he brilliant
but totally misleading essay by Lord Macaulay. At least, the writer
cherishes the hope that it will materially add to the correct
understanding and the enjoyment of Boswell's great work, _the Life of
Johnson_.

My best thanks are due to J. Pearson & Co., 5 Pall Mall Place, London,
for the use of unpublished letters by Boswell and of his boyish
common-place book. And if "our Boswell" could indulge an honest pride in
availing himself of a dedication to Sir Joshua Reynolds, as to a person
of the first eminence in his department, so may I entertain the same
feeling in inscribing this sketch to Dr Hill who, amid the pressure of
other Johnson labours, has yet found time to revise the proof sheets of
my book.

W. K. L.

_ABERDEEN, December 1896._

CONTENTS

PAGE

CHAPTER I

EARLY DAYS--MEETS JOHNSON--1740-63 9

CHAPTER II

THE CONTINENT--CORSICA--1763-66 35

CHAPTER III

EDINBURGH BAR--STRATFORD JUBILEE--1766-69 54

CHAPTER IV

LOVE AFFAIRS--LITERARY CLUB--1766-73 76

CHAPTER V

TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES--1773 88

CHAPTER VI

EDINBURGH LIFE--DEATH OF JOHNSON--1773-84 113

CHAPTER VII

THE ENGLISH BAR--DEATH--1784-95 122

CHAPTER VIII

IN LITERATURE 143

JAMES BOSWELL

CHAPTER I

EARLY DAYS--MEETS JOHNSON. 1740-1763

'Behind yon hills, where Lugar flows.'--BURNS.

'Every Scotchman,' says Sir Walter Scott, 'has a pedigree. It is a
national prerogative, as inalienable as his pride and his poverty. My
birth was neither distinguished nor sordid.' What, however, was but a
foible with Scott was a passion in James Boswell, who has on numerous
occasions obtruded his genealogical tree in such a manner as to render
necessary some acquaintance with his family and lineage. The family of
Boswell, or Bosville, dates from the Normans who came with William the
Conqueror to Hastings. Entering Scotland in the days of the sore saint,
David I., they had spread over Berwickshire and established themselves,
at least in one branch, at Balmuto in Fife. A descendant of the family,
Thomas Boswell, occupies in the