[849] When I had the honour of meeting Mr. Gladstone in his visit to Oxford early this year, he quoted this passage in his strong deep voice, and praised it highly.
[850] At Ballencrieff there is no river, but perhaps Johnson was thinking of the Firth of Forth.
[851] This interesting tradition comes to me from my friend General Cadell, C.B., of Cockenzie House, to whom I am indebted for the accompanying sketch of the trees.
“From thence our travels to Brundusium bend,
Where our long journey and my paper end.”
Francis’s Horace, i. Sat. v. 103.
[853] Letters of Boswell to Temple, p. 168.
[854] Walpole’s Letters, v. 441.
[855] Letters of Hume to Strahan, pp. 174, 265.