great-grandson was studying here.  Dr. Johnson wondered that a man should send his son so far off, when there were so many good schools in England[267].  He said, ’At a great school there is all the splendour and illumination of many minds; the radiance of all is concentrated in each, or at least reflected upon each.  But we must own that neither a dull boy, nor an idle boy, will do so well at a great school as at a private one.  For at a great school there are always boys enough to do well easily, who are sufficient to keep up the credit of the school; and after whipping being tried to no purpose, the dull or idle boys are left at the end of a class, having the appearance of going through the course, but learning nothing at all[268].  Such boys may do good at a private school, where constant attention is paid to them, and they are watched.  So that the question of publick or private education is not properly a general one; but whether one or the other is best for my son.’  We were told the present Mr. Waller was a plain country gentleman; and his son would be such another.  I observed, a family could not expect a poet but in a hundred generations.  ’Nay, (said Dr. Johnson,) not one family in a hundred can expect a poet in a hundred generations.’  He then repeated Dryden’s celebrated lines,

     ‘Three poets in three distant ages born,’ &c.

and a part of a Latin translation of it done at Oxford[269]:  he did not then say by whom.

He received a card from Sir Alexander Gordon, who had been his acquaintance twenty years ago in London, and who, ’if forgiven for not answering a line from him,’ would come in the afternoon.  Dr. Johnson rejoiced to hear of him, and begged he would come and dine with us.  I was much pleased to see the kindness with which Dr. Johnson received his old friend Sir Alexander[270]; a gentleman of good family, Lismore, but who had not the estate.  The King’s College here made him Professor of Medicine, which affords him a decent subsistence.  He told us that the value of the stockings exported from Aberdeen was, in peace, a hundred thousand pounds; and amounted, in time of war, to one hundred and seventy thousand pounds.  Dr. Johnson asked, What made the difference?  Here we had a proof of the comparative sagacity of the two professors.  Sir Alexander answered, ’Because there is more occasion for them in war.’  Professor Thomas Gordon answered, ’Because the Germans, who are our great rivals in the manufacture of stockings, are otherwise employed in time of war.’  JOHNSON.  ‘Sir, you have given a very good solution.’

At dinner, Dr. Johnson ate several plate-fulls of Scotch broth, with barley and peas in it, and seemed very fond of the dish.  I said, ’You never ate it before.’  JOHNSON.  ’No, Sir; but I don’t care how soon I eat it again[271].’  My cousin, Miss Dallas, formerly of Inverness, was married to Mr. Riddoch, one of the ministers of the English chapel here.  He was ill, and confined