We now left those illustrious ruins, by which | shore afforded; for uniformity of practice seldom Mr. Boswell was much affected; nor would I continues long without good reason. willingly be thought to have looked upon them without some emotion. Perhaps, in the revolutions of the world, Iona may be some time again the instructress of the western regions.

A castle in the islands is only a single tower of three or four stories, of which the walls are sometimes eight or nine feet thick, with narrow windows, and close winding stairs of stone. It was no long voyage to Mull, where, under The top rises in a cone, or pyramid of stone, Sir Allan's protection, we landed in the evening, encompassed by battlements. The intermediate and were entertained for the night by Mr. Mac- floors are sometimes frames of timber, as in lean, a minister that lives upon the coast, whose common houses, and sometimes arches of stone, elegance of conversation, and strength of judg- or alternately stone and timber; so that there ment, would make him conspicuous in places of was very little danger from fire. In the centre greater celebrity. Next day we dined with Dr. of every floor, from top to bottom, is the chief Maclean, another physician, and then travelled room, of no great extent, round which there are on to the house of a very powerful laird, Mac-narrow cavities, or recesses formed by small lean of Lochbuy; for in this country every man's vacuities, or by a double wall. I know not name is Maclean. whether there be ever more than one fire-place. They had not capacity to contain many people, or much provision; but their enemies could seldom stay to blockade them; for if they failed in their first attack, their next care was to escape.

Where races are thus numerous, and thus combined, none but the chief of a clan is addressed by his name. The laird of Dunvegan is called Macleod, but other gentlemen of the same family are denominated by the places where they reside, as Raasay or Talisker. The distinction of the meaner people is made by their christian names. In consequence of this practice, the late laird of Macfarlane, an eminent genealogist, considered himself as disrespectfully treated, if the common addition was applied to him. Mr. Macfarlane, said he, may with equal propriety be said to many; but I, and I only, am Macfarlane.

Our afternoon journey was through a country of such gloomy desolation, that Mr. Boswell thought no part of the Highlands equally terrific, yet we came without any difficulty at evening to Lochbuy, where we found a true Highland laird, rough and haughty, and tenacious of his dignity who, hearing my name, inquired whether I was of the Johnstons of Glencoe, or of Ardnamurchan?

The walls were always too strong to be shaken by such desultory hostilities; the windows were too narrow to be entered, and the battlements too high to be scaled. The only danger was at the gates, over which the wall was built with a square cavity not unlike a chimney, continued to the top. Through this hollow the defendants let fall stones upon those who attempted to break the gate, and poured down water, perhaps scalding water, if the attack was made with fire. The castle of Lochbuy was secured by double doors, of which the outer was an iron grate.

In every castle is a well and a dungeon. The use of the well is evident. The dungeon is a deep subterraneous cavity, walled on the sides, and arched on the top, into which the descent is through a narrow door, by a ladder or a rope, so that it seems impossible to escape, when the Lochbuy has, like the other insular chieftains, rope or ladder is drawn up. The dungeon was, quitted the castle that sheltered his ancestors, I suppose, in war a prison for such captives as and lives near it, in a mansion not very spacious were treated with severity; and in peace, for or splendid. I have seen no houses in the is-such delinquents as had committed crimes within lands much to be envied for convenience or magnificence, yet they bear testimony to the progress of arts and civility, as they show that rapine and surprise are no longer dreaded, and are much more commodious than the ancient fortresses.

The castles of the Hebrides, many of which are standing, and many ruined, were always built upon points of land, on the margin of the sea. For the choice of this situation there must have been some general reason, which the change of manners has left in obscurity. They were of no use in the days of piracy, as defences of the coast; for it was equally accessible in other places. Had they been sea-marks or lighthouses, they would have been of more use to the invader than the natives, who could want no such directions on their own waters; for a watch-tower, a cottage on a hill would have been better, as it would have commanded a wider

view.

the laird's jurisdiction; for the mansions of many lairds were, till the late privation of their privileges, the halls of justice to their own tenants.

