We breakfasted together next morning, and then the coach came, and took him up. He had, as one of his companions in it, as far as Newcastle, the worthy and ingenious Dr. Hope, botanical professor at Edinburgh. Both Dr. Johnson and he used to speak of their good fortune in thus accidentally meeting; for they had much instructive conversation, which is always a most valuable enjoyment, and, when found where it is not expected, is peculiarly relished.
I have now completed my account of our Tour to the Hebrides. I have brought Dr. Johnson down to Scotland, and seen him into the coach which in a few hours carried him back into England. He said to me often, that the time he spent in this Tour was the pleasantest part of his life[1121], and asked me if I would lose the recollection of it for five hundred pounds. I answered I would not; and he applauded my setting such a value on an accession of new images in my mind[1122].
Had it not been for me, I am persuaded Dr. Johnson never would have undertaken such a journey; and I must be allowed to assume some merit from having been the cause that our language has been enriched with such a book as that which he published on his return; a book which I never read but with the utmost admiration, as I had such opportunities of knowing from what very meagre materials it was composed.
But my praise may be supposed partial; and therefore I shall insert two testimonies, not liable to that objection, both written by gentlemen of Scotland, to whose opinions I am confident the highest respect will be paid, Lord Hailes[1123], and Mr. Dempster[1124]. 'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.
'SIR,
'I have received much pleasure and much instruction, from perusing The Journey to the Hebrides.
'I admire the elegance and variety of description, and the lively picture of men and manners. I always approve of the moral, often of the political, reflections. I love the benevolence of the authour.
'They who search for faults, may possibly find them in this, as well as in every other work of literature.
'For example, the friends of the old family say that the aera of planting is placed too late, at the Union of the two kingdoms[1125]. I am known to be no friend of the old family; yet I would place the aera of planting at the Restoration; after the murder of Charles I. had been expiated in the anarchy which succeeded it.
'Before the Restoration, few trees were planted, unless by the monastick drones: their successors, (and worthy patriots they were,) the barons, first cut down the trees, and then sold the estates. The gentleman at St. Andrews, who said that there were but two trees in Fife[1126], ought to have added, that the elms of Balmerino[1127] were sold within these twenty years, to make pumps for the fire-engines.
'In J. Major de Gestis Scotorum, L. i. C. 2. last edition, there is a singular passage:--
'"Davidi Cranstoneo conterraneo, dum de prima theologiae licentia foret, duo ei consocii et familiares, et mei cum eo in artibus auditores, scilicet Jacobus Almain Senonensis, et Petrus Bruxcellensis, Praedicatoris ordinis, in Sorbonae curia die Sorbonico commilitonibus suis publice objecerunt, quod pane avenaceo plebeii Scoti, sicut a quodam religioso intellexerant, vescebantur, ut virum, quem cholericum noverant, honestis salibus tentarent, qui hoc inficiari tanquam patriae dedecus nisus est."
'Pray introduce our countryman, Mr. Licentiate David Cranston, to the acquaintance of Mr. Johnson.
'The syllogism seems to have been this:
'They who feed on oatmeal are barbarians; But the Scots feed on oatmeal: Ergo--
The licentiate denied the minor,
I am, Sir, Your most obedient servant, 'DAV. DALRYMPLE.'
'Newhailes, 6th Feb. 1775.'
To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ., EDINBURGH. Dunnichen, 16th February, 1775.
'MY DEAR BOSWELL,
'I cannot omit a moment to return you my best thanks for the entertainment you have furnished me, my family, and guests, by the perusal of Dr. Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands; and now for my sentiments of it. I was well entertained. His descriptions are accurate and vivid. He carried me on the Tour along with him. I am pleased with the justice he has done to your humour and vivacity. "The noise of the wind being all its own," is a bon-mot, that it would have been a pity to have omitted, and a robbery not to have ascribed to its author[1128].
'There is nothing in the book, from beginning to end, that a Scotchman need to take amiss[1129]. What he says of the country is true, and his observations on the people are what must naturally occur to a sensible, observing, and reflecting inhabitant of a convenient Metropolis, where a man on thirty pounds a year may be better accommodated with all the little wants of life, than Col. or Sir Allan. He reasons candidly about the second sight; but I wish he had enquired more, before he ventured to say he even doubted of the possibility of such an unusual and useless deviation from all the known laws of nature[1130].