p 57), to
the fact that the Professor of Theology under whom they had studied was
'dull and Dutch and prolix.' 'There was one advantage,' he says,
'attending the lectures of a dull professor--viz., that he could form no
school, and the students were left entirely to themselves, and naturally
formed opinions far more liberal than those they got from the
Professor.'
[42] Chambers (_Traditions of Edinburgh_, ed. 1825, ii.297) says that
'the very spot which Johnson's armchair occupied is pointed out by the
modern possessors.' The inn was called 'The White Horse.' 'It derives
its name from having been the resort of the Hanoverian faction, the
White Horse being the crest of Hanover.' Murray's _Guide to Scotland_,
ed. 1867, p. 111.
[43] Boswell writing of Scotland says:--'In the last age it was the
common practice in the best families for all the company to eat milk, or
pudding, or any other dish that is eat with a spoon, not by distributing
the contents of the dish into small plates round the table, but by every
person dipping his spoon into the large platter; and when the fashion of
having a small plate for each guest was brought from the continent by a
young gentleman returned from his travels, a good old inflexible
neighbour in the country said, "he did not see anything he had learnt
but to take his broth twice.
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