he recorded not merely
his conversations with Dr. Johnson, but the diurnal occurrences of
his own life. Respecting his journal, in a letter to his friend Mr.
Temple, dated 22nd May, 1789, he writes:—“You have often told me that
I was the most thinking man you ever knew; it is certainly so as to
my own life. I am continually conscious, continually looking back or
looking forward, and wondering how I shall feel in situations which
I anticipate in fancy. My journal will afford materials for a very
curious narrative. I assure you I do not now live with a view to have
surprising incidents, though I own I am desirous that my life should
tell.” Boswell evidently intended to adapt the contents of his journal
to an autobiography; his early death precluded the intention.
Besides a journal, Boswell kept in a portfolio a quantity of loose
quarto sheets, inscribed on each page BOSWELLIANA. In certain of these
sheets the pages are denoted by numerals in the ordinary fashion;
another portion is numbered by the folios; while a further portion
consists of loose leaves and letterbacks. The greater part of the
entries are made so carefully as to justify the belief that the author
intended to embody the whole in a volume of literary anecdotes.
At Boswell’s death his portfolio was sold along with the books
contained in his house in London. It came into the possession of
John Hugh Smyth Pigott, Esq., of Brockley Hall, Somersetshire, an
indefatigable book collector. On Mr. Pigott’s death in 1861 the volume,
bound in russia, was sold along with the stores of the Brockley
library. Purchased by Mr. Thomas Kerslake, bookseller in Bristol, it
was afterwards sold by him to Lord Houghton. By his lordship it was
lately handed to the Grampian Club, with a view to publication.
Boswell’s commonplace-book exhibits some of the author’s weaknesses,
but is on the whole a valuable repertory. The social talk of leading
persons during the latter part of the century is graphically depicted.
Considerable light is thrown on the character of individuals respecting
whom every fragment of authentic information is treasured with
interest. In preparing the commonplace-book for the press the Editor
has omitted a few entries which transgressed on decorum. He has
generally retained the author’s orthography.
The Memoir has been prepared with a desire to depict the author’s
history in his own words. Letters to correspondents have been copiously
introduced. Of these a most interesting portion have been obtained
from the volume of Boswell’s Letters to Mr. Temple, published by Mr.
Bentley, under the care of Mr. Francis. It is curious to remark that
these letters, like the commonplace-book, left the family of the owner,
and were accidentally discovered in the shop of a trader at Boulogne.
The Editor cannot venture to enumerate all the kind friends who
have aided his inquiries. He has been indebted to Lord Houghton for
important particulars. The representatives of Thomas David Boswell, the
biographer’s brother, and of his uncle, Dr. John Boswell, have been
most polite and obliging in their communications. The Rev. W. H. Wylie
has kindly furnished Boswell’s address to the Ayrshire constituency.
GRAMPIAN LODGE,
FOREST HILL, SURREY,
_May, 1874_.
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
BY LORD HOUGHTON.
THERE is no word of vindication or appreciation to be added to Mr.
Carlyle’s estimate of the character and merits of James Boswell. That
judgment places him so high that the most fantastic dream of his own
self-importance would have been fully realized, and yet there is no
disguise of his follies or condonation of his vices. We understand at
once the justice and the injustice of his contemporaries, and while
we are amused at the thought of their astonishment could the future
fame of the object of so much banter and rude criticism have been
revealed to them, we doubt whether, had we been in their place, our
misapprehension and depreciation would not have been still greater than
theirs.
It was the object of Boswell’s life to connect his own name with that
of Dr. Johnson; the one is now identified with the other. He aspired
to transmit to future time the more transitory and evanescent forms
of Johnson’s genius; he has become the repository of all that is
most significant and permanent. The great “Dictionary” is superseded
by wider and more accurate linguistic knowledge; the succinct and
sententious biographies are replaced, where their subjects are
sufficiently important, by closer criticisms and by antiquarian
details, while in the majority of his subjects the Lives and Works
of the writers are alike forgotten. The “Rambler” and the “Idler”
stand among the British Essayists, dust-worn and silent; and though a
well-informed Englishman would recognise a quotation from “Rasselas” or
“London,” he would hardly be expected to remember the context.[1] But
the “Johnsoniad” keeps fresh among us the noble image of the moralist
and the man, and when a philosopher of our time says pleasantly of
Boswell what Heinrich Heine said gravely of Goethe, that he measures
the literary faculty of his friends by the extent of their appreciation
of his idol, it is to a composite creation of the genius of the master
and of the sympathetic talent of the disciple that is paid this
singular homage. For it was assuredly a certain analogy of character
that fitted Boswell to be the friendly devotee and intellectual
servitor of Dr. Johnson, and the resemblances of style and manner which
are visible even in the fragments brought together in this volume
cannot be regarded as parodies or conscious imitations, but rather
as illustrations of the mental harmony which enabled the reporter to
produce with such signal fidelity, in the words of another, his own
ideal of all that was good and great.
