Page:Footsteps of Dr. Johnson.djvu/346

 278 praises "his sprightly fancy and whimsical eccentricity," which "agreeably tempered the graver conversation" of Adam Smith or Hugh Blair at the small and select parties given by Lord Kames.

He was welcome everywhere but at his own father's house. Neither was he the better thought of by the old man on account of the great Englishman whom he brought with him. Everything however went off smoothly for a day or two, but the host and his guest at length came in collision over Lord Auchinleck's collection of medals. The scene is thus described by Boswell, who witnessed it:

Ramsay of Ochtertyre says, that the year after this famous altercation, Lord Auchinleck "told him with warmth that the great Dr. Johnson, of whom he had heard wonders, was just a dominie, and the worst-bred dominie he had ever seen." The account which Sir Walter Scott gives is very dramatic, though no doubt somewhat embellished.

The full force of Lord Auchinleck's contempt is only seen when we understand the position of a dominie. The character of a schoolmaster, generally, according to Johnson, was less honour-