race him at Berlin in July 1764, and in close relations with the
British Envoy at the Prussian Court. Fortunately for Boswell this was
both a countryman and a friend of his father's, Sir Andrew Mitchell, the
late M.P. for the Banff Burghs. By the Ambassador he was introduced to
the best society in the capital, and from Berlin he wrote to his father
representing the urgent necessity of extending his travels, and, till
the letter in reply should arrive, he proceeded into Hanover and
Brunswick. On his return to Berlin towards the end of August he found a
letter waiting him from Lord Auchinleck, who was naturally chagrined at
the breakdown of his scheme of compromise. A visit to Paris he was
prepared to allow, but the return of the wanderer to Utrecht was
peremptorily commanded. The family of the Envoy was now at Spa, but
next day Boswell wrote him a letter urging him to intercede with his
father for the proposed extension. The letter is a very long one, and
its abridgement even is impossible here, but few more Boswellian
productions can be found. He has, he tells Sir Andrew, a melancholy
disposition, and to escape from the gloom of dark speculation he has
made excursions into the fields of folly, and in this tone of the
Preacher in _Ecclesiastes_ he rambles on. The words of St Paul, 'I must
see Rome,' he finds are borne in upon him, and such a journey would
afford him the talk for a lifetime, the more so that he was no libertine
and disclaimed all intentions of travelling as _Milord Anglois_, but
simply as the scholar and the man of elegant curiosity. Did not Sir
Andrew as the loved and respected friend of his father think that the
son had a claim to protest before he considered any act regarding
himself as passed, and would not the Envoy remonstrate or persuade the
father as to the justice of his wish? No reply was sent to this, but the
judge, thinking that discretion was the wiser part in circumstances
where it was useless to dictate without the means to enforce compliance,
yielded reluctant consent to the scheme of an Italian tour. Gravely then
does Bozzy rebuke Sir Andrew and for this occasion he forgives him, 'for
I just say the same to young people when I advise. Believe me,' he
somewhat irrelevantly adds, 'I have a soul.'

Fortune followed him wherever he turned. George, tenth Earl Marischal,
and brother of Frederick the Great's general, Marshal Keith, had joined
the Earl of Mar in the rising of 1715, and had made an