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Boswell’s Romantic Heart Beats as he Leaves Scotland
James Boswell loved his native Scotland throughout his life – even while the lure of London and the conviviality and entertainment it promised occupied most of his waking moments. We get a clear glimpse of just how he feels before he set off from Edinburgh on his parent-approved trip to…
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Who’s Who in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery Processional Frieze Part 2
Look up! When you step off the street and into the foyer of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh you’ll see above you a wonderful parade of figures from Scotland’s history. There are 155 full length portraits on the face of the first floor balcony. Above the entrance this…
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Prime Minister Shelburne, Disliked, Not Trusted, Therefore Doomed
Shelburne was intelligent, able, wise and had great political knowledge, but he was detached from both the Whigs and Tories…that he had earned the incurable dislike and distrust of everyone important. His nickname was ‘Malagrida’ – after a notorious Portuguese Jesuit conspirator. So, not good then, but should have been.…
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Repeat, Repeat, Repeat Visits to Scotland’s National Portrait Gallery
Most people have LIVING friends, with skin and bones and blood in their veins. (Pffff, weird!) I’ve got historical friends, people who’ve lived and died, and with whom I spend time…in my head. Their portraits are in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, and I chat with them. Click. Read.
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The Moment Claude Colleer Abbott Discovered Boswell’s London Journal
Look on this face. I’ve tried to capture the hope, the fear of disappointment, the tension that hangs in the split second it takes realisation to reach the brain. This is how I imagine Claude Colleer Abbott looked in the just-before-moment while reading the handwriting on the first page of…
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Horse-Mad Prime Minister Rockingham on the Pan with Whistlejacket
The Marquess of Rockingham was a second time PM and his was the thirteenth prime ministerial administration of Eighteenth century Britain. Unlucky for some, and for him, he died in office. He was horse-mad and had the cash to indulge his interest. Click to read the story.
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Speech Bubbles and Talking Pictures in the Eighteenth Century
In modern cartoons we’re used to seeing clear text in a uniform speech bubble, but not in the Eighteenth century when satirical prints based around political, social and cultural issues, gave us the early speech bubble. Learn how they were used by Thomas Rowlandson, James Gillray and William Hogarth.
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A Lost Boswell Treasure, Rediscovered in my Underpants Drawer
This morning I rediscovered a treasure I bought back in 2023: A 1973 collection of the Picturesque Beauties of Boswell. It’s a squarish pack of twenty prints, copies of etchings made by Eighteenth century artist, illustrator and portraitist Thomas Rowlandson. If you’re a Boswell fan…indeed, a Boswellian, then read this.
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Sleepy Prime Minister Lord North Lost the Colonies
Britain’s twelfth Prime Minister, Lord Frederick North, was a nice guy, but weak in the face of opposition, especially in relation to the King and strong personalities. His tactic? Pretend to sleep! He’s blamed for losing the American colonies, but who could have avoided it? Click to read. Go on!
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Boswell Freaks Only. Yale’s Trade and Research Editions Compared
You a Boswell Freak? Here’s a test: how much detail can you read and keep your eyes open. I’m comparing Yale’s Trade and Research editions of James Boswell’s journals. To the ordinary reader this may sound deathly boring, but Boswell nuts dig this kind of stuff. It’s long. Click. Read.
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Who’s Who in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery Processional Frieze Part 1
Look out for the head and shoulders portrait of James Boswell in the Great Frieze (Hole in 1897-1898) above the foyer of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. When I visit I always go straight there…I see him, and then I relax. Do it and remember how awesome he was.
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Prime Minister Grafton Targeted in the Letters of Junius
Grafton became Prime Minister in 1768, taking over from William Pitt the Elder, for whom he was First Lord of the Treasury. And a year plus later, after poor performance with the US colonies, he was finished off by tirade after tirade from the mysterious Letters of Junius. Read me!
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Discovering a Robert Adam Fireplace and maybe David Hume
The one about the Eighteenth century fireplace designed by Scotsman Robert Adam, sitting quietly in a north-facing drawing room of the oldest house in Queens Street in Edinburgh’s New Town. Philosopher and all round good egg David Hume may have stood ‘right there’ in the 1770s. Makes me giddy. Read.
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Genius Neil Sedaka Should Call on the Eighteenth Century
One of my all time favourite people is US singer Neil Sedaka. He just died aged 86 and listening to his songs it occurred to me he was a musical genius. Therefore I would like to tell him to look up my Eighteenth century acquaintances when he arrives. Click. Read.
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William Pitt the Elder, Prime Minister Almost on the Pan
William Pitt the Elder was a great Parliamentarian, but not such a good Prime Minister. He was a great war leader, a great orator in Parliament and father of the great Eighteenth century Prime Minister William Pit the Younger. Click to read about his time in office.
