Beauclerk's house in the country,when two large dogs were fighting,he went up to them,and beat them till they separated;and at another time,when told of the danger there was that a gun might burst if charged with many balls,he put in six or seven,and fired it off against a wall.Mr.Langton told me,that when they were swimming together near Oxford,he cautioned Dr.Johnson against a pool,which was reckoned particularly dangerous;upon which Johnson directly swam into it.He told me himself that one night he was attacked in the street by four men,to whom he would not yield,but kept them all at bay,till the watch came up,and carried both him and them to the round-house.In the playhouse at Lichfield,as Mr.Garrick informed me,Johnson having for a moment quitted a chair which was placed for him between the side-scenes,a gentleman took possession of it,and when Johnson on his return civilly demanded his seat,rudely refused to give it up;upon which Johnson laid hold of it,and tossed him and the chair into the pit.
Foote,who so successfully revived the old comedy,by exhibiting living characters,had resolved to imitate Johnson on the stage,expecting great profits from his ridicule of so celebrated a man.
Johnson being informed of his intention,and being at dinner at Mr.
Thomas Davies's the bookseller,from whom I had the story,he asked Mr.Davies 'what was the common price of an oak stick;'and being answered six-pence,'Why then,Sir,(said he,)give me leave to send your servant to purchase me a shilling one.I'll have a double quantity;for I am told Foote means to take me off,as he calls it,and I am determined the fellow shall not do it with impunity.Davies took care to acquaint Foote of this,which effectually checked the wantonness of the mimick.Mr.Macpherson's menaces made Johnson provide himself with the same implement of defence;and had he been attacked,I have no doubt that,old as he was,he would have made his corporal prowess be felt as much as his intellectual.
His Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland is a most valuable performance.Johnson's grateful acknowledgements of kindnesses received in the course of this tour,completely refute the brutal reflections which have been thrown out against him,as if he had made an ungrateful return;and his delicacy in sparing in his book those who we find from his letters to Mrs.Thrale were just objects of censure,is much to be admired.His candour and amiable disposition is conspicuous from his conduct,when informed by Mr.
Macleod,of Rasay,that he had committed a mistake,which gave that gentleman some uneasiness.He wrote him a courteous and kind letter,and inserted in the news-papers an advertisement,correcting the mistake.
As to his prejudice against the Scotch,which I always ascribed to that nationality which he observed in THEM,he said to the same gentleman,'When I find a Scotchman,to whom an Englishman is as a Scotchman,that Scotchman shall be as an Englishman to me.'His intimacy with many gentlemen of Scotland,and his employing so many natives of that country as his amanuenses,prove that his prejudice was not virulent;and I have deposited in the British Museum,amongst other pieces of his writing,the following note in answer to one from me,asking if he would meet me at dinner at the Mitre,though a friend of mine,a Scotchman,was to be there:--'Mr.Johnson does not see why Mr.Boswell should suppose a Scotchman less acceptable than any other man.He will be at the Mitre.'
My much-valued friend Dr.Barnard,now Bishop of Killaloc,having once expressed to him an apprehension,that if he should visit Ireland he might treat the people of that country more unfavourably than he had done the Scotch,he answered,with strong pointed double-edged wit,'Sir,you have no reason to be afraid of me.The Irish are not in a conspiracy to cheat the world by false representations of the merits of their countrymen.No,Sir;the Irish are a FAIR PEOPLE;--they never speak well of one another.'
All the miserable cavillings against his Journey,in newspapers,magazines,and other fugitive publications,I can speak from certain knowledge,only furnished him with sport.At last there came out a scurrilous volume,larger than Johnson's own,filled with malignant abuse,under a name,real or fictitious,of some low man in an obscure corner of Scotland,though supposed to be the work of another Scotchman,who has found means to make himself well known both in Scotland and England.The effect which it had upon Johnson was,to produce this pleasant observation to Mr.Seward,to whom he lent the book:'This fellow must be a blockhead.They don't know how to go about their abuse.Who will read a five-shilling book against me?No,Sir,if they had wit,they should have kept pelting me with pamphlets.'
On Tuesday,March 21,I arrived in London;and on repairing to Dr.
Johnson's before dinner,found him in his study,sitting with Mr.
Peter Garrick,the elder brother of David,strongly resembling him in countenance and voice,but of more sedate and placid manners.
Johnson informed me,that 'though Mr.Beauclerk was in great pain,it was hoped he was not in danger,and that he now wished to consult Dr.Heberden to try the effect of a NEW UNDERSTANDING.'
Both at this interview,and in the evening at Mr.Thrale's where he and Mr.Peter Garrick and I met again,he was vehement on the subject of the Ossian controversy;observing,'We do not know that there are any ancient Erse manus;and we have no other reason to disbelieve that there are men with three heads,but that we do not know that there are any such men.'He also was outrageous upon his supposition that my countrymen 'loved Scotland better than truth,'saying,'All of them,--nay not all,--but DROVES of them,would come up,and attest any thing for the honour of Scotland.'
