Iona

During the fall of 1773, James Boswell and Samuel Johnson were enjoying their tour of the Scottish Western Isles, having reached Iona.

'Wednesday, 20th October

Early in the morning we surveyed the remains of antiquity at this

place, accompanied by an illiterate fellow, as cicerone, who called

himself a descendant of a cousin of Saint Columba, the founder of the

religious establishment here. As I knew that many persons had already

examined them, and as I saw Dr Johnson inspecting and measuring

several of the ruins of which he has since given so full an account,

my mind was quiescent; and I resolved; to stroll among them at my

ease, to take no trouble to investigate minutely, and only receive the

general impression of solemn antiquity, and the particular ideas of

such objects as should of themselves strike my attention.

We walked from the monastery of nuns to the great church or cathedral,

as they call it, along an old broken causeway. They told us, that this

had been a street; and that there were good houses built on each side.

Dr Johnson doubted if it was any thing more than a paved road for the

nuns. The convent of monks, the great church, Oran's chapel, and four

other chapels, are still to be discerned. But I must own that

Icolmkill did not answer my expectations; for they were high, from

what I had read of it, and still more from what I had heard and

thought of it, from my earliest years. Dr Johnson said, it came up to

his expectations, because he had taken his impression from an account

of it subjoined to Sacheverel's History of the Isle of Man, where it

is said, there is not much to be seen here. We were both disappointed,

when we were shewn what are called the monuments of the kings of

Scotland, Ireland, and Denmark, and of a king of France. There are

only some grave-stones flat on the earth, and we could see no

inscriptions. How far short was this of marble monuments, like those

in Westminster Abbey, which I had imagined here! The grave-stones of

Sir Allan M'Lean's family, and of that of M'Quarrie, had as good an

appearance as the royal grave-stones; if they were royal, we doubted...'

Boswell and Johnson express mixed impressions about the isle, being somewhat disappointed overall. 

The entry above comes from Boswell’s “The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D”.

Sir Walter Scott also had mixed feelings about Iona, though for a different reason.  In “Northern Lights

or a Voyage in the Lighthouse Yacht to Nova Zembla and the Lord where in the summer of 1814”,

 Scott comments that “my eyes, familiarised with the wretchedness of Zetland (Shetland) and the

 Harris, are less shocked with that of Iona.”.  Scott was referring to how poor the inhabitants were, 

which was painful to witness.

Richard Cumberland

‘Saturday, 11th September

It was a storm of wind and rain; so we could not set out. I wrote some

of this Journal, and talked awhile with Dr Johnson in his room, and

passed the day, I cannot well say how, but very pleasantly. I was here

amused to find Mr Cumberland's comedy of the Fashionable Lover, in

which he has very well drawn a Highland character, Colin M'Cleod, of

the same name with the family under whose roof we now were. Dr Johnson

was much pleased with the Laird of Macleod, who is indeed a most

promising youth, and with a noble spirit struggles with difficulties,

and endeavours to preserve his people…’

James Boswell found a production of Richard Cumberland’s The Fashionable Lover while

traveling with Samuel Johnson in Scotland’s Western Isles.  He reported this in his

 ” The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D.”.

Cumberland wrote a total of 54 plays (not all published).  Walter Scott authored a biography

on Cumberland, which is included in “The Miscellaneous Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott”. 

From that bio:

 ‘This author, distinguished in the eighteenth century, survived till the present was considerably

advanced, interesting to the public, as well as to private society, not only on account of his own

claims to distinction, but as the last of that constellation of genius which the predominating spirit

of Johnson had assembled about him, and in which he presided a stern Aristarchus.

Cumberland's character and writings are associated with those of Goldsmith, of Burke, of Percy,

of Reynolds— names which sound in our ears as those of English classics…

The Fashionable Lover, which followed the West Indian, was an addition to Cumberland's reputation.