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Happy Birthday to Adam Smith’s ‘Wealth of Nations’
On 9 March 2026 a bunch of folk will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the publication of the Wealth of Nations. The book, written by Scottish philosopher Adam Smith, was published in 1776. The book led to its author being labelled the father of modern economics. Come on, Read!!
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PM Rockingham’s Unique Contribution to Modern Politics
Britain’s eighth Prime Minster, the Marquess of Rockingham, made an historic contribution to politics during his term as PM. Britain became the first nation in the world to develop this system, which he evolved along with his friend, the Irishman and philosopher Edmund Burke. Read this article, please.
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Benn’s Sixpenny Library Explodes with Knowledge
Want an entertaining and learned history book exploding with detail, written between the Wars? Oh, please, everybody wants that. Try Benn’s Sixpenny Library. There are 252 titles in the series. My copy’s about Eighteenth century Prime Ministers. Go get one. After you read this post. Cho!
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Glasgow’s Eighteenth Century Tobacco Merchant’s House
I found myself in Glasgow the other day with a few mins on my hands before my train….What do I do? Visit the Eighteenth century Tobacco Merchant’s House, of course. It’s just a minute walk from where Hollywood likes to film disaster scenes for blockbuster movies. Read on.
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Prime Minister Grenville Sowed the Seed of American Independence
Grenville is remembered as the man who introduced the Stamp Act to the American colonies setting in train events that led to independence. He was from a hugely political family in Buckinghamshire, William Pitt was his brother-in-law and he prosecuted the ‘folk hero’ John Wilkes. Fascinating Prime Minister. Read on.
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Edward Gibbon’s Genius Moment on 15 October 1764
All great things have a moment of conception, a single point in time when the light comes on and an idea is born. I call this a Genius Moment. Edward Gibbon had one, resulting in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Read on, Macduff!
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Genius Fan Celebrates Its First Birthday Today!
Today, Genius Fan celebrates its 1st birthday. I’m really pleased that it’s reached this far. It started off as a way to force myself to sketch by setting the challenge of drawing two scenes each week as a way of improving my illustration skills. And the idea was to post…
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Earl of Bute, First Tory and First Scots Prime Minister
He may only have been in office for 318 days, but just about everybody hated our 7th Prime Minster, the Earl of Bute…Scotsman and Tory. Hate the man, but don’t hate his legs. Bute was the Charles Atlas of his day…from the waist down, maybe. Read on…
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250 Years since Gibbon’s Masterpiece The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
On Tuesday 17 February it will be the 250th anniversary of a masterpiece in scholarship and literature, a book, or rather a work in six volumes, which many will know, but only a few have read. Of course…you all knew! It’s Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,…
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Prime Minister Newcastle and Global Supremacy in 1759
Britain’s 4th and 6th Prime Minister, Newcastle returned to the top job in 1757 and just two years later, along with William Pitt the Elder, engineered the 1759 ‘annus mirabilis,’ in which victories against the French launched Britain’s global supremacy. Read. Now. That’s an order!
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Cookin’ Burns’ Puddin’ in the Twenty First Century
This post is confessional. It’s like a diary entry, rather than a post about the Eighteenth century, but since it’s about the haggis and Burns Night (Rabbie Burns being an Eighteenth century Scottish character) I felt I could, nay, should, reveal how I ate my haggis on Burns Night 2026.…
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Duke of Devonshire, A Prime Minister of Many Pans
The 4th Duke of Devonshire became Prime Minister, Britain’s fifth, from 1756 to 1757. He owned the gigantic stately home Chatsworth House – the one used as Darcy’s Pemberley pile in the 2005 film Pride and Prejudice. How many ‘pans’ at Chatsworth? Probably many, probably a favourite. Read on!
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I’m James Boswell. How well do you know me?
Let me introduce myself: my name’s James Boswell. I’m from the Eighteenth century and, though I say it myself, I’m a pretty big deal for scholars, writers and readers. But how much do you know about the people I met? Take my quiz and test yourself…
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Auchtermuchty in 1732 – The Greatest Century is Everywhere
I took a photo of my family recently, a quick snap on my mobile phone after lunch, and there in the background…YES! YOU GUESSED IT: The Eighteenth century, right there, waiting for someone to notice. We were in Auchtermuchty, we’d stuffed our faces at The Boar’s Head, and were saying…
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Duke of Newcastle Lost an Island, then Resigned
Britain’s 4th Prime Minister, The 1st Duke of Newcastle, followed his brother into the top job, but had to resign after just 2 years after the navy lost the strategic Mediterranean island of Menorca to the French. His nickname was Hubble Bubble. I dare you to click and read more…
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Can You Understand Robert Burns’ Poetry?
