Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/313

 length, with a knot of blue ribbons at the end of it. He had, by way of staff, a very curious vine all of one piece, with a bird finely carved upon it, emblematical of the sweet bard of Avon. He wore no mask; saying, that it was not proper for a gallant Corsican. So soon as he came into the room, he drew universal attention. The novelty of the Corsican dress, its becoming appearance, and the character of that brave nation, concurred to distinguish the armed Corsican chief. He was first accosted by Mrs Garrick, with whom he had a good deal of conversation. Mr Boswell danced both a minuet and a country dance with a very pretty Irish lady, Mrs Sheldon, wife to captain Sheldon of the 38th regiment of foot, who was dressed in a genteel domino, and before she danced, threw off her mask." London Magazine, September, 1769, where there is a portrait of the modern Xenophon in this strange guise.

On the 25th of November, he was married, at Lainshaw, in Ayrshire, to Miss Montgomery, and what is rather a remarkable circumstance, his father was married on the same day, at Edinburgh, to a second wife. With admirable sense, affection, and generosity of heart, the wife of James Boswell possessed no common share of wit and pleasantry. One of her bon mots is recorded by her husband. Thinking that Johnson had too much influence over him, she said, with some warmth, "I have seen many a bear led by a man, but I never before saw a man led by a bear." Once, when Boswell was mounted upon a horse which he had brought pretty low by riding the country for an election, and was boasting that he was a horse of blood, "I hope so," said she, drily, "for I am sure he has no flesh. Her good-humoured husband kept a collection of her good things, under the title of Uxoriana. Perhaps her best property was her discretion as a housewife and a mother; a quality much needed on her side of the house, since it was so deficient on that of her husband. In a letter from Auchinleck, 23d August, 1773, Dr Johnson thus speaks of her: "Mrs Boswell has the mien and manner of a gentlewoman, and such a person and manner as could not in any place be either admired or condemned. She is in a proper degree inferior to