“Elia,” with his charming othersidedness, writes, in one place, “I
love to lose myself in other men’s minds,” and in another, “the habit
of too constant intercourse with spirits above you instead of raising
you, keeps you down; too frequent doses of original thinking from
others restrains what lesser portion of that faculty you may possess
in your own. You get entangled in another man’s mind, even as you
lose yourself in another man’s ground; you are walking with a tall
varlet, whose strides outpace yours to lassitude.” Both observations
are true, and instances are not wanting of the spirit of reverence
and the habit of waiting on the words and thoughts of those who are
regarded as the spokesmen of authority, emasculating the self-reliance
and thralling the free action of superior men. This is especially
observable in political life, where a certain surrender of independence
is indispensable to success, but where, if carried too far, it tends
to dwarf the stature and plane down the beneficial varieties of public
characters. But there will always be many forces that militate against
this courtliness in the Republic of Letters; leading men will have
their clique, and too often like to be kings of their company, but more
damage is done to themselves than to those who serve them, and there is
little fear of too rapid a succession of Boswells or Eckermanns.
In these days of ready and abundant writing the value of Conversation,
as the oral tradition of social intercourse, is not what it was in
times when speech was almost the exclusive communicator of intelligence
between man and man. Yet there will ever be an appreciation of the
peculiar talent which reproduces with vivacity those fabrics of the
hour, and gives to the passing lights and shades of thought an artistic
and picturesque coherence. This is the product of a genial spirit
itself delighting in the verbal fray, and of a society at once familiar
and intellectual. We have from other sources abundant details of the
vivacity of the upper classes of the Scottish community in the latter
half of the last century and the beginning of the present. It had the
gaiety which is the due relaxation of stern and solid temperaments, and
the humour which is the genuine reverse of a deep sense of realities
and an inflexible logic. It was intemperate, not with the intemperance
of other northern nations, to whom intoxication is either a diversion
to the torpor of the senses, or a narcotic applied by a benevolent
nature to an anxious and painful existence, but with a conviviality
which physical soundness and moral determination enabled them to
reconcile with the sharpest attention to their material interests and
with the hardest professional work.
[Illustration: FAC-SIMILE OF A PAGE OF BOSWELL’S COMMONPLACE BOOK
IN THE POSSESSION OF LORD HOUGHTON.]
Scotland had had the remarkable destiny in its earlier history
of assimilating to itself the elements of a finer civilisation
without losing its independence or national character; and it had
even interchanged with the continent of Europe various influences
of manners and speech. It had thus retained a certain intellectual
self-sufficiency, especially in its relations with English society
and literature, which never showed itself more distinctly than in
its estimate of Dr. Johnson and of his connection with Boswell. In
the pamphlets, and verses, and pictures of the time, Boswell appears
as a monomaniac, and Johnson as an impostor. The oblong quarto of
Caricatures which followed their journey to the Hebrides shows that
Boswell not only did not gain any favour from his countrymen, by
introducing among them the writer, who, however little understood in
his entire worth, nevertheless held a high place among English wits and
men of letters, but brought abundant ridicule on himself, his family,
and his friend. It required all Boswell’s invincible good humour to
withstand the sarcasm that assailed him. Dr. Johnson certainly repaid
with interest the prejudice and ill-will he encountered, but it remains
surprising that so good and intelligent a company did not better
recognise so great a man. We did not so receive Burns and Walter Scott.