Robert Burns is Scotland’s national bard, yet who understands his poetry? I daydreamed not even Capt Kirk and his Starship Enterprise crew have the gadgets to translate – it’s that difficult. Only scholars and language enthusiasts can read Burns poetry, I reckon. Does Burns’ Scots language still survive? Read on.
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Strong and Stable Prime Minister, Henry Pelham
Henry Pelham was Britain’s 3rd Prime Minister, from 1743-1754. He formed the Broad Bottom Ministry by bringing some Tories into his Whig-led administration. This forced George II to give up his preference for the powerful John Carteret, giveing Pelham control. He’s an interesting fellow. Read this post. That’s an order.
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How Many of Your Books Have You Read?
The parents-in-law came for dinner on Hogmanay and my wife’s father pointed at one of our bookcases and asked: “Have you read all of these books?” That’s the eternal power of the father-in-law…to question, but secretly critique. How does one respond? Read the post.
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8 Facts About American Independence We Never Learned
At primary school in Scotland in 1976 our teacher introduced us to the American Bicentennial: 200 years since the American Declaration of Independence. It’s only now, aged 60, that I’m correcting my pre-teen comprehension of that momentous event. Read this post, you’ll learn stuff you never knew.
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The Earl of Wilmington is Britain’s Forgotten PM
Eighteenth Century British Prime Minister No.2 Spencer Compton, Earl of WilmingtonPrime Minister: 1742-1743 (1 year + 137 days)Political faction: WhigPredecessor: Sir Robert Walpole[Life: 1674 (DoB unknown) – 2 July, 1743] Click to read Overview of ‘PMs on the Pan‘ ‘PM on the Pan’ Take Aways Check out my PMs on…
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Robert Burns and his Poem – To a Haggis
In his brilliant poem To a Haggis, Scots poet Robert Burns introduces us to the family of puddins, of which the haggis is the greatest, the Chieftain. With confidence it rules over all others, including painch, tripe and thairm – all parts of the digestive tract of cattle, sheep and…
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Recognise Any of These Eighteenth Century Wigs?
I’m a bald man, have been since I saw a reflection of myself, aged 28, in a shop window in High Wycombe and had a barber shave it all off the next day. I’m fine with it (ughhh!), but it would be nice to have a Barnet*. If I was…
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Robert Walpole – Britain’s First Prime Minister
Eighteenth Century British Prime Minister No.1 Sir Robert WalpolePrime Minister: 1721-1742Political faction: WhigPredecessor: Charles Spencer, Earl of Sunderland[Life: 26 August, 1676 – 18 March, 1745] Click to read Overview of ‘PMs on the Pan‘ ‘PM on the Pan’ Take Aways Check out my PMs on the Pan series of posts1. First…
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New Year Resolutions – James Boswell Style
I gave up making New Year Resolutions some years back because like most people I never stuck to them and often never even got started. I think for 2026, I’ll try a technique used by the young James Boswell, author of the great Life of Samuel Johnson (in short: To…
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Coming Soon: Prime Ministers on the Pan!
Here’s a great way to learn about the Prime Ministers of Eighteenth Century Britain – observe them on the lavatory ‘making stool’. This is tame stuff compared to the real satirical sketches that were circulating during this golden age of satire in Great Britain.
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Who’s On Your Fantasy Xmas Dinner Guest List?