There was the same elegance of dialogue, but much less of the vis comica. The scenes hang heavy

on the stage, and the character of Colin M'Leod,the honest Scotch servant, not being drawn from

nature, has little, excepting lameness, to distinguish it from the Gibbies and Sawnies which had

hitherto possession of the stage, as the popular representatives of the Scottish nation.

The author himself is, doubtless, of a different opinion, and labours hard to place his

 Fashionable Lover by the side of the West Indian, in point of merit; but the critic cannot

 avoid assenting to the judgment of the audience…’

Sir Alexander Dick

'SIR ALEXANDER DICK TO DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON.


'Prestonfield, Feb. 17, 1777.

'SIR, I had yesterday the honour of receiving your book of your Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, which you was so good as to send me, by the hands of our mutual friend, Mr. Boswell, of Auchinleck; for which I return you my most hearty thanks; and after carefully reading it over again, shall deposit in my little collection of choice books, next our worthy friend's Journey to Corsica...The truths you have told, and the purity of the language in which they are expressed, as your Journey is universally read, may, and already appear to have a very good effect. For a man of my acquaintance, who has the largest nursery for trees and hedges in this country, tells me, that of late the demand upon him for these articles is doubled, and sometimes tripled...'

Sir Alexander Dick's letter to Samuel Johnson refers to Johnson's comments in his account of the trip he took with James Boswell that there were scarcely any trees to be found in Scotland.  Dick was a well known physician, who is remembered for his benevolence.  Dick factors into some background material employed by Sir Walter Scott in his "The Highland Widow".  Samuel Johnson is again involved.  From the notes (Note G on the Countess of Eglington):

'At Sir Alexander Dick's, from that absence of mind to which every man is at times subject. I told, in a blundering manner. Lady Eglintoune's complimentary adoption of Dr. Johnson as her son; for I unfortunately stated that her ladyship adopted him as her son, in consequence of her having been married the year after he was born. Dr Johnson instantly corrected me. 'Sir, don't you perceive that you are defaming the Countess? For, supposing me to be her son, and that she was not married till the year after my birth, I must have been her natural son.' A young lady of quality who was present, very handsomely said, 'Might not the son have justified the fault." My friend was much flattered by this compliment, which 1 never forgot. When in more than ordinary spirits, and talking of hisi journey in Scotland, he has called to me, 'Boswell, what was it that the young lady of quality said of me at Sir Alexander Dick's?' Nobody will doubt that I was happy in repeating it." '

Lady Eglington

On Novermber 1, 1773, the Johnson/Boswell Western Isles tour visits Susanna Kennedy, the Countess Eglington.  Eglington was described by King George II as "the most beautiful woman in my dominions" (wikipedia).  But Ms. Eglington is known equally well for her talents and her patronage of poets.  The entry below, from Boswell's journal of his tour with Johnson is repeated in full in Sir Walter Scott's "Chronicles of the Canongate".

Monday, 1st November


'Though Dr Johnson was lazy, and averse to move, I insisted that he should go with me, and pay a visit to the Countess of Eglintoune, mother of the late and present earl. I assured him, he would find himself amply recompensed for the trouble; and he yielded to my solicitations, though with some unwillingness. We were well mounted, and had not many miles to ride...

Lady Eglintoune, though she was now in her eighty-fifth year, and had lived in the retirement of the country for almost half a century, was still a very agreeable woman. She was of the noble house of Kennedy, and had all the elevation which the consciousness of such birth inspires. Her figure was majestick, her manners high-bred, her reading extensive, and her conversation elegant. She had been the admiration of the gay circles of life, and the patroness of poets. Dr Johnson was delighted with his reception here. Her principles in Church and state were congenial with his. She knew all his merit, and had heard much of him from her son, Earl Alexander, who loved to cultivate the acquaintance of men of talents, in every department.