The agreeable reminiscences of Lord Cockburn and Dean Ramsay have
given us the evening lights of the long day of social brightness which
Scotland, and especially Edinburgh, enjoyed; and if this pleasantness
is now a thing of the past, the citizens of the modern Athens have
only shared the lot of other sections of mankind, even of France, _par
excellence_, the country of Conversation.[2]
This decadence in the art and practice of the communication of ideas,
and in the cultivation of facile and coloured language, is commonly
attributed to the wide extension of literature and the press, which
give to every man all the knowledge of matters of interest which he
can require without the intervention of a fellow-creature. It may be
that men may now read and think too much to talk, but the change is,
perhaps, rather the effect of certain alterations in the structure of
society itself, accompanied by the fastidiousness that tries to make up
by silence and seclusion for the arbitrary distinctions and recognised
barriers, which limited and defined the game of life, but admitted
so much pleasant freedom within the rules. We can however, still
acknowledge the value of such records as those of the late Mr. Nassau,
Senior, whose “Conversations” with the most eminent politicians and men
of action of his time, especially in France, afford trustworthy and
interesting materials for the future historian, and where a legal mind
and well-trained observation take the place of vivid representation and
literary skill. “Quand un bon mot,” writes Monsieur L.’Enfant in one of
his prefaces to his “Poggiana” “est en même temps un trait d’Histoire,
on fait aisèment grace à’ce qui peut lui manquer du côté de la force et
du sel.”
The title of “Boswelliana,” which the editor has taken from the
original manuscript, is hardly correct. This is, in fact, one of the
note-books of the anecdotes and _facetiæ_ of the society in which
Boswell lived; and though such a use of the termination may find
some analogy in the Luculliana,—cherries that Lucullus brought from
Pontus—and the Appiana—apples introduced into Rome by him of the
Appian way,—yet the term “Ana,” in its most important applications,
has always referred not to the collector, but to the personage or
at any rate to the subject-matter of the book. Some vindication for
its use on the present occasion may, however, be found in those
instances in which Boswell acts as Bozzy to himself, and where the
opinions and the mode of enunciating them are so thoroughly Boswellian
that they give a characteristic flavour to the whole. What can be
more delightfully his own than the prefixes “Uxoriana,” and “My son
Alexander?”
There is some mystery in the insertion of certain occasional
Johnsoniana, which could hardly have found their way into this
collection, if Boswell had at the time been keeping special memoranda
of his great Oracle. They are not very numerous nor consecutive, nor do
they imply that at the time they were taken down they were intended as
portions of the _magnum opus_. Most of them, however, are incorporated
in it, and are only repeated here to preserve the integrity of the
manuscript. The few omissions, such as they are, are of the same
character as the _lacunæ_ in the Temple letters.
The historical and biographical annotation of these anecdotes has
been a work requiring considerable local knowledge and antiquarian
research. Executed, as it is, by Dr. Rogers, it affords an interesting
social picture of the Scotland of the day, and there are many families
still living, who will here gladly recognise and welcome the words and
thoughts of their ancestors.
MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL.
AS Dr. Johnson’s biographer, and the chronicler of his conversations,
James Boswell is entitled to remembrance. On the publication of his
“Life of Johnson,”—though seven years had elapsed since the moralist’s
decease, and two memoirs had in the interval appeared,—a deep interest
was excited; and the author, whose peculiarities had hitherto subjected
him to ridicule, at once attained a first place as a biographer. Time,
which effects many changes in literary popularity, has borne in an even
current the “Life of Johnson,” and therewith in every home of lettered
Britons has rendered familiar the name of Boswell.
Representing a landed branch of a Norman House, James Boswell inherited
no small share of family pride, a point of character which under proper
regulation might have proved salutary. Sieur de Bosville accompanied
William of Normandy into England, and held a considerable command at
the battle of Hastings. His descendants migrated into Scotland during
the reign of David I., and there acquired lands in the county of
Berwick. Robert Bosville obtained the lands of Oxmuir, in Berwickshire,
under William the Lion; he witnessed many charters in the reign of
that monarch. He was father of Adam de Bosville de Oxmuir, whose name
appears in an obligation of Philip de Lochore in 1235, during the
reign of Alexander II. In the lands of Oxmuir he was succeeded by his
son Roger, and his grandson William de Bosville, the latter of whom
was compelled with other barons to swear fealty to Edward I. in 1296.