As much as I love my parents-in-law (ahem, of course I do) if I had the chance to select ANY guests for my Christmas dinner, you know a ‘fantasy Christmas dinner’, they wouldn’t be on the list. Let me tell you who I would invite. And of course, they’re all…
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Genius Fan’s Four Big Anniversaries for 2026
The coming year, 2026, is a big year to celebrate things that happened in 1776. That is, it’s a big year for 250th anniversaries, and I’m going to highlight four big ones. If you read history then it’s likely you’ll know these – they’re the ones everyone talks about. Here…
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Jane Austen, Eighteenth Century Author
Today, 16 December, is the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen. An excellent take away of this blog post is that you should make it a resolution for 2026 to read her novel, Pride and Prejudice. It’s her most famous (you know, Mr Darcy and all that) and…
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Eighteenth Century Faces Sketched by Genius Fan
Sketching faces to illustrate Genius Fan stories is a core part of the fun in this project for me. It can take a long time to get a likeness, and sometimes I have to go ahead and publish when I know the sketch isn’t quite right and could be improved.…
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Italian Balloonist Visits Glasgow 240 Years Ago
We went for lunch in Glasgow recently and I made a secret plan (secret from my wife) to park up in the Merchant City and walk to the nearby St Andrew’s in the Square church. I knew it was from here that Italian Vincenzo Lunardi, one of the new breed…
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6 Ways to Experience Boswell’s London Journal
Today is the 75th anniversary of the publication here in Britain of James Boswell’s London Journal 1762-1763. It hit the bookshops on Monday 4 December 1950 and was an instant bestseller in UK and the USA. Readers loved it, hundreds of thousands of copies were printed and sold across both…
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London Spectators: Addison, Steele & Boswell
In 1748, at the age of seven, James Boswell was introduced to a character that would become one of his first role models: The Spectator, author of highly popular essays about people and society in London in the early years of the Eighteenth century. So when Boswell managed to wangle…
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Finally, I Bought a First Edition of Boswell’s London Journal
If one is going to celebrate the 75th birthday of Boswell’s London Journal, then one should jolly well do so with a first edition. That was my thinking a few months ago, but I’ve already got a few copies and shelf space is running low…so another volume? Yes, shuttup! Of…
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William Smellie’s Legacy – Beyond his Bookcase
Some months ago I discovered there was a collection of books from the Eighteenth century tucked away in the library at Lanark. I made arrangements to view it and spent two hours handling and leafing through books that had been collected more than 270 years ago. This is the library…
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Highlights from Smellie’s Book Catalogue
There I am, staring directly at an Eighteenth century book collection, arms length from titles someone in 1750 would consider a ‘must have’ in their home. This is William Smellie’s library, all 300+ volumes, half of which are reference works for a teaching physician and the other half…for leisure? Two…
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Dr Smellie’s Treatise and Anatomical Tables
When one first sees William Smellie’s personal library, an Eighteenth century collection of 300+ volumes, stacked nicely into 24 shelves…it’s a little overwhelming. It’s a lot of books. Yes, but it’s dwarfed by Sir Walter Scott’s personal library at Abbotsford House, near Melrose, for example. That’s huge and almost unreal,…
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William Smellie’s Early Career & Book Collection
Keys in hand, librarian Elena Focardi makes her way to the locked door protecting the precious and valuable books at Lanark Library. I’ve come to see a book collection that’s 275 years old – owned by the town’s famous Eighteenth century son, William Smellie. He bequeathed his book collection, after…
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Book Collection Explorer: William Smellie
The book collection of Eighteenth century doctor William Smellie lies behind a locked door one might mistake for a janitor’s closet. You walk up the stairs, across the lobby, through one room, through another room, to an inauspicious, but secure entrance, beyond which is a temperature and humidity-controlled room, conditions…
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Boswell’s London Journal: Friends, Women & Johnson
Quote: “The London Journal 1762-1763…is a unique publishing event: the appearance for the first time of a major work by one of the most famous English* authors more than a century and a half after his death.” (p.xiii, Publishers’ Note, London Journal 1762-1763, Ed. FA Pottle, 1950) * Note: Boswell…
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Happy 75th Birthday to Boswell’s London Journal
Happy Birthday to James Boswell’s “London Journal, 1762-63” – it’s 75 years old next month. Hurrah!! QUOTE: “The Eighteenth century in this one volume of the journal is expressed more patently than in nearly all the other contemporary letter-writers and fiction-makers of the period put together. And the artistry! Make…
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Sher’s Mighty Book about Books Leads the Way
There are a number of topics I want to write about in the Genius Fan blog, and while I was out dog walking this evening I thought to myself, ‘If I get run over and killed by a bus I’ll regret not having made the time to sketch and write…
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When a Book is a Cake with ‘Sublime Dumpiness’
‘Sublime Dumpiness’ is an aesthetic quality embodied in, among other things, pies, dogs, grandmothers…and books. It’s kind of rare, and you may never have seen it. You’ll know it when you’re confronted with it…as I did on Friday past, when my wife presented me with one of my favourite books…
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Revealing the Boswell-Johnson Pilgrims
The earliest account I’ve found of someone following in the footsteps of Boswell and Johnson’s great tour of Scotland in 1773 was that of the great Johnson scholar, George Birkbeck Hill (1835-1903). It’s called Footsteps of Dr Johnson (Scotland), it was published in 1890 and it’s a great big book…
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Lost Correspondence is a ‘Mountain of Rubies’
Nothing’s hidden or lost anymore. Back in 1975 though, before broadband, smartphones and the World Wide Web put everything at our fingertips, one could still believe there were exciting discoveries yet to be made. That was the case among literary scholars who speculated about the existence of letters exchanged between…
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Samuel Pepys Makes it to the Eighteenth Century
