clandestine existence, under the ban, as it were, of the rest of the world. Boswell had already cast his eyes upon the situation of an officer in the foot-guards, as calculated to afford him that indulgence in London society, which he so much desired, while it was, at the same time, not incompatible with his prospects as a Scottish country gentleman.
It was with some difficulty that his father prevailed upon him to return to Scotland, and consult about the choice of a profession. The old judge even took the trouble to put his son through a regular coarse of instruction in the law v in the hope of inspiring him with an attachment to it. But though he was brought the length of standing his trials as a civilian before a committee of the Faculty, he could not be prevailed upon to enter heartily into his father's views.
During part of the years 1761 and 1762, while confined to Edinburgh, and to this partial and unwilling study of the law, he contrived to alleviate the irksomeness of his situation by cultivating the society of the illustrious men who now cast a kind of glory over Scotland and Scotsmen. Kames, Blair, Robertson, Hume, and Dalrymple, though greatly his seniors,. were pleased to honour him with their friendship; more, perhaps, on account of his worthy and dignified parent, than on his own. He also amused himself at this time in contributing jeux d'esprit to "a Collection of Original Poems by Scottish Gentlemen," of which two volumes were successively published by Alexander Donaldson, an enterprising bookseller; being an imitation of the "Miscellanies" of Dodsley. Several of the pieces in this collection were noticed very favourably in the Critical Review; and the whole is now valuable as a record of Scottish mariners at a particular era. Boswell's pieces were distinguished only by his initials. In one, he characterises himself, saying, as to la belle passion,
Boswell does women adore,
And never once means to deceive;
He's in love with at least half a score,
If they're serious, he laughs in his sleeve.
With regard to a more prominent trait of his character, he adds—
Boswell is modest enough,
Himself not quite Phoebus he thinks,
****He has all the bright fancy of youth,
With the judgment of forty and five;
In short to declare the plain truth,
There is no better fellow alive!
At this time, he cultivated a particular intimacy with the Hon. Andrew Erskine, a younger brother of the musical Earl of Kelly, and who might be said to possess wit by inheritance, his father being remarkable for this property, (though not for good sense,) while his mother was the daughter of Dr Pitcairne. Erskine and Boswell were, in frivolity, Arcades ambo; or rather there seemed to be a competition betwixt them, which should exhibit the greater share of that quality. A correspondence, in which this contest seems to be carried on, was published in 1763, and, as there was no attempt to conceal names, the two letter-writers must have been regarded, in that dull and decorous age, as little better than fools—fools for writing in such a strain at all, but doubly fools for laying their folly in such an imperishable shape before the world.
At the end of the year, 1762, Boswell, still retaining his wish to enter the guards, repaired once more to London, to endeavour to obtain a commission. For this purpose he carried recommendations to Charles Duke of Queensberry—the amiable patron of Gay—who, he believed, was able to obtain for him what
