which I did not diflike. Dr. Johnson faid, "there was too much elaboration in his talk." It gave me pleasure to see him, a steady branch of the family, fetting forth all its advantages with much zeal. He told us that Lady Errol was one of the most pious and sensible women in the island; had a good head, and as good a heart. He faid, fhe did not ufe force or fear in educating her children-Johnson. "Sir, fhe is wrong; I would rather have the rod to be the general terror to all, to make them learn, than tell a child, if you do thus or thus, you will be more efteemed than your brothers or fifters. The rod produces an effect which terminates in itfelf. A child is afraid of being whipped, and gets his task, and there's an end on't; whereas, by exciting emulation, and comparisons of fuperiority, you lay the foundation of lafting mischief; you make brothers and fifters hate each other."

During Mr. Boyd's ftay in Arran, he had found a cheft of medical books, left by a furgeon there, and had read them till he acquired fome skill in phyfick, in confequence of which he is often confulted by the poor. There were several here waiting for him as patients. We walked round the house till ftopped by a cut' made by the influx of the fea. The house is built quite upon the shore; the windows look upon the main ocean, and the King of Denmark is Lord Errol's nearest neighbour on the north-east.

We got immediately into the coach, and drove to Dunbui, a rock near the fhore, quite covered with fea-fowls; then to a circular bafon of large extent, furrounded with tremendous rocks. On the quarter next the fea, there is a high arch in the rock, which

the force of the tempeft has driven out. This place is called Buchan's Buller, or the Buller of Buchan, and the country people call it the Pot. Mr. Boyd faid it was fo called from the French Bouloir. It may be more fimply traced from Boiler in our own language. We walked round this monftrous cauldron. In fome places, the rock is very narrow; and on each fide there is a fea deep enough for a man of war to ride in; fo that it is fomewhat horrid to move along. However, there is earth and grafs upon the rock, and a kind of road marked out by the print of feet; fo that one makes it out pretty fafely; yet it alarmed me to fee Dr. Johnson ftriding irregularly along. He infifted on taking a boat, and failing into the Pot. We did fo. He was ftout, and wonderfully alert. The Buchan-men all fhewing their teeth, and fpeaking with that strange sharp accent which distinguishes them, was to me a matter of curiofity. He was not fenfible of the difference of pronunciation in the South, and North of Scotland, which I wondered at.

As the entry into the Buller is fo narrow that oars cannot be used as you go in, the method taken is, to row very hard when you come near it, and give the boat fuch a rapidity of motion that it glides in. Dr. Johnfon obferved what an effect this fcene wouldhave had, were we entering into an unknown place. There are caves of confiderable depth; I think, one on each fide. The boatmen had never entered either of them far enough to know the fize. Mr. Boyd told us that it is customary for the company at Peterhead well, to make parties, and come and dine in one of the caves here,

He told us, that, as Slains is at a confiderable distance from Aberdeen, Lord Errol, who has a very large family, refolved to have a furgeon of his own. With this view he educated one of his tenant's fons, who is now fettled in a very neat house and farm just by, which we faw from the road. By the falary which the earl allows him, and the practice which he has had, he is in very easy circumftances. He had kept an exact account of all that had been laid out on his education, and he came to his lordship one day, and told him that he had arrived at a much higher fituation than ever he expected; that he was now able to repay what his lordship had advanced, and begged he would accept of it. The earl was pleased with the generous gratitude and genteel offer of the man; but refused it.-Mr. Boyd alfo told us, Cumming the Quaker first began to diftinguish himself, by writing against Dr. Leechman on Prayer, to prove it unneceffary, as GOD knows best what should be, and will order it without our asking:—the old hackneyed objection.

When we returned to the house we found coffee and tea in the drawing-room. Lady Errol was not there, being, as I fuppofed, engaged with her young family. There is a bow-window fronting the fea. Dr. Johnson repeated the ode, Jam fatis terris, while Mr. Boyd was with his patients. He spoke well in favour of entails, to preserve lines of men whom mankind are accustomed to reverence. His opinion was that so much land fhould be entailed as that families fhould never fall into contempt, and as much left free as to give them all the advantages of property in cafe of any emergency. "If (faid he,) the nobility are fuffered to fink into indigence, they

of

of course become corrupt; they are ready to do whatever the king chooses; therefore it is fit they fhould be kept from becoming poor, unless it is fixed that when they fall below a certain standard of wealth they fhall lofe their peerages. We know the House of Peers have made noble ftands, when the House of Commons durft not. The two laft years of parliament they dare not contradict the populace."

This room is ornamented with a number of fine prints, and with a whole length picture of Lord Errol, by Sir Joshua Reynolds. This led Dr. Johnson and me to talk of our amiable and elegant friend, whose panegyrick he concluded by saying, "Sir Joshua Reynolds, fir, is the most invulnerable man I know; the man with whom if you should quarrel, you would find the most difficulty how to abufe."

Dr. Johnson obferved, the fituation here was the nobleft he had ever feen,-better than Mount Edgecumbe, reckoned the firft in England; becaufe, at Mount Edgecumbe, the fea is bounded by land on the other fide, and, though there is there the grandeur of a fleet, there is alfo the impreffion of there being a dock-yard, the circumftances of which are not agreeable. At Slains is an excellent old house. The noble owner has built of brick, along the fquaré in the infide, a gallery, both on the first and fecond ftory, the houfe being no higher; fo that he has always a dry walk, and the rooms, to which formerly there was no approach but through each other, have now all separate entries from the gallery, which is hung with Hogarth's works, and other prints. We went and

fat

fat a while in the library. There is a valuable numerous collection. It was chiefly made by Mr. Falconer, hufband to the late Countess of Errol in her own right. This earl has added a good many modern books.

About nine the Earl came home. Captain Gor don of Park was with him. His lordship put Dr. Johnfon in mind of their having dined together in London, along with Mr.Beauclerk. I was exceedingly pleased with Lord Errol. His dignified perfon and agreeable countenance, with the most unaffected affability, gave me high fatisfaction. From perhaps a weakness, or, as I rather hope, more fancy and warmth of feeling than is quite reasonable, my mind is ever impreffed with admiration for persons of high birth, and I could, with the moft perfect honefty, expatiate on Lord Errol's good qualities; but he ftands in no need of my praife. His agreeable manners and softness of addrefs prevented that constraint which the idea of his being Lord High Constable of Scotland might otherwise have occafioned. He talked very easily and fenfibly with his learned gueft. I obferved that Dr. Johnfon, though he fhewed that refpect to his lordship, which, from principle, he always does to high rank, yet, when they came to argument, maintained that manlinefs which becomes the force and vigour of his understanding. To fhew external deference to our fuperiors, is proper: to seem to yield to them in opinion, is meanness *. The earl said grace, both before

* Lord Chesterfield, in his letters to his fon, complains of one who argued in an indifcriminate manner with men of all ranks. Probably the noble lord had felt with some uneafiness what it was to encounter ftronger abilities than his own. If a peer will engage at