Richard, son of William, obtained from King Robert the Bruce, lands
near Ardrossan, in Ayrshire, in addition to his estates in Berwickshire.
Roger de Boswell, second son of Richard of Oxmuir, married in the reign
of David II., Mariota, daughter and co-heiress of Sir William Lochore
of that ilk, with whom he obtained half the barony of Auchterderran, in
Fife. In this barony he was succeeded by his son John de Boswell, who
espoused Margaret, daughter of Sir Robert Melville, of Carnbee. Their
son, Sir William Boswell, was judge in a perambulation of the lands of
Kirkness and Lochore. He married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of
Alexander Gordon, with whom he got some lands in the constabulary of
Kinghorn. His son, Sir John Boswell, designed of Balgregie, married,
early in the fifteenth century, Mariota, daughter of Sir John Glen, and
with her obtained the barony of Balmuto, in Fife.
Sir John Boswell, of Balmuto, was succeeded by his son David, who
married first Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Melville, of Raith, and
secondly, Isabel, daughter of Sir Thomas Wemyss, of Rires, relict of
David Hay, of Naughton. Robert, younger son by the first marriage,
became parson of Auchterderran, and was much esteemed for his piety
and learning: he attained his hundredth year. David, the elder son,
obtained, in 1458, from James II., by a charter under the great seal,
the lands of Glasmont, in Fife. He married first Grizel, daughter of
Sir John Wemyss of that ilk; and secondly, in 1430, Lady Margaret
Sinclair, daughter of William, Earl of Orkney and Caithness. Thomas,
eldest son of the second marriage, obtained from James IV., as a signal
mark of royal favour, the estate of Auchinleck,[3] in Ayrshire. He was
slain at Flodden on the 9th September, 1513. By his wife Annabella,
daughter of Sir Hugh Campbell, of Loudoun, he had an only son David,
who, succeeding to the paternal estate, espoused Lady Janet Hamilton,
daughter of James, first Earl of Arran. David was succeeded by his son
John, whose first wife was Christian, daughter of Sir Robert Dalzell,
of Glenae, progenitor of the Earls of Carnwath. Of this marriage,
James, the eldest son, succeeded to Auchinleck. He died in 1618,
leaving by his wife, Marion Crawford, of Kerse, six sons, three of whom
entered the service of Gustavus Adolphus, and ultimately settled in
Sweden. David Boswell, the eldest, succeeded to Auchinleck; he was an
ardent supporter of Charles I., and was fined ten thousand marks for
refusing to subscribe the Covenant. He married Isabel, daughter of Sir
John Wallace, of Cairnhill, but having no male issue, he was at his
death in 1661 succeeded by his nephew David, son of his next brother
James by his wife, a daughter of Sir James Cunninghame, of Glengarnock.
David Boswell of Auchinleck espoused Anne, daughter of James Hamilton
of Dalziel, by whom, besides three daughters, he had two sons, James
and Robert. The latter settled in Edinburgh as a Writer to the Signet,
and acquiring a handsome fortune, purchased from his kinsman, Andrew
Boswell, the estate of Balmuto, which had belonged to his ancestors.
His son, Claude James Boswell, born in 1742, passed advocate in 1766,
and after serving eighteen years as sheriff of Fife, was in 1798 raised
to the bench, under the judicial title of Lord Balmuto.[4] His lordship
died on the 22nd July, 1824.
James Boswell, elder son of David Boswell of Auchinleck, succeeded
to the paternal estate: he practised as an advocate, and attained
considerable eminence in his profession. By his wife, Lady Elizabeth
Bruce, daughter of Alexander, second Earl of Kincardine, he had two
sons and a daughter, Veronica; she married David Montgomerie, of
Lainshaw, and his daughter Margaret espoused James Boswell, the subject
of this memoir. John, younger son of James Boswell of Auchinleck,
studied medicine, and became censor of the Royal College of Physicians,
Edinburgh. Alexander, the elder son, succeeded to Auchinleck on his
father’s death in 1748.
Through his father, Alexander Boswell was attracted to legal
studies; he passed advocate 29th December, 1729, and after a period
of successful practice at the bar, was in 1743 appointed sheriff of
Wigtonshire. He was raised to the bench in 1754, when he assumed the
title of Lord Auchinleck;[5] he was appointed a Lord of Justiciary in
the following year.
