[884] Boswell tells this story again, ante, ii. 299. Mrs. Piozzi’s account (Anec. p. 114) is evidently so inaccurate that it does not deserve attention; she herself admits that Beauclerk was truthful. In a marginal note on Wraxall’s Memoirs, she says:—’Topham Beauclerk (wicked and profligate as he wished to be accounted), was yet a man of very strict veracity. Oh Lord! how I did hate that horrid Beauclerk!’ Hayward’s Piozzi, i. 348. Johnson testified to ’the correctness of Beauclerk’s memory and the fidelity of his narrative.’ Ante, ii. 405.
[885] ’Mr. Maclean of Col, having a very numerous family, has for some time past resided at Aberdeen, that he may superintend their education, and leaves the young gentleman, our friend, to govern his dominions with the full power of a Highland chief.’ Johnson’s Works, ix. 117.
[886] This is not spoken of hare-coursing, where the game is taken or lost before the dog gets out of wind; but in chasing deer with the great Highland greyhound, Col’s exploit is feasible enough. WALTER SCOTT.
[887] See ante, pp. 45, III, for Monboddo’s notion.
[888] Mme. Riccoboni in 1767 wrote to Garrick of the French:—’Un mensonge grossier les revolte. Si on voulait leur persuader que les Anglais vivent de grenouilles, meurent de faim, que leurs femmes sont barbouillees, et jurent par toutes les lettres de l’alphabet, ils leveraient les epaules, et s’ecriraient, quel sot ose ecrire ces miseres-la? mais a Londres, diantre cela prend!’ Garrick Corres. ii. 524.
[889] Just opposite to M’Quarrie’s house the boat was swamped by the intoxication of the sailors, who had partaken too largely of M’Quarrie’s wonted hospitality. WALTER SCOTT. Johnson wrote from Lichfield on June 13, 1775;—’There is great lamentation here for the death of Col. Lucy [Miss Porter] is of opinion that he was wonderfully handsome.’ Piozzi Letters, i. 235. See ante, ii. 287.
[890] Iona.
[891] See ante, p. 237.
[892] See ante, 111. 229.
[893] Sir James Mackintosh says (Life, ii. 257):—’Dr. Johnson visited Iona without looking at Staffa, which lay in sight, with that indifference to natural objects, either of taste or scientific curiosity, which characterised him.’ This is a fair enough sample of much of the criticism under which Johnson’s reputation has suffered.
[894] Smollett in Humphry Clinker (Letter of Sept. 3) describes a Highland funeral. ’Our entertainer seemed to think it a disparagement to his family that not above a hundred gallons of whisky had been drunk upon such a solemn occasion.
[895] ’We then entered the boat again; the night came upon us; the wind rose; the sea swelled; and Boswell desired to be set on dry ground: we, however, pursued our navigation, and passed by several little islands in the silent solemnity of faint moon-shine, seeing little, and hearing only the wind and water.’ Piozzi Letters, i. 176.