At the beginning of last year, at the request of Messrs. Sampson
Low and Co., I began to prepare a work in which, under the title of
_Footsteps of Dr. Johnson_, I was to describe the various places that
he had either inhabited or visited. It was to be copiously illustrated
with views. I had made considerable progress with my task when I saw
that its extent required that it should be divided into two separate
works. Scotland in itself afforded ample materials for at least a
single volume. In this opinion I was confirmed by my friend Mr.
Lancelot Speed, the artist who was to prepare the illustrations. My
publishers yielded to our advice and allowed us to confine ourselves
entirely to that country. The materials which I had got together for
England and Wales I have put on one side, in the hope that the present
venture will prove sufficiently successful to encourage author, artist,
and publishers alike to follow it up with a companion work.
Of Johnson’s journey through Scotland we have three different accounts,
his _Letters to Mrs. Thrale_, his _Journey to the Western Islands_, and
Boswell’s _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_. In writing his _Journey_
he may have had before him the letters which he had written on the
spot. Many interesting circumstances, however, which he mentioned in
them he omitted in his formal narrative. Boswell’s _Journal_, though
published ten years after Johnson’s work, was written first; and it
was not only written, but it was published before the publication
of the _Letters_. His single account, therefore, and Johnson’s two
accounts are independent narratives. It would have been easy to weave
all three together into one work, and to have done nothing more. It
went, however, against the grain with me to make a mixture of that
sort. The plan which I have pursued has been much more laborious; but
it will, I trust, commend itself both to “the gentle reader”—who is,
I take it, a somewhat indolent reader—and also to the student of the
manners and customs of a past age. Of all history there was no part
which Johnson held equal in value to the history of manners. With this
judgment my own taste leads me to agree. I take far greater interest in
the daily life, the briars and roses of the working-day world as it was
known to our forefathers, than in all the conquests of Chatham and of
Clive. I have made, therefore, the attempt to bring before my readers
the Scotland which Johnson saw, the Scotland which he had expressly
come to study. “The wild objects” which he said he wished to see I
have not neglected, but here I trust chiefly to Mr. Speed’s art. “The
peculiar manners” which interested him far more than natural objects
have been my special study. Even before I took the present work in hand
I had examined them somewhat closely; but last summer, on my return
from Scotland, in a quiet recess of the Bodleian Library, I carried my
inquiries a good deal farther. In covering so large an extent of ground
and in such a mass of details it is idle to hope that no error has been
made. I can honestly say that I have done my best to be accurate.
The country which Johnson traversed is famous for other footsteps
besides his. I have called in the earlier and later travellers to add
interest to the scene, and I have thrown in anecdotes with a liberal
hand. “I love anecdotes,” he said. To Boswell’s descriptions of the
men with whom he associated I have often been able to add a great deal
from memoirs and other books to which that writer had not access; I
have gathered some few traditions of the _Sassenach mohr_, the big
Englishman, which still linger in the Highlands and the Hebrides.
The tour in which I followed his course I was forced to divide into
two parts. Beginning at Inverness I went first through the Western
Highlands and the Hebrides, and so southwards through Glasgow to
Auchinleck, Boswell’s home in Ayrshire. Later on I visited Edinburgh
and its neighbourhood, and completed my task by going northwards to
Inverness. I mention this to guard against any apparent inaccuracy in
dates which might be discovered in my narrative. I cannot pretend to
have seen every place which Johnson saw; but those spots which I passed
by are few in number. In the former part of my trip I was fortunate
enough to have Mr. Speed for my companion; but over the latter part of
the ground we had, to my regret, to travel at different times. Like
Boswell he had done much “to counteract the inconveniences of travel.”
I have the pleasant duty of expressing my acknowledgments for the
kindness with which I was received and for the assistance which was
given me in my inquiries. Most of all am I indebted to the Rev.
Roderick Macleod, of Macleod, Vicar of Bolney, who, by the numerous
introductions with which he honoured me, greatly facilitated my
progress in the Isle of Skye. To his father Macleod of Macleod, and
his aunt, Miss Macleod of Macleod, I am under great obligations. My
thanks are due also to the Duke of Argyle; the Earl of Cawdor; the
Earl of Erroll; Sir Charles Dalrymple, of New Hailes; Captain Burnett,
of Monboddo House; Mr. Macleane of Lochbuie; Mr. John Lorne Stewart,
Laird of Coll; Mr. J. Maitland Anderson, Librarian of the University
of St. Andrews; Mr. G. J. Campbell, of Inverness; Mr. P. M. Cran, the
City Chamberlain, and Mr. William Gordon, the Town Clerk of Aberdeen;
Mr. Lachlan Mackintosh, of Old Lodge, Elgin; Dr. Paterson, of Clifton
Bank, St. Andrews; Professor Stephenson, of the University of Aberdeen;
Mr. A. E. Stewart, of Raasay; and to my friend Mr. G. J. Burch, B.A.,
Librarian of the Institution of Civil Engineers, for some time the
Compiler of the Subject Catalogue in the Bodleian Library.
To my friend, General Cadell, C.B., of Cockenzie House, I owe the
sketches of the ruins of Ballencrieff, and of a group of ash-trees
which were said to have been planted on Johnson’s suggestion.
Both at Inverary Castle and at Dunvegan Castle I was allowed to have
photographs taken not only of the rooms, but also of the interesting
portraits of the former owners who had been Johnson’s hosts.
To the Rev. Alexander Matheson, minister of Glenshiel, who came many
miles over the mountains to help me with his knowledge as a local
antiquary, I am, alas! too late in bringing my acknowledgments. It was
with great regret that early in the spring I learnt of the sudden death
of this amiable man.
I have once more the pleasure of giving my thanks to Mr. G. K.
Fortescue, Superintendent of the Reading Room of the British Museum,
who does so much to lighten the labours of the student.
Should any of my readers be able to add to the traditions of Johnson
which I have collected, or to throw light on any of the questions
which I have investigated I trust that they will honour me with their
communications. Hope comes to all, and a second edition of these
_Footsteps_ is within the range of possibility. In it their kindness
shall meet with proper acknowledgment.
G. B. H.
_OXFORD; July 4th, 1890._
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