If you’ve newly discovered this little site then you may not know that I’m an Eighteenth century nut. I believe it’s the greatest century. Better than the Twentieth, better than the Sixteenth, better than the Ninth. It’s very satisfying to me to discover that a high profile person or event…
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I Wish My Most-Used Books Were in Hardback
I own two books which through constant use and consultation are becoming increasingly raggedy, with spines I anticipate will split in 2026 accompanied by the sad ungluing of pages. In short: collapse. The books? To The Hebrides: Samuel Johnson’s Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and James Boswell’s Journal of a Tour…
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The Payoff in Decorating Upheaval is Bookcase Tidying
My wife doesn’t appreciate the pleasure that goes with tidying and reorganising our (my) bookcases, so when the topic of redecorating the living room pops up…I know it’s a day of tidying, (putting all books into boxes) furniture moving, cleaning and prep, followed by a day of painting, then six…
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Boswell’s is Big, But Voltaire’s is Voluminous
Appendix 5 to James Caudle’s excellent article entitled Editing James Boswell, 1924-2010: Pasts, Presents, Futures shows the estimated number of volumes one should expect to find across an edition of a range of historical papers. He’s focused on the Scottish writer and lawyer James Boswell (1740-1795), and his appendix (not…
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Ladies and Gentlemen, Behold! Fanny Burney
Novelist Fanny Burney shared a friendship with one of the Eighteenth century’s greatest writers, Samuel Johnson, and when she died in 1840, at the age of 87, the mighty Thomas Babington Macaulay wrote of his surprise that someone who mixed in the illustrious Johnson circle, so many years ago, had…
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Quarter Past Midnight: The Book Reading Sweetspot
Do you know what ‘stolen time’ is? It’s minutes or hours that you shouldn’t have, but manage to ‘half inch’ (pinch) or through a cancellation it ends up in your hands. In its unexpected nature, stolen time is rich in potential. And it has boundaries, a start and a finish,…
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Track Down Out-of-the-Way Memorials
I talk a lot about books in this Genius Fan blog, and my little library of nearly 200 volumes. But I also spend a lot of time online, fleshing out topics that I come across in books. Or elsewhere. Like the Eighteenth century military mapmaker Major-General William Roy, whose name…
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A Most Creative Way to Commemorate Boswell
Of all the ways Boswell has been commemorated – statue (though not in his native Scotland or his beloved London), bust, engraving, signs, plaques etc – the one on the land reclaimed from the Twentieth century’s disused Barony Colliery has to be the most creative. The mine, just a mile…
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Crane Required to Lift Birkbeck Hill’s Book
A big book is annoying when it doesn’t fit onto the bookcase, especially if it’s a volume one is particularly proud or fond of. This is the case with George Birkbeck Hill’s Footsteps of Dr. Johnson (Scotland). I have a copy. I had to adjust the height of one of…
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Did the Adventurers Land in Kinghorn or Pettycur?
Here’s a scenario: You have a question over a trivial event from history, say the mighty Eighteenth century. It niggles. So what can you do to get an answer? Quickest way is to 1. Search the internet (actually, most stuff from the world isn’t on the internet at all). You…
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Staring at James Boswell’s Tankard
I’m always looking for new ways to get that intimate sense of history, rather than just reading an account of something in a book. Well, if you go to Dr Johnson’s House museum in Gough Square, London, you’ll see in a locked display cabinet (I’m guessing it’s all locked up)…
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I’ve Got the Eighteenth Century Disease
I’ve got the Eighteenth century disease. It’s not smallpox, TB or gonnorhea. It’s the one when your brain is on alert for four digit numbers beginning with 17. I was at the supermarket recently and the assistant said, “That’ll be seventeen forty five, please.” I almost didn’t hear her. My…
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A new Assembly or Allocation of Materials
In my two most recent posts (On the Hunt… and A Plaque for Burns…) I made the point that it’s fun and interesting to get out of the house and use a book as a guide to track down a place that’s relevant to your favourite historical period or person.…
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A Plaque for Burns, But Not for Boswell
There’s no mention of the visit to the Gardenston Arms Hotel, Laurencekirk, by James Boswell and Samuel Johnson on the commemorative plaque set above the front door of the flats built upon the site of the old hotel. The two travellers visited this hotel located at the northern end of…
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On the Hunt With a Boswell Guidebook
I’m aware that when I travel around Scotland I’m often crossing the path of my literary hero, James Boswell. The most recent example was while I was travelling north up the east coast of Scotland…something Boswell and Samuel Johnson did, but in a carriage, in 1773. I made a short…
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Choosing a biography of Flora Macdonald
Take a guess: How many biographies are there of Flora Macdonald? (My guess is at the bottom of this post.) She sealed her fame as one of Britain’s most romantic heroines when she chose to help Bonnie Prince Charlie evade capture by government soldiers in June 1746. He was on…
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Scottish Enlightenment? Herman: Yes! Porter: …no
Popular history authors Roy Porter and Arthur Herman have opposing views on whether or not there was a Scottish Enlightenment. American Arthur Herman says there was, and to back it up wrote a book called The Scottish Enlightenment: The Scots’ Invention of the Modern World. British Roy Porter says there…
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Artifacts of Pre-Computer Library Book Borrowing
Ninety five per cent of the books I buy are second hand, and they often have marks of the previous owners – many of whom were libraries. The postie delivered a book the other day, The History of Scottish Literature Volume 2, 1660-1800, and when I opened the cover I…
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An Airplane View onto Explorers of 1773
On Wednesday 18 August 1773 a little boat sailed across the Firth of Forth from Leith to Kinghorn, carrying passengers James Boswell, the Scottish lawyer and writer, his servant Joseph Ritter, the hugely famous Samuel ‘Dictionary’ Johnson, and Scots advocate William Nairne. On Thursday 17 July 2025, I departed Edinburgh…
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Book Facts Rather than Internet Facts?