As these fortifications were the productions of mere necessity, they are built only for safety, with little regard to convenience, and with none to elegance or pleasure. It was sufficient for a laird of the Hebrides, if he had a strong house, in which he could hide his wife and children from the next clan. That they are not large nor splendid, is no wonder. It is not easy to find how they are raised, such as they are, by men who had no money, in countries where the labourers and artificers could scarcely be fed. The buildings in different parts of the islands show their degrees of wealth and power. I believe that for all the castles which I have seen beyond the Tweed, the ruins yet remaining of some one of those which the English built in Wales, would supply materials.

If they be considered merely as places of retreat, the situation seems not well chosen; for These castles afford another evidence that the the laird of an island is safest from foreign ene-fictions of romantic chivalry had for their basis mies in the centre: on the coast he might be the real manners of the feudal times, when every more suddenly surprised than in the inland parts; lord of a seignory lived in his hold lawless and and the invaders, if their enterprise miscarried, unaccountable, with all the licentiousness and might more easily retreat. Some convenience, insolence of uncontested superiority and unhowever, whatever it was, their position on the principled power. The traveller, whoever he

might be, coming to the fortified habitation of a | islands for a penny, he supposed that no infer chieftain, would, probably, have been interro-ence could possibly follow, but that eggs were in gated from the battlements, admitted with cau- great abundance. Posterity has since grown tion at the gate, introduced to a petty monarch, wiser; and having learned, that nominal and real fierce with habitual hostility, and vigilant with value may differ, they now tell no such stories, ignorant suscipion; who, according to his ge- lest the foreigner should happen to collect, not neral temper, or accidental humour, would have that eggs are many, but that pence are few. seated a stranger as his guest at the table, or as a spy confined him in the dungeon.

Lochbuy means the Yellow Lake, which is the name given to an inlet of the sea, upon which the castle of Mr. Maclean stands. The reason of the appellation we did not learn.

We were now to leave the Hebrides, where we had spent some weeks with sufficient amusement, and where we had amplified our thoughts with new scenes of nature, and new modes of life. More time would have given us a more distinct view, but it was necessary that Mr. Boswell should return before the courts of justice were opened; and it was not proper to live too long upon hospitality, however liberally imparted.

Of these islands it must be confessed, that they have not many allurements, but to the mere lover of naked nature. The inhabitants are thin, provisions are scarce, and desolation and penury give little pleasure.

The people, collectively considered, are not few, though their numbers are small in proportion to the space which they occupy. Mull is said to contain six thousand, and Sky fifteen thousand. Of the computation respecting Mull, I can give no account; but when I doubted the truth of the numbers attributed to Sky, one of the ministers exhibited such facts as conquered my incredulity.

Of the proportion which the product of any region bears to the people, an estimate is commonly made according to the pecuniary price of the necessaries of life; a principle of judgment which is never certain, because it supposes, what is far from truth, that the value of money is always the same, and so measures an unknown quantity by an uncertain standard. It is competent enough when the markets of the same country, at different times, and those times not too distant, are to be compared; but of very little use for the purpose of making one nation acquainted with the state of another. Provisions, though plentiful, are sold in places of great pecuniary opulence for nominal prices, to which, however scarce, where gold and silver are yet scarcer, they can never be raised.

In the Western Islands there is so little internal commerce, that hardly any thing has a known or settled rate. The price of things brought in, or carried out, is to be considered as that of a foreign market; and even this there is some difficulty in discovering, because their denominations of quantity are different from ours; and when there is ignorance on both sides, no appeal can be made to a common measure.

This, however, is not the only impediment. The Scots, with a vigilance of jealousy which never goes to sleep, always suspect that an Englishman despises them for their poverty, and to convince him that they are not less rich than their neighbours, are sure to tell him a price higher than the true. When Lesley, two hundred years ago, related so punctiliously, that a hundred hen's eggs, new laid, were sold in the

Money and wealth have, by the use of commercial language, been so long confounded, that they are commonly supposed to be the same; and this prejudice has spread so widely in Scotland, that I know not whether I found man or woman, whom I interrogated concerning payments of money, that could surmount the illiberal desire of deceiving me, by representing every thing as dearer than it is.