All who knew his lordship, will allow that his understanding and accomplishments were of no ordinary rate. From the gay habits which he had early acquired, he spent too much of his time with men, and in pursuits far beneath such a mind as his. He afterwards became sensible of it, and turned his thoughts to objects of importance; but was cut off in the prime of his life. I cannot speak, but with emotions of the most affectionate regret, of one, in whose company many of my early days were passed, and to whose kindness I was much indebted...

In the course of our conversation this day, it came out, that Lady Eglintoune was married the year before Dr Johnson was born; upon which she graciously said to him, that she might have been his mother; and that she now adopted him; and when we were going away, she embraced him, saying, 'My dear son, farewell!' My friend was much pleased with this day's entertainment, and owned that I had done well to force him out.'


Ms. Eglinton appears in Scott's work in the following passage, where the Boswell/Johnson is also noted :
 
'In the course of her becoming habituated with foreign manners, Mrs. Bethune Baliol had, perhaps, acquired some slight tincture of them herself. Yet I was always persuaded, that the peculiar vivacity of look and manner—the pointed and appropriate action—with which she accompanied what she said—the use of the gold and gemmed tabatiere, or rather I should say bonbonniere, (for she took no snuff, and the little box contained only a few pieces of candied angelica, or some such lady-like sweetmeat,) were of real old-fashioned Scottish growth, and such as might have graced the tea-table of Susannah, Countess of Eglinton,* the patroness of Allan Ramsay, or of the Hon. Mrs. Colonel Ogilvy, who was another mirror by whom the maidens of Auld Reekie were required to dress themselves. Although well acquainted with the customs of other countries, her manners had been chiefly formed in her own, at a time when great folk lived within little space, and when the distinguished name of the highest society gave to Edinburgh the eclat, which we now endeavour to derive from the unbounded expense and extended circle of our pleasures.
 
* Susannah Kennedy, daughter of Sir Archibald Kennedy of Cullean, Bart., by Elizabeth Lesly, daughter of David Lord Newark, third wife of Alexander 9th Earl of Eglinton, and mother of the 10th and llth Earls. She survived her husband, who died 1729, no less than fifty-seven years, and died March, 1780, in her 91st year. Allan Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd, published 1726, is dedicated to her, in verse, by Hamilton of Bangour.'

Mull

On October 13, 1773, Samuel Johnson and James Boswell are still enjoying their trip to Scotland's Western Isles.  On that day, they ready to sail to the Isle of Mull.

Wednesday, 13th October



Col called me up, with intelligence that it was a good day for a passage to Mull; and just as we rose, a sailor from the vessel arrived for us. We got all ready with dispatch. Dr Johnson was displeased at my bustling, and walking quickly up and down. He said, 'It does not hasten us a bit. It is getting on horseback in a ship. All boys do it; and you are longer a boy than others.' He himself has no alertness, or whatever it may be called; so he may dislike it, as Oderunt hilarem tristes.

Sir Walter Scott visited Mull on his trip to the Northen Lights with Robert Stevenson in 1814.  As related in "Scott in Mull and Iona (Sir Walter Scott) ", published in Scotland Magazine (Issue 30), 'Next stop was Mull itself, and the party landed at Torloisk where Scott and a companion landed to visit an acquaintance of the poet, Mrs Maclean Clephane. But paying calls on the islands was not without hazards in those days, as Scott noted. They landed in mist, could see no house and followed a cart-track in hope. After Scott and his companion being thoroughly soaked by falling in a burn, they stumbled on the house, “in darkness, dirt and rain.” The Light-House Commissioners’ vessel then passed down the Sound of Mull, Scott observing and commenting on the sights of antiquarian interest which were passed, till they arrived at Tobermory, the little capital of an island which had a population of more than 10,000 at that time; today it is about one-quarter of that number. Scott had noted the massive build up of population on Iona, the subdivision of holdings, and “the danger of a famine in case of a year of scarcity.” The same was the case in Mull.'

Mull was an integral part of Scott's poem "The Lord of the Isles", published after Scott's Northern Lights trip in 1815:

XII.