Which do you trust more: Book facts or internet facts? When I began the Genius Fan blog my plan was to create illustrated stories based around: ‘James Boswell and his life and times in the Eighteenth century’. The objective was to reach like-minded fans of Boswell and the Eighteenth century.…
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Show me a Sign: an Eighteenth Century Bridge
Day 6 (Monday 24 July) I’ve driven across this bridge a few times, and always remember the twin ‘needles’ at both ends. Then I noticed a sign on the south side of the bridge, reading: “Hyndford Bridge 1773”. (That year’s featured a lot in this blog lately…it being the year…
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Discover Boswell and Johnson’s Hotel in Montrose
Day 4 (Tuesday 22 July) Kudos to Montrose! You helpfully added an information plaque just inside a passageway indicating a James Boswell and Samuel Johnson hotspot. Here we have the location of the accommodation used by James Boswell and Samuel Johnson on their tour of Scotland in 1773. In his…
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Searching for The Professors’ Monument
Day 3 (Monday 21 July) It’s difficult to find the Professors’ Monument among all the tombs, mausoleums, stelae, headstones and statues of Glasgow Necropolis. The monument contains the remains of Scottish philosopher Thomas Reid (1710-1796) – founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense. He was originally buried at the…
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Hamilton Old Parish Church. 18th Century
The Eighteenth century is all around us. All history is, of course, and usually the further back in time you go the harder you have to look for evidence of any particular period. So, what Eighteenth century things, books, people etc could I see over the course of a week’s…
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Dr Beattie, Boswell and Johnson. Friends.
Discovering Scottish Philosopher Dr James Beattie. Often, in these little blog posts I’m trying to understand the pleasure I get in reading about historical figures. In this one I got a surprise in spotting a familiar name in an unexpected place and then a sense of connection, of completion, when…
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Sketching an 18th Century Man’s Leg
Drawing a gentleman’s leg is one of the many challenges to illustrating scenes from the Eighteenth century. And it’s something to get right – a ‘good leg’ was something for men to show off. The Third Earl of Bute (1713-1792), British Prime Minister from 1762-63, was known for having legs…
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Le Voyage de Boswell et Johnson aux Hébrides
I have a French language version of the combined accounts of Boswell and Johnson’s 1773 tour of Scotland, it’s called Voyage dans les Hébrides. My French isn’t good enough to fluently read this book (yet), but I’ve read the Boswell and Johnson accounts in English so I know the story…
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Scholar Donald Greene, Johnson Defender
I wrote a post a few months ago (Pick a Book, Any Book…) about the serendipity in making a casual selection from one’s bookcase. This post is a similar process, but focused on the outcome – the discovery of an important scholar: Donald Greene. I was dashing out the room…
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Boswell’s Complaint, Portnoy’s Complaint
In 1969, American writer Philip Roth published his fourth novel, Portnoy’s Complaint. It’s a tough read for a man who’s almost sixty (that’s me), but for a young man of nineteen (that was me back in 1984) – it was…awesome. It’s a psychiatrist’s chair-account of Alexander Portnoy’s struggle as a…
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Artillery Salvos, Then Some Johnson Studies
When you read books about the Eighteenth century, the lives of their authors are often equally fascinating. Usually the interest comes from their time spent during one of the world wars. Robert William Chapman (1881-1960) is one such scholar-author – of literary history. If you read about James Boswell and…
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Laurence Sterne’s Mind Boggling Achievement
There are so many clever ways to start a blog post about Laurence Sterne. Here’s the Genius Fan method: “Never heard of Laurence Sterne? Stop what you’re doing RIGHT NOW, run – sprint if your knees will bear it – to the nearest book shop and buy a copy of…
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Rev Joseph Spence, a Bit Boswell-like
When you’re a James Boswell nut, like I am, you’re always looking for references to him in any book that covers his period – the second half of the Eighteenth century. I’ve got a copy of Arthur H Cash’s Laurence Sterne: The Later Years…wait now, turn to the index…yep, there…
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Suddenly I’m interested in the American Indians
Suddenly I’m interested in the Indians, the native Americans. How did that happen, when I’ve never been interested in them before? Why are we interested in anything? Why this topic and not that? I’m not at all interested in football or cars and I’m not particularly interested in technology or…
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He found Boswell’s ‘lost’ London Journal 1762-63
This is the story of how Claude Colleer Abbott discovered James Boswell’s ‘lost’ London Journal. The year was 1930. Essex-born Abbot was lecturing in English language and literature at the University of Aberdeen, and looking for a new research subject. Following up on the university Librarian’s suggestion to consider Dr…
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The Mighty Hume! Great Bloke. Decent Tomb.
