[419] Boswell refers, I think, to a passage in act iv. sc.  I of Farquhar’s Comedy, where Archer says to Mrs. Sullen:—­’I can’t at this distance, Madam, distinguish the figures of the embroidery.’  This passage is copied by Goldsmith in She Stoops to Conquer, act iii., where Marlow says to Miss Hardcastle:  ’Odso! then you must shew me your embroidery.’

[420] Johnson (Works, ix. 28) gives a long account of this woman.  ’Meal she considered as expensive food, and told us that in spring, when the goats gave milk, the children could live without it.’

[421] It is very odd, that when these roads were made, there was no care taken for Inns.  The King’s House, and the General’s Hut, are miserable places; but the project and plans were purely military.  WALTER SCOTT.  Johnson found good entertainment here, ’We had eggs and bacon and mutton, with wine, rum, and whisky.  I had water.’ Piozzi Letters, i. 124.

[422] ’Mr. Boswell, who between his father’s merit and his own is sure of reception wherever he comes, sent a servant before,’ &c.  Johnson’s Works, ix. 30.

[423] On April 6, 1777, Johnson noted down:  ’I passed the night in such sweet uninterrupted sleep as I have not known since I slept at Fort Augustus.’ Pr. and Med. p.159.  On Nov. 21, 1778, he wrote to Boswell:  ’The best night that I have had these twenty years was at Fort Augustus.’ Ante, iii. 369.

[424] See ante, iii. 246.

[425] A McQueen is a Highland mode of expression.  An Englishman would say one McQueen.  But where there are clans or tribes of men, distinguished by patronymick surnames, the individuals of each are considered as if they were of different species, at least as much as nations are distinguished; so that a McQueen, a McDonald, a McLean, is said, as we say a Frenchman, an Italian, a Spaniard.  BOSWELL.

[426] ’I praised the propriety of his language, and was answered that I need not wonder, for he had learnt it by grammar.  By subsequent opportunities of observation I found that my host’s diction had nothing peculiar.  Those Highlanders that can speak English commonly speak it well, with few of the words and little of the tone by which a Scotchman is distinguished ...  By their Lowland neighbours they would not willingly be taught; for they have long considered them as a mean and degenerate race.’  Johnson’s Works, ix. 31.  He wrote to Mrs. Thrale:  ’This man’s conversation we were glad of while we staid.  He had been out, as they call it, in forty-five, and still retained his old opinions.’ Piozzi Letters, i. 130.

[427] By the Chevalier Ramsay.

[428] ’From him we first heard of the general dissatisfaction which is now driving the Highlanders into the other hemisphere; and when I asked him whether they would stay at home if they were well treated, he answered with indignation that no man willingly left his native country.  Johnson’s Works, ix. 33.  See ante, p. 27.