Where we sat,
the side-walls were _wainscotted_, as Dr. Johnson said, with wicker,
very neatly plaited. Our landlord had made the whole with his own hands.
After dinner, McQueen sat by us a while, and talked with us. He said,
all the Laird of Glenmorison's people would bleed for him if they were
well used; but that seventy men had gone out of the Glen to America.
That he himself intended to go next year; for that the rent of his farm,
which twenty years ago was only five pounds, was now raised to twenty
pounds. That he could pay ten pounds and live; but no more.[428] Dr.
Johnson said, he wished M'Queen laird of Glenmorison, and the laird to
go to America. M'Queen very generously answered, he should be sorry for
it; for the laird could not shift for himself in America as he could do.
I talked of the officers whom we had left to-day; how much service they
had seen, and how little they got for it, even of fame. JOHNSON. 'Sir, a
soldier gets as little as any man can get.' BOSWELL. 'Goldsmith has
acquired more fame than all the officers last war, who were not
Generals.'[429] JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, you will find ten thousand fit to do
what they did, before you find one who does what Goldsmith has done. You
must consider, that a thing is valued according to its rarity. A pebble
that paves the street is in itself more useful than the diamond upon a
lady's finger.
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