[73] Life of Edmund Malone, by James Boswell, jun., contributed to the Gentleman’s Magazine, and reprinted for private circulation.
[74] Mr. Malone published in 1778 his “Attempt to ascertain the order in which Shakespeare’s Plays were written.”
[75] A Poetical Review of the Literary and Moral Character of the late Samuel Johnson, LL.D., with Notes by John Courtenay, Esq. Lond.: C. Dilly, 1786.
[76] The celebrated Flora Macdonald.
[77] The pseudonym of Dr. John Wolcott, the eminent satirist.
[78] From the Hebrides Dr. Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale in these terms:—“We had a passage of about twelve miles to the point where Sir Alexander Macdonald resided, having come from his seat, in the middle of the island, to a small house on the shore, as we believe, that he might with less reproach entertain us meanly. If he aspired to meanness, his retrograde ambition was completely gratified; but he did not succeed equally in escaping reproach. He had no cook, nor I suppose much provision; nor had the lady the common decencies of her tea-table; we picked up our sugar with our fingers. Boswell was very angry, and reproached him with his improper parsimony.... I have done thinking of Sir Alexander Macdonald, whom we now call Sir Sawney; he has disgusted all mankind by injudicious parsimony, and given occasion to so many stories, that Boswell has some thoughts of collecting them, and making a novel of his life.” (Letters to Mrs. Thrale, vol. i., p. 137.)
[79] Lady Macdonald, née Elizabeth Diana Bosville, was a member of the eldest branch of the Boswell family, and was one of those gentlewomen to whom early in life Boswell thought of offering his hand (see page 67). Daughter of Godfrey Bosville, Esq., of Gunthwaite, Yorkshire, she married Sir Alexander Macdonald in 1768.
[80] Sir Alexander Macdonald, Bart., was raised to the peerage, as Baron Macdonald of Slate, on the 17th July, 1776.
[81] See postea.
[82] In the Library of the British Museum is contained a copy of the pamphlet which belonged to Mr. Wilkes. In Boswell’s handwriting it is thus inscribed:—