[110] John Johnston, of Grange, was one of Boswell’s early and more confidential associates. Professionally a writer to the signet, he owned the small estate of Grange, Dumfriesshire, which brought him a rental of about £100 per annum. In a letter to the Hon. Andrew Erskine, dated 8th May, 1762, Boswell alludes to Johnston in these terms:—“I shall be at Dumfries soon, when I hope to see my friend Johnston. We will talk much of old Scotch history, and the memory of former years will warm our hearts. Johnston is a very worthy fellow. I may safely say so, for I have lived in intimacy with him more years than the Egyptian famine lasted.” In his reply Erskine desires to be kindly remembered to “honest Johnston.” He inquires whether “his trees are growing well at his paternal estate of Grange; if he is as fond of Melvil’s Memoirs [“Memoirs of Sir James Melvil, of Halhill,” London, 1752, 8vo.] as he used to be; and if he continues to stretch himself in the sun upon the mountains near Edinburgh.” Johnston fell into bad health. He predeceased Boswell, who became a creditor on his estate. At Boswell’s death the trustees on Johnston’s estate were indebted to his representatives in the sum of £195. (See supra, p. 188.)
[111] Sir William Augustus Cunynghame, fourth baronet of Milncraig, Ayrshire, was eldest son of Lieutenant-General Sir David Cunynghame and his wife, Lady Mary Montgomery, only daughter of Alexander, ninth Earl of Eglinton. For many years he represented the county of Linlithgow in the House of Commons; he also held several important offices in the public service. He died 17th January, 1828.
[112] The Hon. Henry Erskine, a celebrated humorist, was second son of Henry David, tenth Earl of Buchan, and brother of Lord Chancellor Erskine: he was born at Edinburgh, in November, 1746. He passed advocate in 1768, and soon attained professional eminence. He was appointed Lord Advocate on the accession of the Coalition Ministry in 1783, and three years afterwards was chosen Dean of Faculty. On the return of the liberal party to power he was reappointed Lord Advocate, and was at the same time elected M.P. for the Dumfries burghs. After a period of broken health, he died on the 8th October, 1817. Many of his sparkling witticisms and humorous sallies are included in popular collections of bonmots.
[113] Mrs. Dundas, of Melville, was daughter of David Rennie, Esq., of Melville Castle, and first wife of Henry Dundas, subsequently Viscount Melville. She died about 1790.
[114] On the 2nd June, 1790, Lord George Gordon, M.P., a younger son of Cosmo George, third Duke of Gordon, led 100,000 persons in procession to the House of Commons, to present a petition against a measure for relieving Roman Catholics from certain disabilities and penalties. The procession was followed by a riot, which continued several days, and was attended with the destruction of Catholic chapels and private dwellings. The prisons of London, too, were thrown open by the rabble, and the mansion of the chief justice thrown down. Lord George Gordon was tried for high treason, but acquitted. Afterwards convicted of libelling Queen Marie Antoinette of France, and presenting a petition reflecting on the laws and administration of criminal justice, he was committed to Newgate, where he died on the 1st November, 1793. Lord George Gordon evidently laboured under mental aberration, and ought to have been placed in a lunatic asylum.
[115] This anecdote is included by Boswell in his “Life of Johnson.”
[116] Alexander, tenth Earl of Eglinton, was a friend of the Auchinleck family, and one of Boswell’s early patrons. Born in 1726, he succeeded his father in his third year. A zealous promoter of agriculture, he was much beloved by his tenantry and neighbours. He was mortally wounded by a poacher, whom he sought forcibly to deprive of his firelock: he died on the 25th October, 1769.
[117] Dr. Hugh Blair, the celebrated preacher and rhetorician, was a central figure in the literary society of Edinburgh. He was collegiate minister of the High Church, and professor of rhetoric in the University. The first volume of his “Sermons” was published by Strahan, on the recommendation of Dr. Johnson. Dr. Blair was an early patron of Burns, and to his encouragement and active assistance Macpherson was much indebted in producing his first specimens of Ossianic poetry. Dr. Blair died at Edinburgh on the 27th December, 1800, aged eighty-two.
[118] James Macpherson, the editor of Ossian, established his residence in London in 1766, in his twenty-eighth year. In 1780 he was elected M.P. for Camelford. He died at Belleville, Inverness-shire, on the 17th February, 1796, aged fifty-eight. Boswell’s allusion to John Bull is explained by the attacks made on Macpherson by Dr. Johnson and other English writers, in reference to the authenticity of Ossian’s poems.
[119] Lady Frances Montgomerie was daughter of Alexander, ninth Earl of Eglinton, and sister of the tenth and eleventh earls. She died unmarried.