Many others might be added to the list. He scorned to
enter Scotland as a spy; though Hawkins, his biographer, and the
professing defender of his fame, allowed himself leave to represent him
in that ignoble character. He went into Scotland to survey men and
manners. Antiquities, fossils, and minerals, were not within his
province. He did not visit that country to settle the station of Roman
camps, or the spot, where Galgacus fought the last battle for public
liberty. The people, their customs, and the progress of literature, were
his objects. The civilities which he received in the course of his tour,
have been repaid with grateful acknowledgment, and, generally, with
great elegance of expression. His crime is, that he found the country
bare of trees, and he has stated the fact. This, Mr. Boswell, in his
tour to the Hebrides, has told us, was resented, by his countrymen, with
anger inflamed to rancour; but he admits that there are few trees on the
east side of Scotland. Mr. Pennant, in his tour, says, that, in some
parts of the eastern side of the country, he saw several large
plantations of pine, planted by gentlemen near their seats; and, in this
respect, such a laudable spirit prevails, that, in another half-century,
it never shall be said, "To spy the nakedness of the land are you come."
Johnson could not wait for that half-century, and, therefore, mentioned
things as he found them.
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