About the year 1739, Alexander Boswell married his cousin[6] Euphemia
Erskine, descended of the ennobled House of Erskine of Mar. Her father,
Colonel John Erskine, was a younger son of the Hon. Sir Charles
Erskine, first baronet of Alva, and her mother was Euphemia, one of
the four daughters of William Cochrane of Ochiltree, a scion of the
noble House of Dundonald by his wife Lady Mary Bruce, eldest daughter
of Alexander, second Earl of Kincardine. Of the marriage of Alexander
Boswell and Euphemia Erskine were born three sons: John, the second
son, became a military officer and died unmarried; David, the youngest,
entered a house of business, and at the close of his apprenticeship in
1768 joined partnership with Charles Herries, a Scotsman, and Honorius
Dalliol, a Frenchman, in establishing a mercantile house at Valencia in
Spain. On account of the Spaniards being prejudiced against the name of
David, as of Jewish origin, he assumed the Christian name of Thomas. On
account of the war he left Spain in 1780, when he settled in London,
and commenced business as a merchant and banker. He afterwards accepted
a post in the Navy Office, where he became the head of the Prize
Department. He purchased the estate of Crawley Grange, Buckinghamshire,
and died in 1826. A man of grave deportment and correct morals, he
was esteemed for his discretion, urbanity, and intelligence. By his
marriage with Anne Catherine, sister of General Sir Charles Green,
Bart., he became father of one child, Thomas David, who was born 24th
September, 1800. This gentleman succeeded his father in the estate of
Crawley Grange; he married in 1841 Jane, daughter of John Barker, Esq.
Having died without issue, his estate passed to another branch of the
Boswell family.
James Boswell, eldest son of Lord Auchinleck, was born at Edinburgh
on the 29th October, 1740. He received his rudimentary training from
a private tutor, Mr. John Dun, a native of Eskdale, and who, on
the presentation of his father, was, in 1752, ordained minister of
Auchinleck. He was afterwards sent to a school at Edinburgh, taught by
Mr. James Mundell, a teacher of eminence. Afterwards he was enrolled
as a pupil in the High School, under Mr. John Gilchrist, one of the
masters, a celebrated classical scholar.[7]
Possessed of strong religious and political convictions, Lord
Auchinleck sought to imbue his children with a love of Presbyterianism
and a loyal attachment to the House of Hanover. In those aims he was
assisted by his wife, a woman of vigorous sagacity and most exemplary
piety. To her affectionate counsel rather than to the wishes of his
father, the eldest son was disposed to yield some reverence. But he
early affected to despise the simple ritual of the Presbyterian Church,
and in direct antagonism to his father’s commands he declared himself
a Jacobite and a warm adherent of the exiled House. He related to Dr.
Johnson, that when his father prayed for King George, he proceeded to
pray for King James, till one day his uncle, General Cochrane, gave him
a shilling on condition that he would pray for the Hanoverian monarch.
The bribe overcame his scruples, and he did as he was asked.
With a view to his becoming an advocate at the Scottish Bar, Boswell
entered the University of Edinburgh. There he formed the acquaintance
of Mr. William Johnson Temple, from Allardine in Northumberland, a
young gentleman preparing in the literary classes for orders in the
English Church. Mr. Temple was Boswell’s senior, and much surpassed him
in general knowledge. He belonged to an old and respectable, if not an
affluent family, and he was of a pleasing and gentlemanly deportment.
The exiled king being forsaken, he became Boswell’s next hero. In
parting from him at the close of their first college session, Boswell
begged that their friendship might be maintained by correspondence;
and letters actually passed between them for thirty-seven years.
To Boswell’s share of that correspondence we are indebted for many
materials illustrative of his life.
It will be convenient at this point to present a few particulars of
Mr. Temple’s career, closely associated as that gentleman was with the
subject of our history. After leaving Edinburgh he sustained the loss
of a considerable fortune through the embarrassments of his father.
