For
this he was rewarded next morning by Mr. Boswell clapping his head, and
telling him that he was a very promising lad, and that if "you go on as
you've begun, you may live to be a Bozzy yourself yet."' Cockburn's
_Jeffrey_, i. 33.
[55] He was one of Boswell's executors, and as such was in part
responsible for the destruction of his manuscripts. _Ante_, iii. 301,
note i. It is to his _Life of Dr. Beattie_ that Scott alludes in the
Introduction to the fourth Canto of _Marmion_:--
'Scarce had lamented Forbes paid
The tribute to his Minstrel's shade;
The tale of friendship scarce was told,
Ere the narrator's heart was cold--
Far may we search before we find
A heart so manly and so kind.'
It is only of late years that _Forbes_ has generally ceased to be a
dissyllable.
[56] The saint's name of _Veronica_ was introduced into our family
through my great grandmother Veronica, Countess of Kincardine, a Dutch
lady of the noble house of Sommelsdyck, of which there is a full account
in Bayle's _Dictionary_. The family had once a princely right in
Surinam. The governour of that settlement was appointed by the States
General, the town of Amsterdam, and Sommelsdyck. The States General have
acquired Sommelsdyck's right; but the family has still great dignity and
opulence, and by intermarriages is connected with many other noble
families.
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