Tag Archives: James Boswell

edinburgh: habits and hangovers

In eighteenth-century Edinburgh temperance was an unknown virtue…. To be sure, the inhabitants of Edinburgh probably felt they had good reason to imbibe. They had recently broken free from a stifling Calvinistic authority, which combined with the dreadful conditions on … Continue reading

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high on the hog: boastful splendiferous types

…Of what there is no doubt is that this life was wasteful, extravagant, ostentatious- an appalling contrast, as Dr. Samuel Johnson noted, to the human wretchedness of rural or urban slums; yet it was saved both by its humanity and … Continue reading

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land equaled power

Nowhere were the changes from barbarism to sophistication so clearly mirrored as in the houses, the furniture, the clothes, the style of life of the rich. By 1750 the Western world had captured a vast commerce unequaled in history and … Continue reading

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rubbing shoulders with the celestial emperor

The noble houses of eighteenth century England. Eventually the life blood of civilization began to flow through the veins of barbarized Europe. Gradually, a tide of wealth swept over the old noble warrior society. By 1750 the Western world had … Continue reading

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like the highlands?

“Who can like the Highlands?” answered Dr. Johnson.And so the famous trip through the Scottish Highlands drew to a close, to be immortalized in James Boswell’s journal. It was a snapshot in time, of the wild ways of the Hebrides … Continue reading

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highlands: linen in the seraglio

James Boswell and Dr. Samuel Johnson’s tour to the Scottish Highlands in 1773…. Boswell, too, was more concerned with the study of human character. Samuel Johnson was a more fascinating subject than any cliff or stream or ruined castle- the … Continue reading

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meeting of the minds….

“Who can like the Highlands?” asked Dr. Johnson after James Boswell had dragged him from Edinburgh to Inverness to Skye and back to the Lowlands. Boswell could,and soon set about immortalizing the tour… At Auchinleck, Dr. Johnson, a vehement Tory, … Continue reading

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going home: blades of grass

James Boswell induced Samuel Johnson in 1773, who pretended that he detested Scotsmen and despised their barren country, to venture across the Scottish border and, not only spend some days in Edinburgh, but penetrate the barbaric Highlands and undertake a … Continue reading

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boswell: poonch and the holy resolutions

James Boswell’s major coup was the one that he achieved during August 1773 when he induced Samuel Johnson, who pretended that he detested Scotsmen and despised their barren country, to venture across the Scottish border and, not only to spend … Continue reading

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boswell and johnson: mull-ing the coll of the wild

” that we might there contemplate a system of life almost totally different from what we have been accustomed to see,” and “find simplicity and wildness…” But it needed a great deal of quiet diplomacy to overcome Johnson’s natural sloth. … Continue reading

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