Proceeding to the University of Cambridge, he took the degree of LL.B.,
and soon afterwards entered into orders. In 1767 he was preferred to
the Rectory of Mamhead, Devonshire, which, added to the Vicarage of
St. Gluvias, Cornwall, brought him, with the remains of his private
fortune, an income of £500 a year. In youth he afforded proof of
original power; he was a considerable politician, and an excellent
classical scholar. He composed neatly; his character of the poet Gray,
with whom he was acquainted, has been quoted approvingly by Dr. Mason,
his biographer, and likewise by Dr. Johnson. He published an essay
on the studies of the clergy, another “On the Abuse of Unrestrained
Power,” and “A Selection of Historical and Political Memoirs;” but
none of these compositions were much sought after. He died on the
8th August, 1796, surviving our author little more than a year. He
was oppressed by an habitual melancholy, which the untoward temper
of his wife served materially to intensify. He has been described as
“Boswell’s faithful monitor;” he was scarcely so, for his remonstrances
were feeble. Had he reproved sternly he might have been of some service.
In a letter to Mr. Temple dated 29th July, 1758, Boswell informs him
that he had been introduced to Mr. Hume, whom he thus describes:—“He
is a most discreet, affable man, as ever I met with, and has really
a great deal of learning, and a choice collection of books. He is
indeed an extraordinary man,—few such people are to be met with
now-a-days. We talk a great deal of genius, fine language, improving
our style, &c., but I am afraid solid learning is much wore out. Mr.
Hume, I think, is a very proper person for a young man to cultivate
an acquaintance with. Though he has not perhaps the most delicate
taste, yet he has applied himself with great attention to the study of
the ancients, and is likewise a great historian, so that you are not
only entertained in his company, but may reap a great deal of useful
instruction.”
When Mr. Temple proceeded to Cambridge he reported to his Edinburgh
friend that he was studying in earnest. In his reply, dated 16th
December, 1758, Boswell describes his own studies:—“I can assure you,”
he writes, “the study of the law here is a most laborious task.... From
nine to ten I attend the law class; from ten to eleven study at home;
and from one to two attend a college [class] upon Roman antiquities;
the afternoon and evening I always spend in study. I never walk except
on Saturdays.” Thanking his friend for the perusal of a MS. poem he
adds, “To encourage you I have enclosed a few trifles of my own.... I
have published now and then the production of a leisure hour in the
magazines. If any of these essays can give entertainment to my friend,
I shall be extremely happy.”
On the importance of religion Boswell reciprocated his friend’s
sentiments. After informing him that the continuance of his friendship
made him “almost weep with joy,” he proceeds, “May indulgent Heaven
grant a continuance of our friendship! As our minds improve in
knowledge may the sacred flame still increase, until at last we reach
the glorious world above when we shall never be separated, but enjoy an
everlasting society of bliss. Such thoughts as these employ my happy
moments, and make me—
‘Feel a secret joy
Spring o’er my heart, beyond the pride of kings.’”
After a reference to companionship he adds, “I hope by Divine
assistance, you shall still preserve your amiable character amidst all
the deceitful blandishments of vice and folly.”
In the same letter Boswell informed Mr. Temple that he had fallen
desperately in love. The object of his affection was a Miss W—— t,
for so he disguises her name—a reticence in matters of the heart which
he does not evince subsequently. After expatiating on the lady’s charms
and angelic qualities, especially her “just regard for true piety and
religion,” he remarks that “she _is_ a fortune of thirty thousand
pounds.” With so large a dowry, he feels that she might be difficult
to win, but he conceives that “a youth of _his_ turn has a better
chance to gain the affections of a lady of her character than of any
other.” He adds complacently, “As I told you before, my mind is in such
an agreeable situation, that being refused would not be so fatal as to
drive me to despair.” He sums up by assuring his correspondent that he
had entrusted the secret of his passion only to another whose name was
“Love.”
Mr. Love was one of Boswell’s early heroes. A native of England, he
was originally connected with Drury Lane Theatre, but for some cause
he left London and sojourned at Edinburgh. There he at first practised
private theatricals, but afterwards became a teacher of elocution. He
read with Miss W—— t, and also with Boswell, though at different
hours, and advised the latter to look after the pretty heiress. Boswell
took the hint; but the dream soon passed away, for the name of the rich
beauty does not reappear.
To his young friend Mr. Love administered more useful counsel by
advising him to cultivate an easy style of composition. To accomplish
this he recommended him to keep a journal or commonplace-book, and
daily to record in it notes of conversations, and of more remarkable
occurrences. Boswell acted on Mr. Love’s suggestion. Writing to Mr.
