Page:Footsteps of Dr. Johnson.djvu/142

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108
MONTROSE.

landlord was an Englishman. I rallied the Doctor upon this and he grew quiet." The town Johnson praised as "neat"—"neat" last century stood very high among the terms of commendation, though it is now supplanted by "elegant" among Americans, and by "nice" among English people. At the time of the Rebellion

On the way to Montrose.

of 1745, the townsfolk had been described as "very genteel, but disaffected."[1] To the clerk of the English chapel Johnson gave "a shilling extraordinary, saying, 'He belongs to an honest church.'" He had the great merit also of keeping his church "clean to a degree unknown in any other part of Scotland," so that his shilling was well earned.

  1. James Ray's History of the Rebellion, p. 288.