With Bruce and Ronald hides the tale.
To favouring winds they gave the sail,
Till Mull's dark headlands scarce they knew,
And Ardnamurchan's hills were blue.
But then the squalls blew close and hard,
And, fain to strike the galley's yard,


And take them to the oar,
With these rude seas, in weary plight,
They strove the livelong day and night,
Nor till the dawning had a sight,
...

History of My Own Time

On October 7, 1773, Johnson and Boswell are waiting for a break in the weather to sail to Mull ("

The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D

").  Johnson is well equiped for a long siege: 'Captain M'Lean joined us this morning at breakfast. There came on a dreadful storm of wind and rain, which continued all day, and rather increased at night. The wind was directly against our getting to Mull. We were in a strange state of abstraction from the world: we could neither hear from our friends, nor write to them. Col had brought Daille On the Fathers, Lucas On Happiness, and More's Dialogues, from the Reverend Mr M'Lean's, and Burnet's History of his own Times, from Captain M'Lean's; and he had of his own some books of farming, and Gregory's Geometry. Dr Johnson read a good deal of Burnet, and of Gregory, and I observed he made some geometrical notes in the end of his pocket-book. I read a little of Young's Six Weeks Tour through the Southern Counties; and Ovid's Epistles, which I had bought at Inverness, and which helped to solace many a weary hour.


We were to have gone with Dr Johnson this morning to see the mine; but were prevented by the storm. While it was raging, he said, 'We may be glad we are not damnati ad metalla.'


Like Samuel Johnson, Walter Scott read voraciously.  Bishop of Salisbury Gilbert Burnet's work was published in 1724 (vol 1) and 1734 (vol 2).  From "Notes and Queries (Fifth Series, Volume Seventh) - 1877)" comes this note concerning one of Walter Scott's influences: 'With reference to the extract from p. 263, the following passage from Peveril of the Peak conclusively proves, I think, that Sir Walter Scott must have seen this curiously annotated copy of Burnet. Charles II., it will be remembered, takes the Duke of Buckingham to task for anticipating him in his lawless pursuit of Alice Bridgenorth :—



"' It is harder,' said the King, in the same subdued tone, which both preserved through the rest of the conversation, ' that a wench's bright eyes can make a nobleman forget the decencies due to his sovereign's privacy.' ' May I presume to ask your Majesty what decencies are those ?' said the Duke."

Hugh A. Kennedy.

Leibniz and Clarke

On October 5, 1773, James Boswell and Samuel Johnson were still enjoying their sojourn in the Western Isles.  From Boswell's "Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides": 'After breakfast, Dr Johnson and I, and Joseph, mounted horses, and Col and the captain walked with us about a short mile across the island. We paid a visit to the Reverend Mr Hector M'Lean. His parish consists of the islands of Col and Tyr-yi. He was about seventy-seven years of age, a decent ecclesiastick, dressed in a full suit of black clothes, and a black wig. He appeared like a Dutch pastor, or one of the assembly of divines at Westminster. Dr Johnson observed to me afterwards, 'that he was a fine old man, and was as well-dressed, and had as much dignity in his appearance as the dean of a cathedral'. We were told, that he had a valuable library, though but poor accomodation for it, being obliged to keep his books in large chests. It was curious to see him and Dr Johnson together. Neither of them heard very distinctly; so each of them talked in his own way, and at the same time. Mr M'Lean said, he had a confutation of Bayle, by Leibnitz. JOHNSON. 'A confutation of Bayle, sir! What part of Bayle do you mean? The greatest part of his writings is not confutable: it is historical and critical.' Mr M'Lean said, 'the irreligious part'; and proceeded to talk of Leibnitz's controversy with Clarke, calling Leibnitz a great man. JOHNSON. 'Why, sir, Leibnitz persisted in affirming that Newton called space sensorium numinis, notwithstanding he was corrected, and desired to observe that Newton's words were quasisensorium numinis. No, sir, Leibnitz was as paltry a fellow as I know. Out of respect to Queen Caroline, who patronized him, Clarke treated him too well.'...'

