length, with a knot of blue ribbons at the end of it. He had, by way of staff, a very curious vine all of one piece, with a bird finely carved upon it, emblematical of the sweet bard of Avon. He wore no mask; saying, that it was not proper for a gallant Corsican. So soon as he came into the room, he drew universal attention. The novelty of the Corsican dress, its becoming appearance, and the character of that brave nation, concurred to distinguish the armed Corsican chief. He was first accosted by Mrs Garrick, with whom he had a good deal of conversation. Mr Boswell danced both a minuet and a country dance with a very pretty Irish lady, Mrs Sheldon, wife to captain Sheldon of the 38th regiment of foot, who was dressed in a genteel domino, and before she danced, threw off her mask." London Magazine, September, 1769, where there is a portrait of the modern Xenophon in this strange guise.[1]
On the 25th of November, he was married, at Lainshaw, in Ayrshire, to Miss Montgomery,[2] and what is rather a remarkable circumstance, his father was married on the same day, at Edinburgh, to a second wife. With admirable sense, affection, and generosity of heart, the wife of James Boswell possessed no common share of wit and pleasantry. One of her bon mots is recorded by her husband. Thinking that Johnson had too much influence over him, she said, with some warmth, "I have seen many a bear led by a man, but I never before saw a man led by a bear." Once, when Boswell was mounted upon a horse which he had brought pretty low by riding the country for an election, and was boasting that he was a horse of blood, "I hope so," said she, drily, "for I am sure he has no flesh. Her good-humoured husband kept a collection of her good things, under the title of Uxoriana. Perhaps her best property was her discretion as a housewife and a mother; a quality much needed on her side of the house, since it was so deficient on that of her husband. In a letter from Auchinleck, 23d August, 1773, Dr Johnson thus speaks of her: "Mrs Boswell has the mien and manner of a gentlewoman, and such a person and manner as could not in any place be either admired or condemned. She is in a proper degree inferior to
- ↑ Mr Croker has mentioned, in his edition of the life of Johnson, that on this occasion he had the words "Corsica Boswell" in a scroll of" gilt letters round his hat. But perhaps the above account somewhat invalidates the statement. Boswell, however, is known to have been ambitious of some such prenomen as Corsica, from an idea he entertained, that every man, aiming at distinction, should be known by a soubriquet, derived from the thing or place by which he had gained celebrity. He seems to have adopted this fancy from the Roman fashion, of which Scipio Africanus is an instance. Thus, he encouraged a proposal for calling Johnson by the epithet Dictionary Johnson.
- ↑ It has been already mentioned, that Boswell's courtship took place, or at least commenced in Ireland. I cannot help thinking that the following composition, published in his name by his son, must have had a reference to this transaction. It is stated by Sif Alexander to have been written to an Irish air:—
O Larghan Clanbrassil, how sweet is thy sound!
To my tender remembrance as Love's sacred ground;
For there Marg'ret Caroline first charm'd my sight,
And fill'd my young heart with a flutt'ring delight.
When I thought her my own, ah! too short seem'd the day
For a jaunt to Downpatrick, or a trip on the sea;
To express what I felt then, all language were vain,
'Twas in truth what the poets have studied to feign.
But, too late, I found even she could deceive,
And nothing was left but to sigh, weep, and rave;
Distracted, I flew from my dear native shore,
Resolved to see Larghan Clanbrassil no more.
Yet still in some moments enchanted I find
A ray of her fondness beams soft on my mind;
While thus in bless'd fancy my angel I see,
All the world is a Larghan Clanbrassil to me.
