you are defaming the countess?  For, supposing me to be her son, and that she was not married till the year after my birth, I must have been her natural son.’  A young lady of quality, who was present, very handsomely said, ’Might not the son have justified the fault?’ My friend was much flattered by this compliment, which he never forgot.  When in more than ordinary spirits, and talking of his journey in Scotland, he has called to me, ’Boswell, what was it that the young lady of quality said of me at Sir Alexander Dick’s ?’ Nobody will doubt that I was happy in repeating it.

My illustrious friend, being now desirous to be again in the great theatre of life and animated exertion, took a place in the coach, which was to set out for London on Monday the 22nd of November[1109].  Sir John Dalrymple pressed him to come on the Saturday before, to his house at Cranston, which being twelve miles from Edinburgh, upon the middle road to Newcastle, (Dr. Johnson had come to Edinburgh by Berwick, and along the naked coast[1110],) it would make his journey easier, as the coach would take him up at a more seasonable hour than that at which it sets out.  Sir John, I perceived, was ambitious of having such a guest; but, as I was well assured, that at this very time he had joined with some of his prejudiced countrymen in railing at Dr. Johnson[1111], and had said, he ‘wondered how any gentleman of Scotland could keep company with him,’ I thought he did not deserve the honour:  yet, as it might be a convenience to Dr. Johnson, I contrived that he should accept the invitation, and engaged to conduct him.  I resolved that, on our way to Sir John’s, we should make a little circuit by Roslin Castle, and Hawthornden, and wished to set out soon after breakfast; but young Mr. Tytler came to shew Dr. Johnson some essays which he had written; and my great friend, who was exceedingly obliging when thus consulted[1112], was detained so long, that it was, I believe, one o’clock before we got into our post-chaise.  I found that we should be too late for dinner at Sir John Dalrymple’s, to which we were engaged:  but I would by no means lose the pleasure of seeing my friend at Hawthornden,—­of seeing Sam Johnson at the very spot where Ben Jonson visited the learned and poetical Drummond[1113].

We surveyed Roslin Castle, the romantick scene around it, and the beautiful Gothick chapel[1114], and dined and drank tea at the inn; after which we proceeded to Hawthornden, and viewed the caves; and I all the while had Rare Ben[1115] in my mind, and was pleased to think that this place was now visited by another celebrated wit of England.