9. Aug, 2022
Dr Johnson's Entertainment at a Highland Change.
I was pleased to come across this recently. Too late, alas, for my book, but very petinent to the section on Dr Johnson's travels. On page 48, I suggest that, at Anoch, he took a shine to his host's daughter. "I presented her with a book," he writes, "which I happened to have about me, and should not be pleased to think that she forgets me." The act caused a bit of a stir, according to Johnson, and people were keen to know what the book was. They were therefore a little disappointed to learn that it was a copy of Cocker's Arithmetick! Poor Johnson was ridiculed for this, he claiming it was the only book he had about his person. Clearly, from this engraving published in the Gentleman's Magazine of January, 1776, the mirth continued to rumble on, for here he is pictured at the inn, presenting the good lady with the book.