Temple, he reports that having gone with his father to the Northern
Circuit, he travelled in a chaise with Sir David Dalrymple the whole
way, and that he kept an exact journal at the particular desire of his
friend Mr. Love, and sent it to him in sheets, by every post. Such was
Boswell’s first effort in journal-making; it was next to be practised
on Paoli, and latterly, with unprecedented success, on Dr. Johnson. As
to Mr. Love, it may be remarked that he compensated himself for his
early counsel by sponging his pupil. “Love is to breakfast with me
to-morrow,” wrote Boswell to Mr. Temple in July 1763. “I hope I shall
get him to pay me up some more of what he owes me. Pray, is _pay up_
an English phrase, I know _pay down_ is?”
Sir David Dalrymple, Bart., better known by his judicial title of Lord
Hailes, was now an Advocate Depute,[8] one of the faculty specially
retained by the Crown for arraigning offenders in the Justiciary Court.
An able lawyer, he had already afforded evidence of his ability and
accurate scholarship in several separate publications and in various
contributions to the periodicals. Possessing a fund of information
which he communicated with much suavity of manner, Boswell hailed
him as his Mæcenas. Having enrolled him among his divinities, he was
disposed to idolize likewise all those whom he approved. Of these the
most conspicuous was Dr. Samuel Johnson, whose existence was first made
known to him in a post-chaise conversation. He was delighted to learn
that he still lived, was the centre of a literary circle, had composed
a literary medley styled the _Rambler_, and had edited a dictionary. As
Sir David expatiated on his learning and his virtues, Boswell resolved
that one day Johnson should have a place among his gods.
In November, 1759, Boswell entered the University of Glasgow as a
student of civil law; he also attended the lectures of Dr. Adam Smith
on moral philosophy and rhetoric. His evenings were spent in places of
public amusement. From Mr. Love he had contracted a fancy for dramatic
art, which in the absence of a licensed theatre he could not gratify
in the capital. With more enlightened views the merchants of Glasgow
tolerated theatrical representations, obtaining on their boards such
talent as their provincial situation could afford. Among those who
sought a livelihood at the Glasgow theatre was Francis Gentleman, a
native of Ireland, and originally an officer in the army. This amiable
gentleman sold his commission in the hope of obtaining fame and
opulence as a dramatic author; but disappointed in obtaining a patron,
he attempted to subsist as an actor. He was entertained by Boswell,
who encouraged him to publish an edition of Southern’s tragedy of
“Oroonoco,” himself accepting the poetical dedication. The dedicatory
verses closed thus:—
“But, where, with honest pleasure, she can find
Sense, taste, religion, and good nature joined,
There gladly will she raise her feeble voice,
Nor fear to tell that Boswell is her choice.”
Boswell’s patronage did not avail the unfortunate player. He was
compelled to leave Glasgow; thereafter he removed from place to place,
“experiencing all the hardships of a wandering actor, and all the
disappointments of a friendless author.” He died in September, 1784.
At Glasgow, while spending his week-day evenings in places of
amusement, Boswell began to frequent on Sundays the services of the
Church of Rome. Before the end of the College session he had resolved
to embrace the Catholic faith, and to qualify himself for orders in the
Romish Church. These vagaries were so distressing to his parents that
he was recalled to Edinburgh. He consented to abandon his sacerdotal
aspirations, provided he was allowed to substitute for the law the
profession of arms. In March 1760 his father accompanied him to London
in order to procure him a commission in the Guards. They waited on
the Duke of Argyll, who, according to Boswell’s narrative, keenly
discommended the military proposal. “My lord,” said the Duke, “I like
your son; this boy must not be shot at for three shillings and sixpence
a day.” Lord Auchinleck soon after returned to Edinburgh.
Boswell was allowed to remain in London. His religious views were
opposed to his interests in the North, and it was evident that he would
not be restrained from avowing his belief in public. It was therefore
advisable that he should meanwhile reside in London. At the request of
his father, Lord Hailes introduced him to Dr. Jortin, in the hope that
that eminent divine would lead him to conform to the doctrines of the
English Church. The following letter from Dr. Jortin to Lord Hailes,
dated 27th April, 1760, would imply that Boswell had already, amidst
the gaieties of London, ceased to concern himself with ecclesiastical
questions:—