Life of Johnson Volume V Part 37

[22] Afterwards Lord Stowell. He, his brother Lord Eldon, and Chambers were all Newcastle men. See _ante_, i. 462, for an anecdote of the journey and for a note on 'the Commons.'

[23] See _ante_, ii. 453.

[24] See _ante_, iv. III.

[25] Baretti, in a MS. note on _Piozzi Letters_, i. 309, says:--'The most unaccountable part of Johnson's character was his total ignorance of the character of his most familiar acquaintance.'

[26] Lord Pembroke said once to me at Wilton, with a happy pleasantry, and some truth, that 'Dr. Johnson's sayings would not appear so extraordinary, were it not for his _bow-wow way_:' but I admit the truth of this only on some occasions. The _Messiah_, played upon the _Canterbury organ_, is more sublime than when played upon an inferior instrument, but very slight musick will seem grand, when conveyed to the ear through that majestick medium. _While therefore Dr. Johnson's sayings are read, let his manner be taken along with them_. Let it, however, be observed, that the sayings themselves are generally great; that, though he might be an ordinary composer at times, he was for the most part a Handel. BOSWELL. See _ante_, ii. 326, 371, and under Aug. 29, 1783.

[27] See _ante_, i. 42.

[28] See _ante_, i. 41.

[29] Such they appeared to me; but since the first edition, Sir Joshua Reynolds has observed to me, 'that Dr. Johnson's extraordinary gestures were only habits, in which he indulged himself at certain times. When in company, where he was not free, or when engaged earnestly in conversation, he never gave way to such habits, which proves that they were not involuntary.' I still however think, that these gestures were involuntary; for surely had not that been the case, he would have restrained them in the publick streets. BOSWELL. See _ante_, i. 144.

[30] By an Act of the 7th of George I. for encouraging the consumption of raw silk and mohair, b.u.t.tons and b.u.t.ton-holes made of cloth, serge, and other stuffs were prohibited. In 1738 a pet.i.tion was presented to Parliament stating that 'in evasion of this Act b.u.t.tons and b.u.t.ton-holes were made of horse-hair to the impoveris.h.i.+ng of many thousands and prejudice of the woollen manufactures.' An Act was brought in to prohibit the use of horse-hair, and was only thrown out on the third reading. _Parl. Hist._ x. 787.

[31] Boswell wrote to Erskine on Dec. 8, 1761: 'I, James Boswell Esq., who "am happily possessed of a facility of manners"--to use the very words of Mr. Professor [Adam] Smith, which upon honour were addressed to me.' _Boswell and Erskine Corres_. ed. 1879, p. 26.

[32] _Post_, Oct. 16.

[33] _Hamlet_, act iii, sc. 4.

[34] See _ante_, iv., March 21, 1783. Johnson is often reproached with his dislike of the Scotch, though much of it was a.s.sumed; but no one blames Hume's dislike of the English, though it was deep and real. On Feb. 21, 1770, he wrote:--'Our Government is too perfect in point of liberty for so rude a beast as an Englishman; who is a man, a bad animal too, corrupted by above a century of licentiousness.' J. H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 434. Dr. Burton writes of the English as 'a people Hume so heartily disliked.' _Ib_. p. 433.

[35] See _ante_, iv. 15.

[36] The term _John Bull_ came into the English language in 1712, when Dr. Arbuthnot wrote _The History of John Bull_.

[37] Boswell in three other places so describes Johnson. See _ante_, i.129, note 3.

[38] See _ante_, i.467.

[39] 'All nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues.' _Rev_. vii.9.

[40] See _ante_, ii. 376

[41] In c.o.c.kburn's _Life of Jeffrey_, i.157, there is a description of Edinburgh, towards the close of the century, 'the last purely Scotch age that Scotland was destined to see. Almost the whole official state, as settled at the Union, survived; and all graced the capital, unconscious of the economical scythe which has since mowed it down. All our n.o.bility had not then fled. The lawyers, instead of disturbing good company by professional matter, were remarkably free of this vulgarity; and being trained to take difference of opinion easily, and to conduct discussions with forbearance, were, without undue obtrusion, the most cheerful people that were to be met with. Philosophy had become indigenous in the place, and all cla.s.ses, even in their gayest hours, were proud of the presence of its cultivators. And all this was still a Scotch scene. The whole country had not begun to be absorbed in the ocean of London.

According to the modern rate of travelling [written in 1852] the capitals of Scotland and of England were then about 2400 miles asunder.

Edinburgh was still more distant in its style and habits. It had then its own independent tastes, and ideas, and pursuits.' Scotland at this time was distinguished by the liberality of mind of its leading clergymen, which was due, according to Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p 57), to the fact that the Professor of Theology under whom they had studied was 'dull and Dutch and prolix.' 'There was one advantage,' he says, 'attending the lectures of a dull professor--viz., that he could form no school, and the students were left entirely to themselves, and naturally formed opinions far more liberal than those they got from the Professor.'

