; and I must be allowed to assume some merit
from having been the cause that our language has been enriched with such
a book as that which he published on his return; a book which I never
read but with the utmost admiration, as I had such opportunities of
knowing from what very meagre materials it was composed.

But my praise may be supposed partial; and therefore I shall insert two
testimonies, not liable to that objection, both written by gentlemen of
Scotland, to whose opinions I am confident the highest respect will be
paid, Lord Hailes[1123], and Mr. Dempster[1124]. 'TO JAMES
BOSWELL, ESQ.

'SIR,

'I have received much pleasure and much instruction, from perusing _The
Journey to the Hebrides_.

'I admire the elegance and variety of description, and the lively
picture of men and manners. I always approve of the moral, often of the
political, reflections. I love the benevolence of the authour.

'They who search for faults, may possibly find them in this, as well as
in every other work of literature.

'For example, the friends of the old family say that _the aera of
planting_ is placed too late, at the Union of the two kingdoms[1125]. I
am known to be no friend of the old family; yet I would place the aera
of planting at the Restoration; after the murder of Charles I. had been
expiated in the anarchy which succeeded it.

'Before the Restoration, few trees were planted, unless by the
monastick drones: their successors, (and worthy patriots they were,) the
barons, first cut down the trees, and then sold the estates. The
gentleman at St. Andrews, who said that there were but two trees in
Fife[1126], ought to have added, that the elms of Balmerino[1127] were
sold within these twenty years, to make pumps for the fire-engines.

'In J. Major de _Gestis Scotorum_, L. i. C. 2. last edition, there is a
singular passage:--

'"Davidi Cranstoneo conterraneo, dum de prima theologiae licentia foret,
duo ei consocii et familiares, et mei cum eo in artibus auditores,
scilicet Jacobus Almain Senonensis, et Petrus Bruxcellensis,
Praedicatoris ordinis, in Sorbonae curia die Sorbonico commilitonibus
suis publice objecerunt, _quod pane avenaceo plebeii Scoti_, sicut a
quodam religioso intellexerant, _vescebantur, ut virum, quem cholericum
noverant, honestis salibus tentarent, qui hoc inficiari tanquam patriae
dedecus nisus est_."

'Pray introduce our countryman, Mr. Licentiate David Cranston, to
the acquaintance of Mr. Johnson