Mr. Nairne, advocate, was to go with us as far as St. Andrews.  It gives me pleasure that, by mentioning his name, I connect his title to the just and handsome compliment paid him by Dr. Johnson, in his book:  ’A gentleman who could stay with us only long enough to make us know how much we lost by his leaving us[157].  ’When we came to Leith, I talked with perhaps too boasting an air, how pretty the Frith of Forth looked; as indeed, after the prospect from Constantinople, of which I have been told, and that from Naples, which I have seen, I believe the view of that Frith and its environs, from the Castle-hill of Edinburgh, is the finest prospect in Europe.  ’Ay, (said Dr. Johnson,) that is the state of the world.  Water is the same every where.

     “Una est injusti caerula forma maris[158]."’

I told him the port here was the mouth of the river or water of Leith.  ’Not Lethe; said Mr. Nairne.  ’Why, Sir, (said Dr. Johnson,) when a Scotchman sets out from this port for England, he forgets his native country.’  NAIRNE.  ‘I hope, Sir, you will forget England here.’  JOHNSON.  ’Then ‘twill still be more Lethe’ He observed of the Pier or Quay, ’you have no occasion for so large a one:  your trade does not require it:  but you are like a shopkeeper who takes a shop, not only for what he has to put in it, but that it may be believed he has a great deal to put into it.’  It is very true, that there is now, comparatively, little trade upon the eastern coast of Scotland.  The riches of Glasgow shew how much there is in the west; and perhaps we shall find trade travel westward on a great scale, as well as a small.

We talked of a man’s drowning himself.  JOHNSON.  ’I should never think it time to make away with myself.’  I put the case of Eustace Budgell[159], who was accused of forging a will, and sunk himself in the Thames, before the trial of its authenticity came on.  ’Suppose, Sir, (said I,) that a man is absolutely sure, that, if he lives a few days longer, he shall be detected in a fraud, the consequence of which will be utter disgrace and expulsion from society.’  JOHNSON.  ’Then, Sir, let him go abroad to a distant country; let him go to some place where he is not known.  Don’t let him go to the devil where he is known!’

He then said, ’I see a number of people bare-footed here:  I suppose you all went so before the Union.  Boswell, your ancestors went so, when they had as much land as your family has now.  Yet Auchinleck is the Field of Stones:  there would be bad going bare-footed there.  The Lairds, however, did it.’  I bought some speldings, fish (generally whitings) salted and dried in a particular manner, being dipped in the sea and dried in the sun, and eaten by the Scots by way of a relish.  He had never seen them, though they are sold in London.  I insisted on scottifying[160] his palate; but he was very reluctant.  With difficulty I prevailed with him to let a bit of one of them lie in his mouth.  He did not like it.