Page:Footsteps of Dr. Johnson.djvu/317

 Rh "What I admire here is the total defiance of expense." In a low one-horse chair our two travellers were driven through "the duke's spacious park and rising forests." "I had," writes Boswell, "a particular pride in showing Dr. Johnson a great number of fine old trees, to compensate for the nakedness which had made such an impression on him on the eastern coast of Scotland." Pennant noticed pines nine feet, and beeches from nine to twelve feet in girth, planted, it was said, by the Earl of Argyle who was beheaded in 1685. They have grown to a noble size, and in one part form a long avenue, which would grace that English county which takes its name from its beech woods. Even in the Black Forest I do not

THE AVENUE OF BEECHES.

know that I have seen larger pines. The planting still goes on. A fine young Spanish chestnut boasts in the inscription which it bears that in the year 1858 it was planted by Lord Tennyson. "Would," I exclaimed as I read the words, "that twin chestnuts of stately growth in like manner commemorated the visit of Johnson and Boswell." But Johnson's trees are scattered broadcast over Scotland. Si monumentum quæris, circumspice.

The fine collection of arms of which he took much notice still adorns the hall. Of the pictures no mention is made by either of the travellers, though in more than one they might have recognized the work of their friend Sir Joshua. Here is his full-length portrait of the beautiful duchess, "about whom the world had gone mad" one-and-twenty years before. When she was presented at