country.' NAIRNE. 'I hope, sir, you will forget England here.'
JOHNSON. 'Then 'twill be still more Lethe.' He observed of the pier or
quay, 'you have no occasion for so large a one: your trade does not
require it: but you are like a shopkeeper who takes a shop, not only
for what he has to put into it, but that it may be believed he has a
great deal to put into it'. It is very true, that there is now,
comparatively, little trade upon the eastern coast of Scotland. The
riches of Glasgow shew how much there is in the west; and perhaps we
shall find trade travel westward on a great scale, as well as a small.

We talked of a man's drowning himself. JOHNSON. 'I should never think
it time to make away with myself.' I put the case of Eustace Budgell,
who was accused of forging a will, and sunk himself in the Thames,
before the trial of its authenticity came on. 'Suppose, sir,' said I,
'that a man is absolutely sure, that, if he lives a few days longer,
he shall be detected in a fraud, the consequence of which will be
utter disgrace and expulsion from society.' JOHNSON. 'Then, sir, let
him go abroad to a distant country; let him go to some place where he
is NOT known. Don't let him go to the devil where he IS known!'

He then said, 'I see a number of people bare-footed here: I suppose
you all went so before the Union. Boswell, your ancestors went so,
when they had as much land as your family has now. Yet Auchinleck is
the Field of Stones: there would be bad going bare-footed here. The
lairds, however, did it.' I bought some speldings, fish (generally
whitings) salted and dried in a particular manner, being dipped in the
sea and dried in the sun, and eaten by the Scots by way of a relish.
He had never seen them, though they are sold in London. I insisted on
scottifying [Footnote: My friend, General Campbell, Governour of
Madras, tells me, that they make speldings in the East Indies,