J. H. Burton's Hume, ii. 385-7. It was at Fergusson's house thirteen years later that Walter Scott, a lad of fifteen, saw Burns shed tears over a print by Bunbury of a soldier lying dead on the snow. Lockhart's Scott, i. 185. See ib. vii. 61, for an anecdote of Fergusson.
[108] They were pulled down in 1789. Murray's Handbook for Scotland, ed. 1883, p. 60.
[109] See ante, ii. 128.
[110] See ante, iii. 357, and post, Johnson's Tour into Wales, Aug. 1, 1774.
[111]
'There where no statesman buys, no bishop sells; A virtuous palace where no monarch dwells.'
An Epitaph. Hamilton's Poems, ed. 1760, p. 260. See ante, iii. 150.
[112] The stanza from which he took this line is,
'But then rose up all Edinburgh, They rose up by thousands three; A cowardly Scot came John behind, And ran him through the fair body!'
[113] Johnson described her as 'an old lady, who talks broad Scotch with a paralytick voice, and is scarce understood by her own countrymen.' Piozzi Letters, i.109. Lord Shelburne says that 'her husband, the last Duke, could neither read nor write without great difficulty.' Fitzmaurice's Shelburne, i. 11. Dr. A. Carlyle (Auto. p. 107) says that in 1745 he heard her say:--'I have sworn to be Duchess of Douglas or never to mount a marriage bed.' She married the Duke in 1758. R. Chambers wrote in 1825:--'It is a curious fact that sixty years ago there was scarcely a close in the High Street but what had as many noble inhabitants as are at this day to be found in the whole town.' Traditions of Edinburgh, ed. 1825, i. 72.
[114] See ante, ii. 154, note 1.
[115] Lord Chesterfield wrote from London on Dec. 16, 1760 (Misc. Works, iv. 291):--'I question whether you will ever see my friend George Faulkner in Ireland again, he is become so great and considerable a man here in the republic of letters; he has a constant table open to all men of wit and learning, and to those sometimes who have neither. I have been able to get him to dine with me but twice.'
[116] Dr. Johnson one evening roundly asserted in his rough way that "Swift was a shallow fellow; a very shallow fellow." Mr. Sheridan replied warmly but modestly, "Pardon me, Sir, for differing from you, but I always thought the Dean a very clear writer." Johnson vociferated "All shallows are clear."' Town and Country Mag. Sept. 1769. Notes and Queries, Jan. 1855, p. 62. See ante, iv. 61.
[117] 'The Memoirs of Scriblerus,' says Johnson (Works, viii. 298), 'seem to be the production of Arbuthnot, with a few touches, perhaps, by Pope.' Swift also was concerned in it. Johnson goes on to shew why 'this joint production of three great writers has never obtained any notice from mankind.' Arbuthnot was the author of John Bull. Swift wrote to Stella on May 10, 1712:--'I hope you read John Bull. It was a Scotch gentleman, a friend of mine, that wrote it; but they put it upon me.' See ante, i. 425.
[118] See ante, i. 452, and ii. 318.
[119] Horace, Satires. I. iii. 19.
[120] See ante, i. 396, and ii. 298.
[121] See ante, ii. 74.
[122] 'At supper there was such conflux of company that I could scarcely support the tumult. I have never been well in the whole journey, and am very easily disordered.' Piozzi Letters, i. 109.
[123] See ante, iv. 17, and under June 9, 1784.
[124] Johnson was thinking of Sir Matthew Hale for one.
[125] 'It is supposed that there were no executions for witchcraft in England subsequently to the year 1682; but the Statute of I James I, c. 12, so minute in its enactments against witches, was not repealed till the 9 Geo. II, c. 5. In Scotland, so late as the year 1722, when the local jurisdictions were still hereditary [see post, Sept. 11], the sheriff of Sutherlandshire condemned a witch to death.' Penny Cyclo. xxvii. 490. In the Bishopric of Wurtzburg, so late as 1750, a nun was burnt for witchcraft: 'Cette malheureuse fille soutint opiniatrement qu'elle etait sorciere.... Elle etait folle, ses juges furent imbecilles et barbares.' Voltaire's Works, ed. 1819, xxvi. 285.
[126] A Dane wrote to Garrick from Copenhagen on Dec. 23, 1769:--'There is some of our retinue who, not understanding a word of your language, mimic your gesture and your action: so great an impression did it make upon their minds, the scene of daggers has been repeated in dumb show a hundred times, and those most ignorant of the English idiom can cry out with rapture, "A horse, a horse; my kingdom for a horse!"' Garrick Corres. i. 375. See ante, vol. iv. under Sept. 30, 1783
[127] See ante, i. 466.
[128] Johnson, in the preface to his Dictionary (Works, v. 43), after stating what he had at first planned, continues:--'But these were the dreams of a poet doomed at last to wake a lexicographer.' See ante, i. 189, note 2, and May I, 1783.
[129] See his letter on this subject in the APPENDIX. BOSWELL. He had been tutor to Hume's nephew and was one of Hume's friends. J.H Burton's Hume, ii. 399.
[130] By the Baron d'Holbach. Voltaire (Works, xii.