Page:Footsteps of Dr. Johnson.djvu/149

Rh of the wonders which chemistry was soon to work in agriculture, for being one day at Court, he told George III. that the time would come when a man would be able to carry in his waistcoat pocket manure enough for an acre of land.

The "farmer's dinner" was good enough to satisfy Dr. Johnson, for he made a very hearty meal. Yet with all the pride of a man who has a vigorous appetite, he said, "I have done greater feats with my knife than this." The low, square, panelled room in which they dined is much as they saw it, with its three windows with deep recesses looking on to the lawns and trees. It is a solid, comfortable apartment, which might have recalled to Johnson's memory an Oxford Common-Room, and which harmonized well with the solid talk he had with his host. In it there is a curious clock, so old that it might have told the hours to Colonel Irvine and his wife Elizabeth Douglas, and have attracted Johnson's notice by its antiquity.

Late in the afternoon our travellers drove on to Aberdeen. "We had tedious driving," writes Boswell, "and were somewhat drowsy." Though they "travelled with the gentle pace of a Scotch driver," nevertheless Johnson, much as he delighted in the rapid motion of the English post-chaise, bore this journey of five-and-twenty miles with greater philosophy than his friend. "We did not," he writes, "affect the impatience we did not feel, but were satisfied with the company of each other as well riding in the chaise as sitting at an inn." It was not far short of midnight when they arrived at Aberdeen. The "New Inn" at which they stopped was full, they were told. "This was comfortless." Fortunately Boswell's father, when on circuit, always put up there for the five nights during which he was required by law to stay in each assize town. The son was recognized by his likeness to the father, and a room was soon provided. "Mr. Boswell's name," writes Johnson, "overpowered all objection, and we found a very good house, and civil treatment." A few weeks later the old judge went this same