Dr. Adam Ferguson was a very different kind of man.  He had been chaplain to the 42nd, adding all the decorum belonging to the clerical character to the manners of a gentleman, the effect of which was that he was highly respected by all the officers, and adored by his countrymen and the common soldiers.  His office turned his mind to the study of war, which appears in his “Roman History,” where many of the battles are better described than by any historian but Polybius, who was an eyewitness to so many.  He had a boundless vein of humour, which he indulged when none but intimates were present; but he was apt to be jealous of his rivals and indignant against assumed superiority.

They were all honourable men in the highest degree, and John Home and I together kept them on very good terms.  With respect to taste, we held David Hume and Adam Smith inferior to the rest, for they were both prejudiced in favour of the French tragedies, and did not sufficiently appreciate Shakespeare and Milton; their taste was a rational act rather than the instantaneous effect of fine feeling.  In John Home’s younger days he had much sprightliness and vivacity, so that he infused joy wherever he came.  But all his opinions of men and things were prejudices, which, however, did not disqualify him for writing admirable poetry.

In 1754, the Select Society was established, which improved and gave a name to the literati of this country.  Of the first members were Lord Dalmeny, elder brother of the present Lord Rosebery; the Duke of Hamilton of that period, a man of letters could he have kept himself sober; and Mr. Robert Alexander, wine merchant, a very worthy man but a bad speaker, who entertained us all with warm suppers and excellent claret.  In the month of February, 1755, John Home’s tragedy of “Douglas” was completely prepared for the stage, and he set out with it for London, attended by six or seven of us.  Were I to relate all the circumstances of this journey, I am persuaded they would not be exceeded by any novelist who has wrote since the days of “Don Quixote.”  Poor Home had no success, for Garrick, after reading the play, returned it as totally unfit for the stage.  “Douglas,” however, was acted in Edinburgh in 1756, and had unbounded success for many nights; but the “high-flying” set in the Church were unanimous against it, as they thought it a sin for a clergyman to write any play, let it be ever so moral.  I was summoned before the Presbytery for my conduct in attending the play, but was exonerated by the General Assembly.

About the end of February, 1758, I went to London with my sister Margaret to get her married with Dr. Dickson.  It is to be noted that we could get no four-wheeled chaise till we came to Durham, those conveyances being then only in their infancy, and turnpike roads being only in their commencement in the North.  Dr. Robertson having come to London to offer his “History of Scotland” for sale, we went to see the lions together.  Home was now very friendly with Garrick, and I was often in company with this celebrated actor.