Page:Footsteps of Dr. Johnson.djvu/173

Rh washing twice a year must not be taken as a proof that this divine "had no passion for clean linen." A Scotch friend of mine remembers a man who owned three farms in the neighbourhood of Campbeltown. In his house they only washed twice a year, though both he and his three sons who lived with him changed their shirts every second day. A time was chosen when there was a slackness in the ordinary work, and then the female servants were gathered from the three farms for a week's hard washing.

This same custom exists, I believe, to the present day in Norway. In the churchyard I found Mr. Grant's tombstone. He lived till 1828—fifty five years after he had met Johnson. He used to tell a story about the doctor which happily has been preserved. He had supped with him, as we learn from Boswell, at the inn at Inverness. Johnson, who was in high spirits, gave an account of the kangaroo, which had lately been discovered in New South Wales, "and volunteered an imitation of the animal. The company stared; Mr. Grant said nothing could be more ludicrous than the appearance of a tall, heavy, grave-looking manlike Dr. Johnson standing up to mimic the shape and motions of a kangaroo. He stood erect, put out his hands like feelers, and gathering up the tails of his huge brown coat so as to resemble the pouch of the animal, made two or three vigorous bounds across the room."

Near Mr. Grant lies his friend and predecessor Kenneth Macaulay, with an inscription which tells that he was "notus in fratres animi paterni." This animus paternus descended in full measure to Lord Macaulay. On the porch of the church is still fastened by an iron chain the old penance-ring which Pennant saw Rh