The discussion that the Johnson party is holding alludes to Huguenot philosopher Pierre Bayle's discussion of the problem of evil, with the issue boiling down to: if God is almighty, then He is able to prevent evil; if God is all-good, then He is willing to prevent evil; but there is evil; therefore, God is either unable or unwilling to prevent evil.  British philosopher Samuel Clarke was slightly later than Bayle and the German Gottfried Leibniz.

Sir Walter Scott includes reference to Leibniz in "The Edinburgh Annual Register, volume 1", which he published.  The references are to Leibniz' calculus, Leibniz being a mathematician as well as a philosopher: '...This singular coincidence in the two methods (Isaac Newton and Leibniz developing a similar calculus) gave origin to a most violent controversy between the British and continental mathematicians.  Some of the younger British mathematicians accused Leibnitz of having stolen his method from Newton; Leibnitz complained of this to the Royal Society, of which Sir Isaac Newton was president...'.  The outcome of Leibniz' complaint was that Newton felt the accusations were well founded.  The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence itself concerns Leibniz' thinking on relational space, in a dispute in which Newton and Clarke favored a concept of absolute space.

Sources:
http://plato.stanford.edu/

MacDonald of Kingsburgh

On September 26, 1773, Dr. Johnson and James Boswell are still on Skye, meeting with the Macleod's and the MacDonald's who had helped Prince Charles Edward Stuart escape from Scotland after Culloden.  Boswell records the following: '...Mrs M'Kinnon told us at dinner, that old Kingsburgh, her father, was
examined at Mugstot, by General Campbell, as to the particulars of the dress of the person who had come to his house in woman's clothes, along with Miss Flora M'Donald; as the General had received intelligence of that disguise. The particulars were taken down in writing, that it might be seen how far they agreed with the dress of the 'Irish girl' who went with Miss Flora from the Long Island.  Kingsburgh, she said, had but one song, which he always sung when he was merry over a glass. She dictated the words to me, which are foolish enough:


Green sleeves and pudding pies,
Tell me where my mistress lies,
And I'll be with her before the rise,
Fiddle and aw' together.


May our affairs abroad succeed,
And may our king come home with speed,
And all pretenders shake for dread,
And let HIS health go round.


To all our injured friends in need,
This side and beyond the Tweed!
Let all pretenders shake for dread,
And let HIS health go round.
Green sleeves, &c.


While the examination was going on, the present Talisker, who was there as one of M'Leod's militia, could not resist the pleasantry of asking Kingsburgh, in allusion to his only song, 'Had she GREEN SLEEVES?' Kingsburgh gave him no answer. Lady Margaret M'Donald was very angry at Talisker for joking on such a serious occasion, as Kingsburgh was really in danger of his life. Mrs M'Kinnon added that Lady Margaret was quite adored in Sky. That when she travelled through the island, the people ran in crowds before her, and took the stones off the road, lest her horse should stumble and she be hurt. Her husband, Sir Alexander, is also remembered with great regard. We were told that every week a hogshead of claret was drunk at his table...'
Sir Walter Scott covered these events; published in "Tales of a Grandfather".  'General Campbell, returning from Kilda, landed upon South Uist, with the purpose of searching the Long Island from south to north, and he found the MacDonalds of Skye, and MacLeod of MacLeod, as also a strong detachment of regular troops, engaged in the same service. While these forces, in number two thousand men, searched with eagerness the interior of the island, its shores were surrounded with small vessels of war, cutters, armed boats, and the like. It seemed as if the Prince's escape from a search so vigorously prosecuted was altogether impossible; but the high spirit of a noble-minded female rescued him, when probably every other means must have failed.



This person was the celebrated Flora MacDonald ; she was related to the Clanranald family, and was on a visit to that chiefs house at Ormaclade, in South Uist, during the emergency we speak of. Her stepfather was one of Sir Alexander MacDonald's clan, an enemy to the Prince of course, and in the immediate command of the militia of the name of MacDonald, who were then in South Uist.

