, where we arrived
very wet, fatigued, and hungry. In this situation, we were somewhat
disconcerted by being told that we should have no dinner till late in
the evening, but should have tea in the mean time. Dr. Johnson opposed
this arrangement; but they persisted, and he took the tea very readily.
He said to me afterwards, 'You must consider, Sir, a dinner here is a
matter of great consequence. It is a thing to be first planned, and then
executed. I suppose the mutton was brought some miles off, from some
place where they knew there was a sheep killed.'

Talking of the good people with whom we were, he said, 'Life has not got
at all forward by a generation in M'Sweyn's family; for the son is
exactly formed upon the father. What the father says, the son says; and
what the father looks, the son looks.'

There being little conversation to-night, I must endeavour to recollect
what I may have omitted on former occasions. When I boasted, at Rasay,
of my independency of spirit, and that I could not be bribed, he said,
'Yes, you may be bribed by flattery.' At the Reverend Mr. M'Lean's, Dr.
Johnson asked him, if the people of Col had any superstitions. He said,
'No.' The cutting peats at the increase of the moon was mentioned as
one; but he would not allow it, saying, it was not a superstition, but a
whim. Dr. Johnson would not admit the distinction. There were many
superstitions, he maintained, not connected with religion; and this was
one of them[825]. On Monday we had a dispute at the Captain's, whether
sand-hills could be fixed down by art. Dr. Johnson said, 'How _the
devil_ can you do it?' but instantly corrected himself, 'How can you do
it[826]?' I never before heard him use a phrase of that nature.

He has particularities which it is impossible to explain[827]. He never
wears a night-cap, as I have already mentioned; but he puts a
handkerchief on his head in the night. The day that we left Talisker, he
bade us ride on. He then turned the head of his horse back towards
Talisker, stopped for some time; then wheeled round to the same
direction with ours, and then came briskly after us. He sets open a
window in the coldest day or night, and stands before it. It may do with
his constitution; but most people, amongst whom I am one, would say,
with the frogs in the fable, 'This may be sport to you; but it is death
to us.' It is in vain to try to find a meaning in every one of his
particularities, which, I suppose, are mere ha