From Lochbuy we rode a very few miles to the side of Mull which faces Scotland, where, having taken leave of our kind protector, Sir Allan, we embarked in a boat, in which the seat provided for our accommodation was a heap of rough brushwood; and on the twenty-second of October reposed at a tolerable inn on the main land.

On the next day we began our journey southwards. The weather was tempestuous. For half the day the ground was rough, and our horses were still small. Had they required much restraint, we might have been reduced to difficulties; for, I think, we had among us but one bridle. We fed the poor animals liberally, and they performed their journey well. In the latter part of the day we came to a firm and smooth road, made by the soldiers, on which we travelled with great security, busied with contemplating the scene about us. The night came on while we had yet a great part of the way to go, though not so dark but that we could discern the cataracts which poured down the hills on one side, and fell into one general channel that ran with great violence on the other. The wind was loud, the rain was heavy, and the whistling of the blast, the fall of the shower, the rush of the cataracts, and the roar of the torrent, made a nobler chorus of the rough music of nature than it had ever been my chance to hear before. The streams which ran across the way from the hills to the main current, were so frequent, that after a while I began to count them; and, in ten miles, reckoned fifty-five, probably missing some, and having let some pass before they forced themselves on my notice. At last we came to Inverary, where we found an inn, not only commodious, but magnificent.

The difficulties of peregrination were now at an end. Mr. Boswell had the honour of being known to the Duke of Argyle, by whom we were very kindly entertained at his splendid seat, and supplied with conveniences for surveying his spacious park and rising forests.

After two days stay at Inverary we proceeded southward over Glencroe, a black and dreary region, now made easily passable by a military road, which rises from either end of the glen by an acclivity not dangerously steep, but sufficiently laborious. In the middle, at the top of the hill, is a seat with this inscription, Rest, and be thankful. Stones were placed to mark the distances, which the inhabitants have taken away, resolved, they said, to have no new miles.

In this rainy season the hills streamed with waterfalls, which, crossing the way, formed cur

rents on the other side, that ran in contrary direc- | part before they are men; they carry with them tions as they fell to the north or south of the little fundamental knowledge, and therefore the summit. Being, by the favour of the duke, well superstructure cannot be lofty. The grammarmounted, I went up and down the hill with great schools are not generally well supplied; for the convenience. character of a schoolmaster being there less honourable than in England, is seldom accepted by men who are capable to adorn it, and where the school has been deficient, the college can effect little.

From Glencroe we passed through a pleasant country to the banks of Loch Lomond, and were received at the house of Sir James Colquhoun, who is owner of almost all the thirty islands of the loch, which we went in a boat next morning to survey. The heaviness of the rain shortened our voyage, but we landed on one island planted with yew, and stocked with deer, and on another containing perhaps not more than half an acre, remarkable for the ruins of an old castle, on which the osprey builds her annual nest. Had Loch Lomond been in a happier climate, it would have been the boast of wealth and vanity to own one of the little spots which it incloses, and to have employed upon it all the arts of embellishment. But as it is, the islets, which court the gazer at a distance, disgust him at his approach, when he finds, instead of soft lawns and shady thickets, nothing more than uncultivated ruggedness.

Where the loch discharges itself into a river called the Leven, we passed a night with Mr. Smollett, a relation of Dr. Smollett, to whose memory he has raised an obelisk on the bank near the house in which he was born. The civility and respect which we found at every place, it is ungrateful to omit, and tedious to repeat. Here we were met by a post-chaise, that conveyed us to Glasgow.

To describe a city so much frequented as Glasgow, is unnecessary. The prosperity of its commerce appears by the greatness of many private houses, and a general appearance of wealth. It is the only episcopal city whose cathedral was left standing in the rage of reformation. It is now divided into many separate places of worship, which, taken all together, compose a great pile, that had been some centuries in building, but was never finished; for the change of religion intercepted its progress, before the cross aisle was added, which seems essential to a Gothic cathedral.

