ndeur of the tempestuous ocean. I would not for any
amusement wish for a storm; but as storms, whether wished or not, will
sometimes happen, I may say, without violation of humanity, that I
should willingly look out upon them from Slanes Castle.' Johnson's
_Works_, ix. 15.

[309] See _ante_, p. 68.

[310] Horace. _Odes_, i. 2.

[311] See _ante_, ii. 428.

[312] Perhaps the poverty of their host led to this talk. Sir Walter
Scott wrote in 1814:--'Imprudence, or ill-fortune as fatal as the sands
of Belhelvie [shifting sands that had swallowed up a whole parish], has
swallowed up the estate of Errol, excepting this dreary mansion-house
and a farm or two adjoining.' Lockhart's _Scott_, ed. 1839, iv. 187.

[313] See _ante_, ii. 421, note 1.

[314] Since the accession of George I. only one parliament had had so
few as five sessions, and it was dissolved before its time by his death.
One had six sessions, six seven sessions, (including the one that was
now sitting,) and one eight. There was therefore so little dread of a
sudden dissolution that for five years of each parliament the members
durst contradict the populace.

[315] To Miss Burney Johnson once said:--'Sir Joshua Reynolds possesses
the largest share of inoffensiveness of any man that I know.' _Memoirs
of Dr. Burney_, i. 343. 'Once at Mr. Thrale's, when Reynolds left the
room, Johnson observed:--"There goes a man not to be spoiled by
prosperity."' Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 82. Burke wrote of him:--'He
had a strong turn for humour, and well saw the weak sides of things. He
enjoyed every circumstance of his good fortune, and had no affectation
on that subject. And I do not know a fault or weakness of his that he
did not convert into something that bordered on a virtue, instead of
pushing it to the confines of a vice.' Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 638.

[316] He visited Devonshire in 1762. _Ante_, i. 377.

[317] Horace Walpole, describing the coronation of George III, writes:--
'One there was ... the noblest figure I ever saw, the high-constable of
Scotland, Lord Errol; as one saw him in a space capable of containing
him, one admired him. At the wedding, dressed in tissue, he looked like
one of the Giants in Guildhall, new gilt. It added to the energy of his
person, that one considered him acting so considerable a part in that
very Hall, where so few years ago one saw his father, Lord Kilmarnock,
condemned to the block.' _Letters_, iii. 438. Sir William Forbes
sa