"I re was owing to the change from ale to wine. member," said he," when all the decent people in Lichfield got drunk (1) every night, and were not the worse thought of. Ale was cheap, so you pressed strongly. When a man must bring a bottle of wine, he is not in such haste. Smoking has gone out. To be sure, it is a shocking thing, blowing smoke out of our mouths into other people's mouths, eyes, and noses, and having the same thing done to us. Yet I cannot account, why a thing which requires so little exertion, and yet preserves the mind from total vacuity, should have gone at. Every man has something by which he canus himself; beating with his feet, or so. (2) I remember when people in England changed a shirt only once a week: a Pandour, when he gets a shirt, greases it t› make it last. Formerly, good tradesmen had no fire but in the kitchen; never in the parlour, except on Sunday. My father, who was a magistrate of Lichfield, lived thus. They never began to have a fire in the parlour, but on leaving off business, or some great revolution of their life," Dr. Watson said, the hall was a kitchen, in old squires' houses. JOHNSON. "No, Sir. The hall was for great occasions, and never was used for domestic refection." We (1) As an item in the history of manners, it may be observed, that drinking to excess has diminished greatly in the memory even of those who can remember forty or fifty years. The taste for smoking, however, has revived, probably from the military habits of Europe during the French wars; but, instead of the sober sedentary pipe, the ambulatory cigar is now chiefly used. See antè, Vol. II. p. 72., an observation of Johnson's, that insanity had increased as smoking declined. — C. (2) Dr. Johnson used to practise this himself very much. J talked of the Union, and what money it had brought into Scotland. Dr. Watson observed, that a little money formerly went as far as a great deal now. JOHNSON. "In speculation, it seems that a smaller quantity of money, equal in value to a larger quantity, if equally divided, should produce the same effect. But it is not so in reality. Many more conveniencies and elegancies are enjoyed where money is plentiful, than where it is scarce. Perhaps a great familiarity with it, which arises from plenty, makes us more easily part with it." After what Dr. Johnson had said of St. Andrews, which he had long wished to see, as our oldest university, and the seat of our primate in the days of episcopacy, I can say little. Since the publication of Dr. Johnson's book, I find that he has been censured for not seeing here the ancient chapel of St. Rule (1), a curious piece of sacred architecture. But this was neither his fault nor mine. We were both of us abundantly desirous of surveying such sort of antiquities; but neither of us knew of this. I am afraid the censure must fall on those who did not tell us of it. In every place, where there is any thing worthy of observation, there should be a short printed directory for strangers, such as we find in all the towns of Italy, and in some of the towns in England. I was told that there is a manuscript ac (1) It is very singular how they could miss seeing St. Rule's chapel, an ecclesiastical building, the most ancient, perhaps, in Great Britain. It is a square tower, which stands close by the ruins of the old cathedral. Martin's Reliquiæ Divi Andreæ are now published. WALTER SCOTT. [Martin's History of St. Rule's Chapel, forms No. 47. of Bibl. Top. Brit. Lond. 1787. His Reliquiæ, written in 1683, were published in 1797.] count of St. Andrews, by Martin, secretary to Archbishop Sharp; and that one Douglas has published a small account of it. I inquired at a bookseller's, but could not get it. Dr. Johnson's veneration for the hierarchy is well known. There is no wonder then, that he was affected with a strong indignation, while he beheld the ruins of religious magnificence. I happened to ask where John Knox was buried. Dr. Johnson burst out, "I hope in the highway. (1) I have been looking at his reformations.' It was a very fine day. Dr. Johnson seemed quite wrapt up in the contemplation of the scenes which were now presented to him. He kept his hat off while he was upon any part of the ground where the cathedral had stood. He said well, that, "Knox had set on a mob, without knowing where it would end; and that differing from a man in doctrine was no reason why you should pull his house about his ears." As we walked in the cloisters, there was a solemn echo, while he talked loudly of a proper retirement from the world. Mr. Nairne said, he had an inclination to retire. I called Dr. Johnson's attention to this, that I might hear his opinion if it was right. JOHNSON. "Yes, when he has done his duty to society. In general, as every man is obliged not only to love God, but his neighbour as himself,' he must bear his part in active life; yet there are exceptions. Those who are ex (1) [It is a little odd, though Boswell has overlooked it, that Knox was buried in a place which soon after became, and ever since has been, a highway; namely, the old churchyard of St. Giles in Edinburgh. CHAMBERS.] ceedingly scrupulous (which I do not approve, for I am no friend to scruples), and find their scrupulosity invincible, so that they are quite in the dark, and know not what they shall do, or those who cannot resist temptations, and find they make themselves worse by being in the world, without making it better-may retire. I never read of a hermit, but in imagination I kiss his feet; never of a monastery, but I could fall on my knees, and kiss the pavement. But I think putting young people there, who know nothing of life, nothing of retirement, is dangerous and wicked. It is a saying as old as Hesiod ‘Εργα νεῶν, βουλαίτε μέσων, εὐχαίτε γερόντων. (1) That is a very noble line: not that young men should not pray, or old men not give counsel, but that every season of life has its proper duties. I have thought of retiring, and have talked of it to a friend; but I find my vocation is rather to active life." I said, some young monks might be allowed, to show that it is not age alone that can retire to pious solitude; but he thought this would only show that they could not resist temptation. He wanted to mount the steeples, but it could not be done. There are no good inscriptions here. Bad Roman characters he naturally mistook for half Gothic, half Roman. One of the steeples, which he was told was in danger, he wished not to be taken down; "for," said he, "it may fall on some of the posterity of John Knox; and no (1) "Let youth in deeds, in counsel man engage: great matter!"(1) Dinner was mentioned. JOHN SON. "Ay, ay, amidst all these sorrowful scenes, I have no objection to dinner." We went and looked at the castle where Cardinal Beaton was murdered (2), and then visited Principal Murison at his college, where is a good library room; but the Principal was abundantly vain of it, for he seriously said to Dr. Johnson, "You have not such a one in England." (3) The professors entertained us with a very good dinner. Present: Murison, Shaw, Cooke, Hill (4), Haddo, Watson, Flint, Brown. I observed, that I wondered to see him eat so well, after viewing so many sorrowful scenes of ruined religious magnificence. "Why," said he, "I am not sorry, (1) These towers have been repaired by the government, with a proper attention to the antiquities of the country.WALTER SCOTT. (2) David Beaton, Cardinal and Archbishop of St. Andrews, was murdered on the 29th of May, 1546, in his castle of St. Andrews, by John and Norman Leslie (of the Rothes family), and some others, in vengeance, as they alleged (though no doubt they had also personal motives), of the share the cardinal had in the death of Mr. George Wishart, a protestant minister of great reputation, who had lately been burned for heresy in the cardinal's own presence. "The cardinal was murdered," says Dr. Johnson in his "Journey," "by the ruffians of reformation, in the manner of which Knox has given what he himself calls a merry narrative.”. - Works, vol. viii. p. 212. — - C. (3) "The library," says Johnson, good-humouredly, "is not very spacious, but elegant and luminous. The doctor by whom it was shown hoped to irritate or subdue my English vanity by telling me, that we had no such repository of books in England. The library of St. Andrews is, I am informed, 75 feet long. That of All Souls, in Oxford, is 198 feet; of Christ Church, 141; of Queen's, 123; and each of the three divisions of the Bodleian is more than twice as long as the library of St. Andrews. -C. (4) [Dr. George Hill, author of "Theological Institutes," &c.; born in 1750, died in December 1819.] |