the book has been destroyed. I wish female curiosity had been strong
enough to have had it all transcribed, which might easily have been
done; and I should think the theft, being pro bono publico, might have
been forgiven. But I may be wrong. My wife told me she never once
looked into it. She did not seem quite easy when we left her: but away
we went!

Mr Nairne, advocate, was to go with us as far as St Andrews. It gives
me pleasure that, by mentioning his name, I connect his title to the
just and handsome compliment paid him by Dr Johnson, in his book: 'A
gentleman who could stay with us only long enough to make us know how
much we lost by his leaving us.' When we came to Leith, I talked with
perhaps too boasting an air, how pretty the Frith of Forth looked; as
indeed, after the prospect from Constantinople, of which I have been
told, and that from Naples, which I have seen, I believe the view of
that Frith and its environs, from the Castle Hill of Edinburgh, is the
finest prospect in Europe. 'Ay,' said Dr Johnson, 'that is the state
of the world. Water is the same every where.

Una est injusti caerula forma maris. [Footnote: Non illic urbes, non
tu mirabere silvas: Una est injusti caerula forma maris.

Ovid. Amor. II. xi.

Nor groves nor towns the ruthless ocean shows;
Unvaried still its azure surface flows.]

I told him the port here was the mouth of the river or water of Leith.
'Not LETHE,' said Mr Nairne. 'Why, sir,' said Dr Johnson, 'when a
Scotchman sets out from this port for England, he forgets his native