No-one knows who David Hume is these days. He’s only the greatest philosopher ever to have written in English, that’s who. His mausoleum can be found in the Old Calton Cemetery, Edinburgh, and I went there recently to see his burial place; a man who I think was absolutely AMAZING.…
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Finding Boswell in the Mitchell Library
This afternoon’s mission for an Eighteenth century experience ended in disappointment. And then satisfaction. I went to the Mitchell Library in Glasgow to see the collection known as the Private Papers of James Boswell from Malahide Castle in the Collection of Lt. Colonel Ralph Heyward Isham. (This privately funded and…
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If the Temple Bar was a Time / Space Portal
If you sit at a table on the terrace outside Paul, the French cafe behind St Paul’s Cathedral, London, you can easily daydream away thirty minutes gazing into the relocated Temple Bar monument. The two storey stone…edifice (I’m trying not to repeat the word ‘monument’), was London’s principal entrance from…
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Bookshelf variety over calf leather uniformity
Stand back, take in the view, row upon row of books on the shelves of Sir Walter Scott’s library. I was at his home in the Scottish Borders recently and I can tell you the library is at once breathtaking, stirring and impressive. Its true fascination lies in the individual…
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Boswell met EVERYONE, but not Robert Burns
Have you read any of George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman novels? They’re about the grown-up bully from Tom Brown’s Schooldays who rogers his way through the political flashpoints of the Victorian age. Bedroom antics aside, the cowardly Harry Flashman rubbed shoulders with famous men and women of his age…not unlike my…
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The Edinburgh Tomb of Economist Adam Smith
Go to Edinburgh. Go to the Canongate. Make your way downhill. Look out for the Canongate Kirk on your left. Enter the Kirk gates – they should be open during the day. Turn left inside the gates. Follow the path. Keep walking round to the left. You will see a…
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4 Hour Boswell-Johnson London Walking Tour
Last week I found myself in London with time on my hands, so I devised a short tour of points-of-interest related to that venerable concatenation of Boswell and Johnson. I started early at Paternoster Square in the City and walked it in four hours, but you could do it less…
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Cinema in the Eighteenth Century
Picture this: the year is 1772, you work as a farrier’s apprentice at a Darlington coaching inn, a lucky appointment because the owner of the inn allows you to read books from his little collection. That’s the year the innkeeper takes ownership of an edition of Oliver Goldsmith’s 1770 poem…
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A Quite Pointless Post About Book Heft
It’s a trivial pleasure, but discovering that a book you just bought has ‘next level’ heft is very satisfying…Look, I’ll keep this short. This post has been sitting in my drafts for weeks. I’ve rewritten the intro more than a dozen times. Why? Because: Who cares about the heft of…
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You Lookin’ At Me? Portraits On My Wall
When office workers were sent home for the Covid lockdown of April 2020 we quickly adapted to video meetings using Teams, Zoom and Skype. We saw inside colleagues’ homes – what was behind them (the decor, wall art, bookcases etc), but we never saw what was in front of them.…
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Bookcase For You, Bookcase For Me
We’ve been discussing buying a second bookcase, but where to put it is vexing us. The most obvious place for a new bookcase is the spot currently occupied by the exercise bike (which we use as a clothes drier) bought during Covid lockdown. There’s no direct sunlight and its away…
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Pick a Book, Any Book. Now Tell Me What It Is.
