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Ron Peters's Reviews > A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides
A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides
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“As we sailed along Dr. Johnson got into one of his fits of railing at the Scots. ‘We have taught you,’ said he, ‘and we’ll do the same in time to all barbarous nations, to the Cherokees, and at last to the Orang-Outangs’; laughing with as much glee as if Monboddo had been present.” James Boswell, The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides.
Boswell, a patriotic Scot, had long talked with Johnson about making a trip with him to his homeland, and Johnson finally acceded. These are the mutual diaries of their travels.
They started off in Edinburgh, heading north for a while (“We stopped a while at Dundee, where I remember nothing remarkable”), then over to Inverness where they exchanged a carriage for some horses and made their way to the highlands and by boat to the Western Isles.
The language and views of both Boswell and Johnson are often amusing. It was interesting to read their 18th-century descriptions of places my wife and I visited just five years ago. For some reason, before reading this book I hadn’t remembered that people like Bonnie Prince Charlie and Flora MacDonald were very much alive and politically active at that time.
Johnson probably believed he was being funny/cute in places where he is in fact obnoxiously bigoted toward the Scots. E.g., “Till the Union made them acquainted with English manners, the culture of their lands was unskilful, and their domestick life unformed; their tables were as coarse as the feasts of Eskimeaux, and their houses as filthy as the cottages of Hottentots.” The complete antithesis of the observations of Johnson versus Boswell provides much of the interest of the book.
I’ve started to peck away at Boswell’s Life of Johnson several times but never got into the thick of it. I hope this taste of things will help me on my way.
Boswell, a patriotic Scot, had long talked with Johnson about making a trip with him to his homeland, and Johnson finally acceded. These are the mutual diaries of their travels.
They started off in Edinburgh, heading north for a while (“We stopped a while at Dundee, where I remember nothing remarkable”), then over to Inverness where they exchanged a carriage for some horses and made their way to the highlands and by boat to the Western Isles.
The language and views of both Boswell and Johnson are often amusing. It was interesting to read their 18th-century descriptions of places my wife and I visited just five years ago. For some reason, before reading this book I hadn’t remembered that people like Bonnie Prince Charlie and Flora MacDonald were very much alive and politically active at that time.
Johnson probably believed he was being funny/cute in places where he is in fact obnoxiously bigoted toward the Scots. E.g., “Till the Union made them acquainted with English manners, the culture of their lands was unskilful, and their domestick life unformed; their tables were as coarse as the feasts of Eskimeaux, and their houses as filthy as the cottages of Hottentots.” The complete antithesis of the observations of Johnson versus Boswell provides much of the interest of the book.
I’ve started to peck away at Boswell’s Life of Johnson several times but never got into the thick of it. I hope this taste of things will help me on my way.
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