The college has not had a sufficient share of the increasing magnificence of the place. The session was begun; for it commences on the tenth of October, and continues to the tenth of June, but the students appeared not numerous, being, I suppose, not yet returned from their several homes. The division of the academical year into one session, and one recess, seems to me better accommodated to the present state of life, than that variegation of time by terms and vocations, derived from distant centuries, in which it was probably convenient, and still continued in the English universities. So many solid months as the Scotch scheme of education joins together, allow and encourage a plan for each part of the year: but with us, he that has settled himself to study in the college, is soon tempted into the country; and he that has adjusted his life in the country, is summoned back to his college.

Men bred in the universities of Scotland, cannot be expected to be often decorated with the splendours of ornamental erudition, but they obtain a mediocrity of knowledge, between learning and ignorance, not inadequate to the purposes of common life, which is, I believe, very widely diffused among them, and which countenanced in general by a national combination so invidious, that their friends cannot defend it, and actuated in particulars by a spirit of enterprise so vigorous, that their enemies are constrained to praise it, enables them to find, or to make their way, to employment, riches, and distinc tion.

From Glasgow we directed our course to Auchinleck, an estate devolved, through a long series of ancestors, to Mr. Boswell's father, the present possessor. In our way we found several places remarkable enough in themselves, but already described by those who viewed them at more leisure, or with much more skill; and stopped two days at Mr. Campbell's, a gentleman married to Mr. Boswell's sister.

Auchinleck, which signifies a stony field, seems not now to have any particular claim to its denomination. It is a district generally level, and sufficiently fertile, but, like all the western side of Scotland, incommoded by very frequent rain. It was, with the rest of the country, generally naked, till the present possessor finding, by the growth of some stately trees near his old castle, that the ground was favourable enough to timber, adorned it very diligently with annual plantations.

Lord Auchinleck, who is one of the judges of Scotland, and therefore not wholly at leisure for domestic business or pleasure, has yet found time to make improvements in his patrimony. He has built a house of hewn stone, very stately and durable, and has advanced the value of his lands with great tenderness to his tenants.

I

was, however, less delighted with the ele gance of the modern mansion, than with the sullen dignity of the old castle. I clambered with Mr. Boswell among the ruins, which afford striking images of ancient life. It is, like other castles, built upon a point of rock, and was, I believe, anciently surrounded with a moat. There is another rock near it, to which the drawbridge, when it was let down, is said to have reached. Here, in the ages of tumult and rapine, the laird was surprised and killed by the neighbouring chief, who perhaps might have extinguished the family, had he not in a few days been seized and hanged, together with his sons, by Doug las, who came with his forces to the relief of Auchinleck.

At no great distance from the house runs a Yet when I have allowed to the universities pleasing brook, by a red rock, out of which has of Scotland a more rational distribution of time, been hewn a very agreeable and commodious I have given them, so far as my inquiries have summer-house, at less expense, as Lord Auchininformed me, all that they can claim. The stu-leck told me, than would have been required to dents for the most part, go thither boys, and de- I build a room of the same dimensions. The rock

PRAYERS AND MEDITATIONS.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION IN 1785.

THESE Posthumous Devotions of Dr. Johnson will be, no doubt, welcomed by the public, with a distinction similar to that which has been already paid to his other Works.

