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more in notions than facts, the matter is not great, and the second edition will

any

1774.

be mended, if fuch there be. The prefs will go on flowly for a time, Etat. 65. because I am going into Wales to-morrow.

"I should be very sorry if I appeared to treat fuch a character as that of Lord Hailes otherwise than with high refpect. I return the sheets3, to which I have done what mifchief I could; and finding it fo little, thought not much. of fending them. The narrative is clear, lively, and short.

"I have done worse to Lord Hailes than by neglecting his fheets: I have run him in debt. Dr. Horne, the Prefident of Magdalen College in Oxford, wrote to me about three months ago, that he purposed to reprint Walton's Lives, and defired me to contribute to the work: my answer was, that Lord Hailes intended the fame publication; and Dr. Horne has refigned it to him. His Lordship now must think seriously about it.

"Of poor dear Dr. Goldsmith there is little to be told, more than the papers have made publick. He died of a fever, made, I am afraid, more. violent by uneafinefs of mind. His debts began to be heavy, and all his refources were exhaufted. Sir Jofhua is of opinion that he owed not less than two thousand pounds. Was ever poet fo trusted before?

"You may, if you please, put the infcription thus:

• Maria Scotorum Regina nata 15—, a fuis in exilium a&ta 15—, ab hofpitá neci data 15-.' You must find the years.

"Of your fecond daughter you certainly gave the account yourself, though you have forgotten it. While Mrs. Bofwell is well, never doubt of a boy. Mrs. Thrale brought, I think, five girls running, but while I was with you fhe had a boy.

"I am obliged to you for all your pamphlets, and of the laft I hope to make fome use. I made fome of the former. I am, dear Sir,

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"YOU have given me an infcription for a portrait of Mary Queen of Scots, in which you, in a fhort and ftriking manner, point out her hard

3 On the cover enclofing them, Dr. Johnfon wrote, "If my delay has given any reafon for fuppofing that I have not a very decp fenfe of the honour done me by asking my judgement, I am very forry."

fate.

1774.

Etat. 65.

fate. But you will be pleased to keep in mind, that my picture is a reprefentation of a particular scene in her history;-her being forced to resign her crown, while she was imprisoned in the caftle of Lochlevin. I muft, therefore, beg that you will be kind enough to give me an inscription fuited to that particular scene, or determine which of the two formerly transmitted to you is the beft; and, at any rate, favour me with an English translation. It will be doubly kind if you comply with my request speedily.

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"Your critical notes on the fpecimen of Lord Hailes's Annals of Scotland,' are excellent. I agreed with you in every one of them. He himself objected only to the alteration of free to brave, in the paffage where he says that Edward departed with the glory due to the conquerour of a free people.' He fays, to call the Scots brave would only add to the glory of their conquerour.' You will make allowance for the national zeal of our annalist. I now send a few more leaves of the Annals, which I hope you will peruse, and return with obfervations, as you did upon the former occafion. Lord Hailes writes to me thus: Mr. Bofwell will be pleased to express the grateful sense which Sir David Dalrymple has of Dr. Johnson's attention to his little fpecimen. The further fpecimen will fhew, that

Even in an Edward he can fee defert.'

"It gives me much pleasure to hear that a re-publication of Isaac Walton's Lives is intended. You have been in a mistake in thinking that Lord Hailes had it in view. I remember one forenoon, while he fat with you in my house, he faid, that there fhould be a new edition of Walton's Lives; and you faid, that they should be benoted a little. This was all that paffed on that fubject. You must, therefore, inform Dr. Horne, that he may refume his plan. I enclose a note concerning it; and if Dr. Horne will write to me, all the attention that I can give fhall be cheerfully bestowed, upon what I think a pious work, the preservation and elucidation of Walton, by whose writings I have been most pleasingly edified.

Mr. BOSWELL to Dr. JOHNSON.

Edinburgh, Sept. 16, 1774

"WALES has probably detained you longer than I fuppofed. You will have become quite a mountaineer, by vifiting Scotland one year and Wales another. You must next go to Switzerland. if you do not honour her alfo with fome remarks.

Cambria will complain,

And I find conceffere

columnæ,

columnæ, the booksellers expect another book. I am impatient to see your 1774. Tour to Scotland and the Hebrides. Might you not fend me a copy by the Etat. 65. poft as foon as it is printed off?"

"DEAR SIR,

To JAMES BOSWELL, Efq.

"YESTERDAY I returned from my Welch journey. I was forry to leave my book fufpended fo long; but having an opportunity of seeing, with fo much convenience, a new part of the island, I could not reject it. I have been in five of the fix counties of North Wales; and have feen St. Afaph and Bangor, the two feats of their bishops; have been upon Penmanmaur and Snowden, and paffed over into Anglefea. But Wales is fo little different from England, that it offers nothing to the fpeculation of the traveller.

"When I came home, I found feveral of your papers, with fome pages of Lord Hailes's Annals, which I will confider. I am in hafte to give you fome account of myself, left you should suspect me of negligence in the preffing business which I find recommended to my care, and which I knew nothing of till now, when all care is vain.

