eemed metamorphosed; he
had moulded his hat into the form of the Mansion-House; some guineas
which he had, looked like the 'Change; but it would be tedious to relate
every particular; however, I must not let his conversation be forgot,
though it was much of a piece with that you so humorously relate: he
swore to me he never saw a rag fit for a gentleman to wear, but in
Rag-fair; he said there was no scolding but at Billingsgate; and he
avowed there were no bad poets but in Grub-street; I could not stand
that, I bid him call to remembrance an acquaintance of his who lived in
the Parliament-Close, and also a relation of his who formerly resided in
Campbell's Land; he smiled, and confessed these were really very bad
poets, but that he was not convinced for all that; upon this, to put
the matter out of all dispute, I offered to lend him the first and
second volumes of Donaldson's Collection. At that very moment the
hostler informed him the chaise was ready, and he still remains ignorant
where the worst poets in the world are. Tell me how our second volume is
received; I was much pleased with N----'s lines; how did he get them
inserted? I intend writing a criticism upon the volume, and upon your
writings in particular, so tremble.

Dear Boswell, farewell,

Yours most affectionately,

ANDREW ERSKINE.

P.S.--I hope you'll write to me soon.

* * * * *

LETTER XXIII.

Edinburgh, March 9, 1762.

Dear ERSKINE,--Can a man walk up the Cowgate after a heavy rain without
dirtying his shoes? I might have said the soles of his shoes:--and,
indeed, to put the matter beyond dispute, I would yet have you to
understand me so; for although nothing is so common as to use a part for
the whole; yet if you should be out of humour with a bad dinner, a bad
lodging, an ill-dressed shirt, or an ill-printed book, you might be
disposed to cavil, and object, that in critical precision of language,
(supposing a man to walk slow) he could not be said to have dirtied his
shoes, no more than a boarding-school girl, who has cut her finger in
paring an apple, could be said to have mangled her carcase.

But to proceed; can a man make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land from the
Island of Great Britain, without the aid of navigation? Can a man walk
in the Mall at noon, carrying his breeches upon an enormous long pole,
without being laughed at? Can a man of acknowledged ignorance and
stupidity, write a tragedy superior to Ha