corded in 1786
(_Memoirs_, ii. 22), 'I had a quarrel with Lord Monboddo one night
lately. He said _Douglas_ was a better play than Shakespeare could have
written. He was angry and I was pert. Lord Mulgrave sat spiriting me up,
but kept out of the scrape himself, and Lord Stormont seemed to enjoy
the debate, but was shabby enough not to help me out.'

[972] See _ante_, ii. 230, note 1.

[973] See _ante_, p. 318.

[974] See _ante_, iii. 54

[975] See _ante_, p. 356.

[976] See _ante_, iii. 241, note 2.

[977] As a remarkable instance of his negligence, I remember some years
ago to have found lying loose in his study, and without the cover, which
contained the address, a letter to him from Lord Thurlow, to whom he had
made an application as Chancellor, in behalf of a poor literary friend.
It was expressed in such terms of respect for Dr. Johnson, that, in my
zeal for his reputation, I remonstrated warmly with him on his strange
inattention, and obtained his permission to take a copy of it; by which
probably it has been preserved, as the original I have reason to suppose
is lost. BOSWELL. See _ante_, iii. 441.

[978] 'The islets, which court the gazer at a distance, disgust him at
his approach, when he finds, instead of soft lawns and shady thickets,
nothing more than uncultivated ruggedness.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 156.

[979] See _ante_, i. 200, and iv. 179.

[980] In these arguments he says:--'Reason and truth will prevail at
last. The most learned of the Scottish doctors would now gladly admit a
form of prayer, if the people would endure it. The zeal or rage of
congregations has its different degrees. In some parishes the Lord's
Prayer is suffered: in others it is still rejected as a form; and he
that should make it part of his supplication would be suspected of
heretical pravity.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 102. See _ante_, p. 121.

[981] 'A very little above the source of the Leven, on the lake, stands
the house of Cameron, belonging to Mr. Smollett, so embosomed in an oak
wood that we did not see it till we were within fifty yards of the
door.' _Humphry Clinker_, Letter of Aug. 28.

[982] Boswell himself was at times one of 'those absurd visionaries.'
_Ante_, ii. 73.

[983] See _ante_, p. 117.

[984] Lord Kames wrote one, which is published in Chambers's _Traditions
of Edinburgh_, ed. 1825, i. 280. In it he bids the traveller to 'indulge
the hope of a Monumental Pillar.'

[985] See _ante_, iii. 85; and