Notwithstanding her stepfather's hostility, Flora MacDonald readily engaged in a plan for rescuing the unfortunate Wanderer. With this purpose she procured from her stepfather a passport for herself, a man servant, and a female servant, who was termed Betty Burke—the part of Betty Burke being to be acted by the Chevalier in woman's attire.1 In this disguise, after being repeatedly in danger of being taken, Charles at length reached Kilbride, in the Isle of Skye ; but they were still in the country of Sir Alexander MacDonald, and, devoted as that chief was to the service of the Government, the Prince was as much in danger as ever. Here the spirit and presence of mind of Miss Flora MacDonald were again displayed in the behalf of the object, so strangely thrown under the protection of one of her sex and age. She resolved to confide the secret to Lady Margaret MacDonald, the wife of Sir Alexander, and trast to female compassion, and the secret reserve of Jacobitism which lurked in the heart of most Highland women.

The resolution to confide in Lady Margaret was particularly hardy, for Sir Alexander MacDonald, the husband of the lady to be trusted with the important secret, was, as you will recollect, originally believed to be engaged to join the Prince on his arrival, but had declined doing so, under the plea, that the stipulated support from France was not forthcoming; he was afterwards induced to levy his clan on the side of Government. His men had been at first added to Lord Loudon's army, in Inverness-shire, and now formed part of those troops from which the Chevalier had with difficulty just made his escape.


Flora MacDonald found herself under the necessity of communicating the fatal secret of her disguised attendant to the lady of a person thus situated. Lady Margaret MacDonald was much alarmed. Her husband was absent, and as the best mode for the unfortunate Prince's preservation, her house being filled with officers of the militia, she committed him to the charge of MacDonald of Kingsburgh, a man of courage and intelligence, who acted as factor or steward for her husband. Flora MacDonald accordingly conducted Charles to MacDonald of Kingsburgh's house ; and he was fortunate enough to escape detection on the road, though the ungainly and awkward appearance of a man dressed in female apparel attracted suspicion on more than one occasion.'

Lady Grange on St. Kilda

September 19, 1773 was a Sunday, as is the case this year.  Johnson and Boswell continue on their tour of the Western Isles.  They are in Skye, visiting with the McLeod's of Dunvegan, talking of happenings in the region:

'After dinner to-day, we talked of the extraordinary fact of Lady Grange's being sent to St Kilda, and confined there for several years, without any means of relief. [Footnote: The true story of this lady, which happened In this century, is as frightfully romantick as if it had been the fiction of a gloomy fancy. She was the wife of one of the Lords of Session in Scotland, a man of the very first blood of his country. For some mysterious reasons, which have never been discovered, she was seized and carried off in the dark, she knew not by whom, and by nightly journies was conveyed to the Highland shores, from whence she was transported by sea to the remote rock of St Kilda, where she remained, amongst its few wild inhabitants, a forlorn prisoner, but had a constant supply of provisions, and a woman to wait on her. No inquiry was made after her, till she at last found means to convey a letter to a confidential friend, by the daughter of a Catechist who concealed it in a clue of yarn. Information being thus obtained at Edinburgh, a ship was sent to bring her off; but intelligence of this being received, she was conveyed to M'Leod's island of Herries, where she died.

Rachel Chiesley was the wife of James Erskine, Lord Grange, who was a Jacobite sympathizer.  Chiesley, who may have been unbalanced for many years, felt her husband was being unfaithful to her, and she accused him publicly of acting treasonably against the Hanoverian government.  This occurred in late 1731, and when Chiesley booked a coach to London in January 1732, Erskine, afraid she might cause more trouble, had her kidnapped.  She was later transported to the Monarch Isles, where she lived for two years, then to St. Kilda from 1734 - 1740.  She was moved to the Isle of Skye in 1740, and died there in 1745.
Walter Scott leaves a reference to Lady Grange in his Journal: 'January 20 [1829].—...Also a letter to Mrs. Professor Sandford at Glasgow about reprinting Macaulay's History of St. Kilda, advising them to insert the history of Lady Grange who was kidnapped and banished thither.'