That the authenticity of this work may never be called in question, the original manuscript will be deposited in the library of Pembroke College, in Oxford. Dr. Bray's associates are During many years of his life, he statedly to receive the profits of the first edition, by the observed certain days* with a religious solem-author's appointment; and any further advan nity; on which, and others occasions, it was his tages that accrue, will be distributed among his custom to compose suitable Prayers and Medita- relations.* tions; committing them to writing for his own I have now discharged the trust reposed in use, and, as he assured me, without any view to me by that friend, whose labours entitle him to their publication. But being last summer on a lasting gratitude and veneration from the litevisit at Oxford to the Reverend Dr. Adams, trary, and still more from the Christian world. and that gentleman urging him repeatedly to His Lives of the English Poets "are writengage in some work of this kind, he then first ten," as he justly hopes, "in such a manner conceived a design to revise these pious effu-as may tend to the promotion of piety." This sions, and bequeathed them, with enlargements, to the use and benefit of others.

merit may be ascribed, with equal truth, to most of his other works, and doubtless to his Sermons, none of which indeed have yet been made public, nor is it known where they are extant; though it be certain, from his own acknowledgment, both in conversation and writAs he seems

Infirmities, however, now growing fast upon him, he at length changed this design, and determined to give the manuscripts, without revision, in charge to me, as I had long shared his intimacy, and was at this time his daily attend-ing, that he composed many. ant. Accordingly, one morning, on my visiting to have turned his thoughts with peculiar earhim by desire at an early hour, he put these pa- nestness to the study of religious subjects, we pers into my hands, with instructions for com- may presume these remains would deserve to mitting them to the press, and with a promise be numbered among his happiest productions. to prepare a sketch of his own life to accompany It is therefore hoped they have fallen into the them. But the performance of this promise hands of those, who will not withhold them in also was prevented, partly by his hasty destruc- obscurity, but consider them as deposits, the setion of some private memoirs, which he after-clusion of which, from general use, would be an wards lamented, and partly by that incurable injurious diminution of their author's fame, sickness, which soon ended in his dissolution. and retrenchment from the common stock of seAs a biographer, he is allowed to have ex-rious instruction.f celled without a rival; and we may justly regret that he who had so advantageously transmitted to posterity the memories of other eminent men, should have been thus prevented doing equal honour to his own. But the particulars of this venerable man's personal history may, still, in great measure, be preserved; and the public are authorized to expect them from some of his many friends, who are zealous to augment the monument of his fame by the detail of his private virtues.

Viz. New-Year's Day; March 28, the day on which his wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson, died; Good-Friday; Easter-Day; and September the 18th, his own birthday.

Master of Pembroke College, at which Dr. Johnson received part of his education.

But the integrity of his mind was not only speculatively shadowed in his writings, but substantially exemplified in his life. His prayers and his alms, like those of the good Cornelius, went up for an incessant memorial; and always, from a heart deeply impressed with piety, never insensible to the calls of friendship or compassion, and prone to melt in effusions of tender. ness on the slightest incitement.

When, among other articles in his Dictionary, Litchfield presents itself to his notice, he salutes that place of his nativity in these words of Vir

The profits of the first edition were accordingly paid to Dr. Bray's associates; and those of the second have been distributed among Dr. Johnson's poor relations and connexions, all of whom are since dead, except HumFord, sister to the Rev. Cornelius Ford, and first cousin to our author. This poor man, who has seen better days, is now a tenant of Whicher's Almshouses, Chapel-street, Westminster.

Since this Preface was written the following publica-phrey Hely, who married tions have appeared, viz.

Anecdotes of the late Dr. Johnson, during the last Twenty Years of his life, by Hester Lynch Piozzi. 3d edit. 1786, small 8vo.

The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. published with his Works, by Sir John Hawkins, 8vo. 1797.

The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. by James Boswell, Esq. first published in 2 vols. 4to. afterwards (1793) in 3, and finally in 4 vols. 8vo.

An Essay on the Life and Genius of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. published with the 2d edition of his Works, by Arthur Murphy, Esq. Svo. 1792

In 1788, appeared one volume, and in 1789, a second, of Sermons on different subjects, left for publication by John Taylor, LL.D, late Prebendary of Westminster, &c. published by the Rev. Samuel Hayes, A.M, Usher of Westminster School. To the second volume is added a Sermon avowedly written by Dr. Johnson, for the funeral of his wife: and from internal and other evidence, the whole contents of both volumes are now generally as cribed to the same author.