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  to the meanness of Sir A. Macdonald, who had entertained the travellers in Skye, was softened in the second edition. A ‘contemptible scribbler’ having ‘impudently and falsely asserted’ that the omission was compulsory, Boswell emphatically denied that he had ever received any application from Macdonald (Gent. Mag. for 1786, p. 285). The scandal is repeated by Peter Pindar and by Dr. Rogers, but apparently without foundation. Meanwhile he proceeded with his life of Johnson, which was announced as in preparation at the end of the first edition of the ‘Tour.’ Many distractions interfered with his labours. He issued in 1786 another letter to the people of Scotland, protesting against a bill for reconstructing the court of session. He boasts of his previous achievements, and calls upon Lord Lonsdale, ‘to come over and help us.’ With Lonsdale's help he hoped to represent Ayrshire; and, though he conceived himself still to have claims upon Pitt—whose ‘utter folly’ for not rewarding a ‘man of my popular and pleasant talents’ he denounces in 1789 (Letters to Temple, pp. 275, 289)—and upon Dundas, he looks to Lord Lonsdale as his patron. He still has hopes of getting in for Ayrshire by a compromise between the opposed parties. Boswell had been called to the English bar in Hilary term 1786, and in 1788 (, Illustrations, vii. 309) obtained through Lonsdale's influence the recordership of Carlisle. In 1788 he was in London with his wife; and in 1789 he took a house in Queen Anne Street West for 50l. a year, his wife remaining at Auchinleck in bad health. He is looking out for chambers in the Temple, but admits that he gets no practice. He resolves to ‘keep hovering as an English lawyer,’ but he speaks of the ‘rough unpleasant company’ on circuit, and complains of the ‘roaring bantering’ society. A legal tradition tells, not very credibly, how Boswell was found drunk one night on the street and instructed to move for a sham writ of ‘quare adhæsit pavimento’ (, Life of Eldon, vol. i. c. 6). He was in fact treated as a butt for the horseplay of his companions. His wife's health was breaking. During his last visit to his home he got drunk and was injured by a fall from his horse. He was summoned next morning to Lord Lonsdale, and his wife encouraged him to leave her. He heard soon afterwards in London that her position was dangerous, and posted to Auchinleck with his boys in sixty-four hours and a quarter only to find her dead. He was somewhat comforted by the nineteen carriages which followed her hearse; but his grief was sincere and his position full of discomfort. His brother David advised him in vain to settle in Scotland. He resolved to stay in London, sending his son Alexander to Eton, James to a school in Soho, and afterwards Westminster, and boarding his three daughters in London, Edinburgh, and Ayr. His connection with Lord Lonsdale came to a bad end. On 23 Aug. 1789 he notices what seems to have been a practical joke at Lowther Castle, some one having stolen his wig. In June 1790 Lord Lonsdale insulted him grossly, in ‘a most shocking conversation,’ and Boswell resigned his recordership, and hoped to get rid of all communication with ‘this brutal fellow.’ His income of 1,600l. was reduced by various outgoings to 850l., and allowing 500l. for his five children, he had only 350l. for himself, which was insufficient to keep him from difficulties. He took chambers in the Temple, went the home circuit, which was an improvement on the northern, though he did not get a single brief (Letters to Temple, p. 341), and cherished the illusion that some ‘lucky chance’ might bring him a prize from ‘the great wheel of the metropolis’ (ib. pp. 268, 279). At intervals matrimonial schemes amused him. But he was mainly ‘kept up’ by the ‘Life of Johnson’ (ib. p. 304), at which he was labouring whenever he could find time, with the help of Malone, and of which he announced in February 1788 that it would be ‘more of a life than any work that has ever yet appeared.’ Mrs. Piozzi's ‘Anecdotes’ appeared in 1785, and Hawkins's ‘Life’ in 1787. He was deeply injured, according to Miss Hawkins, by finding himself described in this as ‘Mr. James Boswell’ instead of ‘The Boswell.’ Boswell met Hawkins on friendly terms in 1788–9, but tells Temple (5 March 1789) that his rival is ‘very malevolent. Observe how he talks of me as quite unknown.’ In 1790 Boswell published two specimens of his work—Johnson's letter to Chesterfield and the conversation with George III—at half a guinea apiece, perhaps to secure the copyright. The trouble of writing made him, as he says, often think of giving it up. He had nearly finished the rough draft in January 1789, but the revision and printing proceeded slowly. Pecuniary difficulties, owing partly to a sanguine purchase of an estate for 2,500l., made him think of selling the copyright for 1,000l., and he tried to avoid this by borrowing the money from Malone and Reynolds. They declined; but he succeeded in raising the money elsewhere and retained the copyright of his book (Letters to Malone, published in Johnsoniana), and the magnum opus at last appeared in two