Patrick Murray, Lord Elibank

Summer is not fully past at this time of year, and on Septermber 12, 1773 Samuel Johnson and James Boswell are touring Scotland's Western Isles.  As recorded in Boswell's "The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D", on this day, the weather provided the travellers an opportunity to sail from Raasay to Skye.  On reaching an inn at Portree, they find letters waiting for them, sent from Edinburgh by Patrick Murray, Lord Elibank. 

Dear Boswell,



I flew to Edinburgh the moment I heard of Mr Johnson's arrival; but so defective was my intelligence, that I came too late. It is but justice to believe, that I could never forgive myself, nor deserve to be forgiven by others, if I was to foil in any mark of respect to that very great genius.--I hold him in the highest veneration: for that very reason I was resolved to take no share in the merit, perhaps guilt, of inticing him to honour this country with a visit.--I could not persuade myself there was any thing in Scotland worthy to have a Summer of Samuel Johnson bestowed on it; but since he has done us that compliment, for heaven's sake inform me of your motions. I will attend them most religiously; and though I should regret to let Mr Johnson go a mile out of his way on my account, old as I am, I shall be glad to go five hundred miles to enjoy a day of his company. Have the charity to send a council-post [Footnote: A term in Scotland for a special messenger, such as was formerly sent with dispatches by the lords of the council.] with intelligence; the post does not suit us in the country. At any rate write to me. I will attend you in the north, when I shall know where to find you.

I am,


My dear Boswell,
Your sincerely
Obedient humble servant,


ELIBANK.


August 21st, 1773.

The letter to Dr Johnson was in these words:



Dear Sir,


I was to have kissed your hands at Edinburgh, the moment I heard of you; but you were gone. I hope my friend Boswell will inform me of your motions. It will be cruel to deprive me an instant of the honour of attending you. As I value you more than any King in Christendom, I will perform that duty with infinitely greater alacrity than any courtier. I can contribute but little to your entertainment; but, my sincere esteem for you gives me some tide to the opportunity of expressing it.
I dare say you are by this time sensible that things are pretty much the same, as when Buchanan complained of being born solo et seculo inerudito. Let me hear of you, and be persuaded that none of your admirers is more sincerely devoted to you, than,


Dear Sir,
Your most obedient,
And most humble servant,


ELIBANK.


According to Boswell, Johnson said of Murray: " Lord Elibank has read a great deal. It is true, I can find in books all that he has read; but he has a great deal of what is in books, proved by the test of real life."

Patrick Murray, a figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, died at Ballencrieff Castle on August 3, 1778. Walter Scott did not know him.  Murray was contemporary with, and often associated with David Hume.  Among Murray's written works are: Essays on Paper Money, Banking, etc. (1755) Thoughts on Money, Circulation, and Paper Currency (1758), Inquiry into the Origin and Consequence of the Public Debts (1758/9), Queries Relating to the Proposed Plan for Altering Entails in Scotland (1765), Letter to Lord Hailes on his Remarks on the History of Scotland (1773) and Considerations on the Present State of the Peerage of Scotland (1774).

Sir Walter Scott did know other Elibanks. Patrick himself had no children, and the Elibank title passed to more than one Murray line.  Scott knew Peter Murray, and mentions him in his Journal:

February 26 (1826) ...Peter Murray, son of the clever Lord Elibank, called and sat half-an-hour—an old friend, and who, from the peculiarity and originality of his genius, is one of the most entertaining companions I have ever known. But I must finish Malachi.

Sources:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/men/murray_patrick.htm
http://www.jamesboswell.info/biography/patrick-murray-5th-lord-murray
Wikipedia