Let me tell you one of the great pleasures to be had in owning your own library (“It’s a bookcase for crying out loud! Not a library.”): I can pick a book off the shelves and, having forgotten that I had bought that volume, flick through its pages while stirring…
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Library Fantasists! Visit Sir Walter Scott’s Home
The world’s largest personal library – still intact – consists of more than 9,000 volumes and fills two rooms in Abbotsford House, near Melrose, Scotland. That’s the former home of the amazing best-selling Victorian author of the Waverley novels, Sir Walter Scott. It’s delightful to approach the building, with its…
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By Foot, Hoof or Wheel: Scotland to London
There were only three ways to travel between Scotland and London in the Eighteenth century: by foot, on horseback or by wheeled carriage. (Actually, you could take a boat, from Leith for example, but it wasn’t until the 1850s when a person could travel by rail out of Scotland and…
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Coveting Two Eighteenth Century Best Sellers
If a bolt of lightning should strike me, leaving me dead, the person who discovers my smoking corpse (it’s always a dog walker) may notice the faintest smile on my blackened lips. If they’re perceptive they’ll read that smile as ‘satisfaction’ – and they’d be right for I now own…
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The ‘Foosteps Principle’ of Richard Holmes
A daydream of mine is to go to the Netherlands and visit the places James Boswell inhabited when he was at Utrecht University (1763-64). Ahhh the Eighteenth century. The challenges are not insurmountable: the second-most being to find the time to do it, and the first being to persuade my…
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I Bought a Famous Book Printed in 1785
Yes, this site is about the Eighteenth century, but it’s also about book collecting…that is, books relevant to the, you guessed it, Eighteenth century. And it is to this hallowed conjunction of interests that I now turn my keyboard. On the dining room table where I write sits a package…
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The Amazing Benjamin Franklin
If someone was to ask me the best way to ‘get into’ the Eighteenth century, I would say: Learn about Benjamin Franklin. His life story is amazing and I shall now use the twelve commonest synonyms for the word ‘amazing’ to demonstrate. Observe… Franklin (1706-1790), an American born in Boston,…
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Family and Friends Boswell Left Behind
It’s easy to lose sight of the family picture when you dig into the mountains of words, essays and books written about James Boswell. If you want to add another dimension as you read about his life, then take a moment to think about the others in his family and…
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Starting my James Boswell Collecting Habit
In summer 2021 I bought a set of the Yale Editions of the Private Papers of James Boswell. That was how my hobby of studying the Eighteenth century and book collecting kicked off. We didn’t have a bookcase back then, and the 14 volumes I collected sat stacked up on…
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Eighteenth Century as Seen by its Inhabitants
Our imaginations are rendering machines of infinite capacity. We can conjure anything we want in our mind’s eye and, for the moment anyway, only we can tap into them. But don’t rely just on the text in your favourite book to fuel your Eighteenth century day dreams, get creative and…
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Never Mind the History, They’re My Friends
In a previous post I mentioned the pleasure of ‘discovery’ when learning about a subject. It’s an interest-driven process unhindered by formality or academic structure (at least for me it is), and that’s one of the reasons it’s so enjoyable to learn through discovery. I’ve been learning about the 18th…
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‘Discovery’: The Best Way to Learn History
One of the many pleasures in learning about history and times past is ‘discovery’. By this I mean the process by which a person follows their interest and simply finds things out. I expect everyone has experienced that process. You can accumulate a great deal of knowledge on a subject…
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Oliver Goldsmith Spent Johnson’s Rent Money on Madeira
One morning in 1762, the soon-to-be-famous Irish writer Oliver Goldsmith, was woken by an urgent rapping at the door of his London lodgings. Oliver Goldsmith was bad with money “Knock, knock!” Upon opening up, there was his landlady, threatening to bring the bailiffs unless he settle his many weeks of…
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Bailyn’s Voyagers to the West
Let me direct you to a book illustration that transports me back in time to the Eighteenth century in a way few others do. Go to Bernard Bailyn’s 1986 book “Voyagers to the West: Emigration from Britain to America on the Eve of the Revolution”.
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Samuel Johnson’s Tour of Scotland – Anniversary
It’s 250 years ago this year that the Eighteenth century’s literary celebrity Samuel Johnson published his Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, an account of a three-month tour he made there in 1773 with his great friend James Boswell. It was actually published on 18 January 1775, and that…
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Become a Fan of Eighteenth Century Genius
Genius Fan is a portal to the Age of Genius: that’s 1700-1799, the Mighty Eighteenth century, the Enlightenment. Bow down before its accomplishments and tremble at the potency of its ideas…hiding under the table will not protect you from its impact. You will only benefit. This was an age when…
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