'
He said, he would not wish not to be disgusted in the Highlands; for
that would be to lose the power of distinguishing, and a man might then
lie down in the middle of them. He wished only to conceal his disgust.
At Captain M'Lean's, I mentioned Pope's friend, Spence. JOHNSON. 'He was
a weak conceited man[854].' BOSWELL. 'A good scholar, Sir?' JOHNSON.
'Why, no, Sir.' BOSWELL. 'He was a pretty scholar.' JOHNSON. 'You have
about reached him.'
Last night at the inn, when the factor in Tyr-yi spoke of his having
heard that a roof was put on some part of the buildings at Icolmkill, I
unluckily said, 'It will be fortunate if we find a cathedral with a roof
on it.' I said this from a foolish anxiety to engage Dr. Johnson's
curiosity more. He took me short at once. 'What, Sir? how can you talk
so? If we shall _find_ a cathedral roofed! as if we were going to a
_terra incognita_; when every thing that is at Icolmkill is so well
known. You are like some New-England-men who came to the mouth of the
Thames. "Come, (say they,) let us go up and see what sort of inhabitants
there are here." They talked, Sir, as if they had been to go up the
Susquehannah, or any other American river.'
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16.
This day there was a new moon, and the weather changed for the better.
Dr. Johnson said of Miss M'Lean, 'She is the most accomplished lady that
I have found in the Highlands.
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