Ossian Collection > Journal of a tour in Scotland in

INTRODUCTION xxiii
chief. By the time they got round to
Dumbarton, where Mitchell took his leave,
Southey has had occasion to know his value
better, and writes the warm tribute to him
which will be found in one of his last
pages : " Perhaps no man ever possessed the
inflexible integrity, fearless temper and inde-
fatigable frame requisite to his office in
greater perfection than John Mitchell." He
compares him to Talus, the terrible, inflexible,
silent wielder of a club, who attends Spenser's
Knight of Justice. " No fear or favour in
the course of fifteen years have ever made
him swerve from the fair performance of
his duty, tho' the lairds with whom he has
had to deal have omitted no means to make
him enter into their views, and do things,
or leave them undone, as might suit their
humour or interest. They have attempted
to cajole and to intimidate him, equally in
vain. They have repeatedly preferred com-
plaints against him in the hope of getting
him removed from his office, and a more
flexible person appointed in his stead ; and
they have not infrequently threatened him
with personal violence. Even his life has
been menaced. But Mitchell holds right on.
In the midst of a most laborious life he has