[42] Chambers (_Traditions of Edinburgh_, ed. 1825, ii.297) says that 'the very spot which Johnson's armchair occupied is pointed out by the modern possessors.' The inn was called 'The White Horse.' 'It derives its name from having been the resort of the Hanoverian faction, the White Horse being the crest of Hanover.' Murray's _Guide to Scotland_, ed. 1867, p. 111.

[43] Boswell writing of Scotland says:--'In the last age it was the common practice in the best families for all the company to eat milk, or pudding, or any other dish that is eat with a spoon, not by distributing the contents of the dish into small plates round the table, but by every person dipping his spoon into the large platter; and when the fas.h.i.+on of having a small plate for each guest was brought from the continent by a young gentleman returned from his travels, a good old inflexible neighbour in the country said, "he did not see anything he had learnt but to take his broth twice." Nay, in our own remembrance, the use of a carving knife was considered as a novelty; and a gentleman of ancient family and good literature used to rate his son, a friend of mine, for introducing such a foppish superfluity.'--_London Mag_. 1778, p.199.

[44] See _ante_, ii. 403. Johnson, in describing Sir A. Macdonald's house in Sky, said:--'The Lady had not the common decencies of her tea-table; we picked up our sugar with our fingers.' _Piozzi Letters_, i.138.

[45] Chambers says that 'James's Court, till the building of the New Town, was inhabited by a select set of gentlemen. They kept a clerk to record their names and their proceedings, had a scavenger of their own, and had b.a.l.l.s and a.s.semblies among themselves.' Paoli was Boswell's guest there in 1771. _Traditions of Edinburgh_, i. 219. It was burnt down in 1857. Murray's _Guide to Scotland_, ed. 1883, p.49. Johnson wrote:--'Boswell has very handsome and s.p.a.cious rooms, level with the ground on one side of the house, and on the other four stories high.'

_Piozzi Letters_, i. 109. Dr. J.H. Burton says that Hume occupied them just before Boswell. He continues:--'Of the first impression made on a stranger at that period when entering such a house, a vivid description is given by Sir Walter Scott in _Guy Mannering_; and in Counsellor Pleydell's library, with its collection of books, and the prospect from the window, we have probably an accurate picture of the room in which Hume spent his studious hours.' _Life of Hume_, ii. 137, 431. At Johnson's visit Hume was living in his new house in the street which was humorously named after him, St. David Street. _Ib_. p. 436.

[46] The English servant-girl in _Humphry Clinker_ (Letter of July 18), after describing how the filth is thus thrown out, says:--'The maid calls _gardy loo_ to the pa.s.sengers, which signifies _Lord have mercy upon you!_'

[47] Wesley, when at Edinburgh in May, 1761, writes:--'How can it be suffered that all manner of filth should still be thrown even into this street [High Street] continually? How long shall the capital city of Scotland, yea, and the chief street of it, stink worse than a common sewer?' Wesley's _Journal_, iii. 52. Baretti (_Journey from London to Genoa_, ii.255) says that this was the universal practice in Madrid in 1760. He was driven out of that town earlier than he had intended to leave it by the dreadful stench. A few years after his visit the King made a reform, so that it became 'one of the cleanest towns in Europe.'

_Ib_. p 258. Smollett in _Humphry Clinker_ makes Matthew Bramble say (Letter of July 18):--'The inhabitants of Edinburgh are apt to imagine the disgust that we avow is little better than affectation.'

[48] 'Most of their buildings are very mean; and the whole town bears some resemblance to the old part of Birmingham.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 109.

[49] See _ante_, i. 313.

[50] Miss Burney, describing her first sight of Johnson, says:--'Upon asking my father why he had not prepared us for such uncouth, untoward strangeness, he laughed heartily, and said he had entirely forgotten that the same impression had been at first made upon himself; but had been lost even on the second interview.' _Memoirs of Dr. Burney_, ii.91.

[51] See _post_, Aug. 22.

[52] see _ante_, iii. 216.

[53] Boswell writes, in his _Hypochondriacks_:--'Naturally somewhat singular, independent of any additions which affectation and vanity may perhaps have made, I resolved to have a more pleasing species of marriage than common, and bargained with my bride that I should not be bound to live with her longer than I really inclined; and that whenever I tired of her domestic society I should be at liberty to give it up.

Eleven years have elapsed, and I have never yet wished to take advantage of my stipulated privilege.' _London Mag_. 1781, p.136. See _ante_, ii.

140, note 1.

