Grampian Club > Boswelliana

204 BOSWELLIANA.
quite corporeal, for the same man will be at one time bashful,
and at another time quite easy. ' That is,' said Maclaurin, ' he
has at one time a higher notion of himself than at another.'
* N"o,' said Nichols, ' it is a trick which the nerves play to the
imagination." 23rd Sept., 1780.
"My friend Johnston * advised me to have our family crest, a
hawk, cut upon a pebble which I found on the channel of the
Lugar, which runs by Auchinleck. Said he, ' Let him perch on
his native stone.' " 22nd Sept., 1780.
" It is not unusual for men who have no real freindship (sic) nor
principle to have at the same time so sanguine an opinion of
their own abilities, that they imagine they can impose on others
as if they were children. Tliey will do them an essential in-
jury, and at the same time try to persuade them that they have
done only what was fair and right. They are like determined
rogues, who first rob, and then blindfold you that you may not
pursue them." 24th Sept., 1780.
* John Johnston, of Griange, was one of BosweU's early and
more confidential associates. Professionally a writer to the signet, he
owned the small estate of Grange, Dumfriesshire, which brought him
a rental of about £100 per annum.. In a letter to the Hon. Andrew
Erskine, dated 8th May, 1762, Boswell alludes to Johnston in these
terms: — " I shall be at Dumfries soon, when I hope to see my friend
Johnston. We will talk much of old Scotch history, and the memory
of former years will warm our hearts. Johnston is a very worthy
feUow. I may safely say so, for I have lived in intimacy with him
more years than the Egyptian famine lasted." In his reply Erskine
desires to be kindly remembered to " honest Johnston." He inquires
whether " his trees are growing well at his patfernal estate of Grange ;
if he is as fond of Melvil's Memoirs [" Memoirs of Sir James Melvil,
of HalhiH," London, 1752, 8vo.] as he used to be ; and if he continues
to stretch himself in the sun upon the mountains near Edinburgh."
Johnston fell into bad health. He predeceased Boswell, who became
a creditor on his estate. At BosweU's death the trustees on Jolmston's
estate were indebted to his representatives in the sum of £195.- (See
siqwa, p. 188.)