had the honour of assisting to carry the
biographer of Johnson, in a state of great intoxication, to bed. For
this he was rewarded next morning by Mr. Boswell clapping his head, and
telling him that he was a very promising lad, and that if "you go on as
you've begun, you may live to be a Bozzy yourself yet."' Cockburn's
_Jeffrey_, i. 33.

[55] He was one of Boswell's executors, and as such was in part
responsible for the destruction of his manuscripts. _Ante_, iii. 301,
note i. It is to his _Life of Dr. Beattie_ that Scott alludes in the
Introduction to the fourth Canto of _Marmion_:--

'Scarce had lamented Forbes paid
The tribute to his Minstrel's shade;
The tale of friendship scarce was told,
Ere the narrator's heart was cold--
Far may we search before we find
A heart so manly and so kind.'

It is only of late years that _Forbes_ has generally ceased to be a
dissyllable.

[56] The saint's name of _Veronica_ was introduced into our family
through my great grandmother Veronica, Countess of Kincardine, a Dutch
lady of the noble house of Sommelsdyck, of which there is a full account
in Bayle's _Dictionary_. The family had once a princely right in
Surinam. The governour of that settlement was appointed by the States
General, the town of Amsterdam, and Sommelsdyck. The States General have
acquired Sommelsdyck's right; but the family has still great dignity and
opulence, and by intermarriages is connected with many other noble
families. When I was at the Hague, I was received with all the affection
of kindred. The present Sommelsdyck has an important charge in the
Republick, and is as worthy a man as lives. He has honoured me with his
correspondence for these twenty years. My great grandfather, the husband
of Countess Veronica, was Alexander, Earl of Kincardine, that eminent
_Royalist_ whose character is given by Burnet in his _History of his own
Times_. From him the blood of _Bruce_ flows in my veins. Of such
ancestry who would not be proud? And, as _Nihil est, nisi hoc sciat
alter_, is peculiarly true of genealogy, who would not be glad to seize
a fair opportunity to let it be known. BOSWELL. Boswell visited Holland
in 1763. _Ante_, i. 473. Burnet says that 'the Earl was both the wisest
and the worthiest man that belonged to his country, and fit for
governing any affairs but his own; which he by a wrong turn, and by his
love for the public, neglected to his ruin. His thoughts went s