ther quiescent, and went early to bed. I slept in the same room with
him. Each had a neat bed with tartan curtains. Dr. Johnson's bed was the
very bed in which the grandson of the unfortunate King James II. lay on
one of the nights after the failure of his rash attempt in 1745-46.

To see Dr. Samuel Johnson lying in that bed in the Isle of Sky, in the
house of Miss Flora Macdonald, struck me with such a group of ideas as
is not easy for words to describe as they passed through the mind. He
smiled, and said: "I have no ambitious thoughts in it." Upon the table I
found in the morning a slip of paper on which Dr. Johnson had written
with his pencil these words: "_Quantum cedat virtutibus aurum_" (With
virtue weighed, what worthless trash is gold). What the Doctor meant by
writing them I could not tell. At breakfast he said he would have given
a good deal rather than not have laid in that bed.

Kingsburgh sent us on our way by boat and on horseback to Dunvegan
Castle. The great size of the castle, which is built upon a rock close
to the sea, while the land around presents nothing but wild, moorish,
hilly, and scraggy appearances, gave a rude magnificence to the scene.
We were a jovial company, and the laird, surrounded by so many of his
clan, was to me a pleasing sight. They listened with wonder and pleasure
while Dr. Johnson harangued. The weather having cleared, we set out for
Ulinish, the house of Mr. Macleod, the sheriff-substitute of the island.
From an old tower near the house is an extensive view of Loch Bracadale,
and, at a distance, of the Isles of Barra and South Uist; and on the
land side the Cuillin, a prodigious range of mountains, capped with
rocky pinnacles, in a strange variety of shapes.

From there we came to Talisker, which is a beautiful place with many
well-grown trees, a wide expanse of sea and mountains, and, within a
quarter of a mile from the house, no less than fifteen waterfalls. Mr.
Donald Maclean, the young laird of Col, was now our guide, and conducted
us to Ostig, the residence of Mr. Martin Macpherson, minister of Slate.
There were great storms of wind and rain which confined us to the house,
but we were fully compensated by Dr. Johnson's conversation.

We then returned to Armidale House, from whence we set sail for Mull on
October 3; but encountered during the night a dreadful gale, which
compelled the skipper to run his vessel to the Isle of Col for shelter.
We were detained in Col by sto