ound, for the new pages are but clumsily pasted on the guard
between leaves 166 and 169. The first edition had accordingly this
account, which was even toned down in the next.

'Instead of finding the head of the Macdonalds surrounded with his clan,
and a festive entertainment, we had a small company and cannot boast of
our cheer. The particulars are minuted in my journal, but I shall not
trouble the publick with them. I shall mention but one characteristick
circumstance. My shrewd and hearty friend, Sir Thomas Blackett, Lady
Macdonald's uncle, who had preceded us in a visit to this chief, upon
being asked by him if the punchbowl then upon the table was not a very
handsome one, replied, "Yes, if it were full." Sir Alexander, having
been an Eton scholar, Dr Johnson had formed an opinion of him which was
much diminished when he beheld him in the Isle of Sky, where we heard
heavy complaints of rents racked, and the people driven to emigration.
Dr Johnson said, "it grieves me to see the chief of a great clan appear
to such disadvantage. The gentleman has talents, nay, some learning; but
he is totally unfit for his situation. Sir, the Highland chiefs should
not be allowed to go further south than Aberdeen." I meditated an escape
from this the very next day, but Dr Johnson resolved that we should
weather it out till Monday.'

Next day being Sunday Bozzy's spirits were cheered by the climate and
the weather, but 'had I not had Dr Johnson to contemplate, I should have
been sunk into dejection, but his firmness supported me. I looked at
him as a man whose head is turning giddy at sea looks at a rock.'
Everywhere they met signs of the parting of the ways in the Highlands.
The old days of feudal power were merging in the industrial, the chiefs
were now landlords and exacting ones. Emigration was rife, and the pages
of the _Scots Magazine_ of the time dwell much on this. A month before,
four hundred men had left Strathglass and Glengarry; in June eight
hundred had sailed from Stornoway; Lochaber sent four hundred, 'the
finest set of fellows in the Highlands, carrying L6000 in ready cash
with them. The extravagant rents exacted by the landlords is the sole
cause given for this emigration which seems to be only in its infancy.'
The high price of provisions and the decrease of the linen trade in the
north of Ireland sent eight hundred this year from Stromness, when we
find the linen dealers thanking Boswell's old rival, as he supposed