[54] Sir Walter Scott was two years old this day. He was born in a house at the head of the College Wynd. When Johnson and Boswell returned to Edinburgh Jeffrey was a baby there seventeen days old. Some seventeen or eighteen years later 'he had the honour of a.s.sisting to carry the biographer of Johnson, in a state of great intoxication, to bed. For this he was rewarded next morning by Mr. Boswell clapping his head, and telling him that he was a very promising lad, and that if "you go on as you've begun, you may live to be a Bozzy yourself yet."' c.o.c.kburn's _Jeffrey_, i. 33.

[55] He was one of Boswell's executors, and as such was in part responsible for the destruction of his ma.n.u.scripts. _Ante_, iii. 301, note i. It is to his _Life of Dr. Beattie_ that Scott alludes in the Introduction to the fourth Canto of _Marmion_:--

'Scarce had lamented Forbes paid The tribute to his Minstrel's shade; The tale of friends.h.i.+p scarce was told, Ere the narrator's heart was cold-- Far may we search before we find A heart so manly and so kind.'

It is only of late years that _Forbes_ has generally ceased to be a dissyllable.

[56] The saint's name of _Veronica_ was introduced into our family through my great grandmother Veronica, Countess of Kincardine, a Dutch lady of the n.o.ble house of Sommelsdyck, of which there is a full account in Bayle's _Dictionary_. The family had once a princely right in Surinam. The governour of that settlement was appointed by the States General, the town of Amsterdam, and Sommelsdyck. The States General have acquired Sommelsdyck's right; but the family has still great dignity and opulence, and by intermarriages is connected with many other n.o.ble families. When I was at the Hague, I was received with all the affection of kindred. The present Sommelsdyck has an important charge in the Republick, and is as worthy a man as lives. He has honoured me with his correspondence for these twenty years. My great grandfather, the husband of Countess Veronica, was Alexander, Earl of Kincardine, that eminent _Royalist_ whose character is given by Burnet in his _History of his own Times_. From him the blood of _Bruce_ flows in my veins. Of such ancestry who would not be proud? And, as _Nihil est, nisi hoc sciat alter_, is peculiarly true of genealogy, who would not be glad to seize a fair opportunity to let it be known. BOSWELL. Boswell visited Holland in 1763. _Ante_, i. 473. Burnet says that 'the Earl was both the wisest and the worthiest man that belonged to his country, and fit for governing any affairs but his own; which he by a wrong turn, and by his love for the public, neglected to his ruin. His thoughts went slow and his words came much slower; but a deep judgment appeared in everything he said or did. I may be, perhaps, inclined to carry his character too far; for he was the first man that entered into friends.h.i.+p with me.'

Burnet's _History_, ed. 1818, i. III. 'The ninth Earl succeeded as fifth Earl of Elgin and thus united the two dignities.' Burke's _Peerage_.

Boswell's quotation is from Persius, _Satires_, i. 27: 'Scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter.' It is the motto to _The Spectator_, No. 379.

[57] She died four months after her father. I cannot find that she received this additional fortune.

[58] See _ante_, ii. 47.

[59] See _ante_, iv. 5, note 2.

[60] See _ante_, iii. 231. Johnson (_Works_, ix. 33) speaks of 'the general dissatisfaction which is now driving the Highlanders into the other hemisphere.' This dissatisfaction chiefly arose from the fact that the chiefs were 'gradually degenerating from patriarchal rulers to rapacious landlords.' _Ib._ p. 86. 'That the people may not fly from the increase of rent I know not whether the general good does not require that the landlords be, for a time, restrained in their demands, and kept quiet by pensions proportionate to their loss.... It affords a legislator little self-applause to consider, that where there was formerly an insurrection there is now a wilderness.' _Ib._ p. 94. 'As the world has been let in upon the people, they have heard of happier climates and less arbitrary government.' _Ib._ p. 128.

[61] 'To a man that ranges the streets of London, where he is tempted to contrive wants for the pleasure of supplying them, a shop affords no image worthy of attention; but in an island it turns the balance of existence between good and evil. To live in perpetual want of little things is a state, not indeed of torture, but of constant vexation. I have in Sky had some difficulty to find ink for a letter; and if a woman breaks her needle, the work is at a stop.' _Ib._ p. 127.

[62] 'It was demolished in 1822.' Chambers's _Traditions of Edinburgh_, i. 215.

[63] 'The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the mult.i.tude of isles be glad thereof.' _Psalms_, xcvii.1.

[64] A brief memoir of Mr. Carre is given in Forbes's _Life of Beattie_, Appendix Z.

[65] It was his daughter who gave the name to the new street in which Hume had taken a house by chalking on his wall ST. DAVID STREET. 'Hume's "la.s.s," judging that it was not meant in honour or reverence, ran into the house much excited, to tell her master how he was made game of.