Grampian Club > Boswelliana

124 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL.
cheering to him that there was a cathedral so near Auchiuleck."
Dr. Johnson reminded his correspondent tliat Carlisle cathedral
was at least one hundred and fifty miles from Auchinleck,
adding, " If you are pleased, it is so far well."
In the spring of 1777 Boswell obtained a connection with the
London Magazine. He then commenced in its pages a series of
papers, which he styled " The Hypochondriack," These papers
are generally short, and often disconnected ; they abound in allu-
sions to the writer's personal tastes aud peculiar opinions, while
classical quotations are interspersed without point aud without
purpose. But Boswell was pleased to see himself in print, and
so he complacently reports to Mr. Temple, in January, 1780,
that his " Hypochondriack gets on wonderfully well." In his
paper for March, 1780, he thus alludes to his love of dissipa-
tion : —
" I do fairly acknowledge," he writes, " that I love drinking ;
that I have a constitutional inclination to indulge in fermented
liquors, and that were it not for the restraints of reason and
religion, I am afraid I should be as constant a votary of
Bacchus as any man."*
At the close of his letter of January he informs Mr. Temple
that his father had been ill of fever, with his pulse at ninety-
five ; he then begs a loan of £200, to satisfy a demand which
his father could not be informed of. The loan was not granted,
and Boswell afterwards sought repayment of an advance made to
his friend at a former period, and which remained undischarged.
In September Boswell experienced a family loss in the death of
Dr. John Boswell, his father's brother. Of his deceased relative
he writes to Mr. Temple that he was " a good scholar and affec-
* Tliroughout these papers Boswell adopts his peculiar system of
orthography, presenting judgement for judgment, authour for author,
empannael for empannel.