Page:Footsteps of Dr. Johnson.djvu/321

Rh of famous statesmen, but also the ancestor of a great historian. Lord Macaulay's grandfather was at this time Minister of Inverary. He passed the evening with our travellers at their inn after they had returned from dining at the Castle, and got somewhat roughly handled in talk.

On this Sir George Trevelyan remarks in his life of his uncle:—"When we think what well-known ground this was to Lord Macaulay it is impossible to suppress a wish that the great talker had been at hand to avenge his grandfather and grand-uncle." "A hundred to one on Sam Johnson," say we. It is a pity that it was not at the Manse that they spent that Sunday evening; for there the little child who was one day to make the name of Zachary Macaulay famous as the liberator of the slaves would have gazed with eager open eyes on the great Englishman, who had startled the grave men at Oxford by giving as his toast:—"Here's to the next insurrection of the negroes in the West-Indies."

The Duke of Argyle, who had heard Dr. Johnson complain that the shelties were too small for his weight, "was obliging enough to mount him on a stately steed from his Grace's stable." Joseph (Boswell's servant), said: "He now looks like a bishop." Leaving Inverary on the morning of Tuesday, October 26, they rode round the head of Loch Fyne through Glencroe to Tarbet on Loch Lomond. Boswell, who was becoming somewhat indolent in keeping his journal, passes over this part of their tour in silence. Saint-Fond speaks of the Glen as "ce triste passage." Pennant describes it as "the seat of melancholy," and Johnson as "a black and dreary region. At the top of the hill," he adds, "is a seat with this inscription, 'Rest and be thankful.' Stones were placed to mark the distances, which the inhabitants have taken away, resolved,