"In the distribution of my books I purpose to follow your advice, adding fuch as fhall occur to me. I am not pleased with your notes of remembrance added to your names, for I hope I fhall not eafily forget them.

"I have received four Erfe books, without any direction, and fufpect that they are intended for the Oxford library. If that is the intention, I think it will be proper to add the metrical pfalms, and whatever elfe is printed in Erfe, that the prefent may be complete. The donor's name fhould be told.

"I wish you could have read the book before it was printed, but our dif tance does not easily permit it.

"I am forry Lord Hailes does not intend to publish Walton; I am afraid it will not be done fo well, if it be done at all.

"I purpose now to drive the book forward. Make my compliments to Mrs. Bofwell, and let me hear often from you. I am, dear Sir,

"Your affectionate humble fervant,

"London, Octob. 1, 1774.

SAM. JOHNSON."

* I had written to him, to requeft his interpofition in behalf of a convict, who I thought was very unjustly condemned.

1774.

This tour to Wales, which was made in company with Mr. and Mrs. Etat. 65. Thrale, though it no doubt contributed to his health and amusement, did not give occafion to fuch a difcurfive exercise of his mind as our tour to the Hebrides. I do not find that he kept any journal or notes of what he saw there. All that I heard him fay of it was, that instead of bleak and barren mountains, there were green and fertile ones; and that one of the castles in Wales would contain all the caftles that he had feen in Scotland.

Parliament having been diffolved, and his friend Mr. Thrale, who was a fteady fupporter of government, having again to encounter the ftorm of a contested election, he wrote a fhort political pamphlet, entitled "The Patriot,* addreffed to the electors of Great-Britain; a title which, to factious men, who confider a patriot only as an opposer of the measures of government, will appear strangely mifapplied. It was, however, written with energetick vivacity; and, except thofe paffages in which it endeavours to vindicate the glaring outrage of the House of Commons in the case of the Middlesex election, and to justify the attempt to reduce our fellow-fubjects in America to unconditional fubmiffion, it contained an admirable difplay of the properties of a real patriot, in the original and genuine fenfe,-a fincere, fteady, rational, and unbiaffed friend to the interefts and profperity of his King and country. It must be acknowledged, however, that both in this and his two former pamphlets, there was, amidst many powerful arguments, not only a confiderable portion of fophiftry, but a contemptuous ridicule of his opponents, which was very provoking.

"DEAR SIR,

To JAMES BOSWELL, Efq.

"THERE has appeared lately in the papers an account of a boat overfet between Mull and Ulva, in which many paffengers were loft, and among them Maclean of Col. We, you know, were once drowned; I hope, therefore, that the story is either wantonly or erroneously told. Pray fatisfy me by the next poft.

"I have printed two hundred and forty pages.-I am able to do nothing much worth doing to dear Lord Hailes's book. I will, however, fend back the fheets; and hope, by degrees, to anfwer all your reafonable expectations. "Mr. Thrale has happily furmounted a very violent and acrimonious opposition; but all joys have their abatements: Mrs. Thrale has fallen from

5 In the newspapers.

her

her horfe, and hurt herself very much. The rest of our friends, I believe,
are well. My compliments to Mrs. Bofwell. I am, Sir,
"Your most affectionate fervant,

"London, Octob. 27, 1774.

SAM. JOHNSON."

This letter, which fhews his tender concern for an amiable young gentleman to whom we had been very much obliged in the Hebrides, I have inferted according to its date, though before receiving it I had informed him of the melancholy event that the young Laird of Col was unfortunately drowned.

"DEAR SIR,

To JAMES BOSWELL, Efq.

"LAST night I corrected the laft page of our Journey to the Hebrides. The printer has detained it all this time, for I had, before I went into Wales, written all except two fheets. The Patriot' was called for by my political friends on Friday, was written on Saturday, and I have heard little of it. So vague are conjectures at a distance. As foon as I can, I will take care that copies be sent to you, for I would wish that they might be given before they are bought; but I am afraid that Mr. Strahan will fend to you. and to the booksellers at the fame time. Trade is as diligent as courtesy. I have mentioned all that you recommended. Pray make my compliments to Mrs. Bofwell and the younglings. The club has, I think, not yet met. "Tell me, and tell me honeftly, what you think and others fay of our travels. Shall we touch the continent? I am, dear Sir, "Your most humble fervant,

"Nov. 26, 1774.

SAM. JOHNSON."

In his manufcript diary of this year, there is the following entry:

"Nov. 27. Advent Sunday. I confidered that this day, being the beginning of the ecclefiaftical year, was a proper time for a new course of life. I began to read the Greek Teftament regularly at 160 verfes every Sunday. This day I began the Acts.

"In this week I read Virgil's Paftorals. I learned to repeat the Pollio and Gallus. I read carelessly the firft Georgick."

6

Alluding to a paffage in a letter of mine, where fpeaking of his "Journey to the Hebrides," I fay," But has not The Patriot' been an interruption, by the time taken to write it, and the time luxuriously spent in liftening to its applaufes ?"

7 We had projected a voyage together up the Baltick, and talked of vifiting fome of the more northern regions.

1774.

Ætat. 65.

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