" WHAT IS WRONG WITH SCOTLAND ?
The writer of the article in your issue of January 18 refers incidentally to " Dr. Johnson's well-known jibe about oatmeal, and Boswell's famous reply." She is, however, mistaken in attributing the rejoinder to Boswell, who does not, I think, even record it. Sir Walter Scott, in his notes to Boswell's Tour of the Hebrides, assigns it to Lord Elibank, who, he tells us :—
" made a happy retort on Dr. Johnson's definition of oats, as the food of horses in England and of men in Scotland : Yes,' said he ; and where else will you find such horses and such men ? ' "
It may not be without interest to add that Mr. Henry Grey Graham, commenting on this in his Social Life of Scotland in the Eighteenth Century, remarks that :—
" we may admire the patriotism, but must regret the mendacity of his lordship, for both countrymen and countrywomen of the poorer orders= lean, shabby and soiled,' as the author of Humphrey Clinker laments to own—were not such as one could boast of in respect to physical excellence or personal appearance."
—H. M. W., Edinburgh.
Previous page
