ry, where we found an excellent inn. Even here,
Dr. Johnson would not change his wet clothes.

The prospect of good accommodation cheered us much. We supped well; and
after supper, Dr. Johnson, whom I had not seen taste any fermented
liquor during all our travels, called for a gill of whiskey. 'Come,
(said he,) let me know what it is that makes a Scotchman happy[925]!' He
drank it all but a drop, which I begged leave to pour into my glass,
that I might say we had drunk whisky together. I proposed Mrs. Thrale
should be our toast. He would not have _her_ drunk in whisky, but rather
'some insular lady;' so we drank one of the ladies whom we had lately
left. He owned to-night, that he got as good a room and bed as at an
English inn.

I had here the pleasure of finding a letter from home, which relieved me
from the anxiety I had suffered, in consequence of not having received
any account of my family for many weeks. I also found a letter from Mr.
Garrick, which was a regale[926] as agreeable as a pine-apple would be
in a desert[927]. He had favoured me with his correspondence for many
years; and when Dr. Johnson and I were at Inverness, I had written to
him as follows:--

Inverness,
Sunday, 29 August, 1773.

MY DEAR SIR,

'Here I am, and Mr. Samuel Johnson actually with me. We were a night at
Fores, in coming to which, in the dusk of the evening, we passed over
the bleak and blasted heath where Macbeth met the witches[928]. Your old
preceptor[929] repeated, with much solemnity, the speech--

"How far is't called to Fores? What are these,
So wither'd and so wild in their attire," &c.

This day we visited the ruins of Macbeth's castle at Inverness. I have
had great romantick satisfaction in seeing Johnson upon the classical
scenes of Shakspeare in Scotland; which I really looked upon as almost
as improbable as that "Birnam wood should come to Dunsinane[930]."
Indeed, as I have always been accustomed to view him as a permanent
London object, it would not be much more wonderful to me to see St.
Paul's Church moving along where we now are. As yet we have travelled
in post-chaises; but to-morrow we are to mount on horseback, and ascend
into the mountains by Fort Augustus, and so on to the ferry, where we
are to cross to Sky. We shall see that island fully, and then visit some
more of the Hebrides; after which we are to land in Argyleshire, proceed
by Glasgow to Auchinleck, repose there a compete