![rw-book-cover](https://books.google.com/books/content?id=PkllFGaiveIC&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=5&source=public) ## Metadata - Author: [[Adam Sisman]] - Full Title: Boswell's Presumptuous Task - Category: #books - - [[∙Melvil Decimal System (DDC)]]: - [[8 - Literature]] - [[82 - English & Old English literatures]] - [[828 - English miscellaneous writings]] - [[828.6 - English miscellaneous writings 1745-1799]] ## To Look Into ### Ossian ‘Osian’ was the author of a collection of ancient Gaelic poems. They were very popular and very keenly embraced by those of Scottish extraction and was compared alongside the greats of world literature like the works of Homer and Virgil. They were the work of James Macpherson Who claimed he had found manuscripts. However, as time went on, there was more and more doubt about the authenticity of the work. Samuel Johnson was one of the few who doubted its authenticity, and asked to see proof, such as the manuscripts. This was never provided. it’s now largely believed that MacPherson wrote it all himself, though was inspired by ancient Gaelic works. p51-56 ### Frederick A. Pottle “The most famous of all Boswell scholars” p243 ## New Words **Laird.** > the owner of a large, long-established [Scottish](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland "Scotland") estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a [baron](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_feudal_baron "Scottish feudal baron") and above a [gentleman](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentleman "Gentleman"). This rank was held only by those lairds holding official recognition in a [territorial designation](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_designation "Territorial designation") by the [Lord Lyon King of Arms](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Lyon_King_of_Arms "Lord Lyon King of Arms"). They are usually styled [_name_] [_surname_] of [_lairdship_]. However, since "laird" is a [courtesy title](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtesy_titles_in_the_United_Kingdom "Courtesy titles in the United Kingdom"), it has no formal status in law. **animadversion** 1. criticism or censure. "her animadversion against science" - a comment or remark, especially a critical one. plural noun: **animadversions** "animadversions that the poet receives quite humbly" *** **Torpor** a state of physical or mental inactivity; lethargy. "they veered between apathetic torpor and hysterical fanaticism" *** **uxorious** 1. having or showing a great or excessive fondness for one's wife. "he had always impressed me as home-loving and uxorious" *** conjugal relating to marriage or the relationship between a married couple. "conjugal loyalty" *** verisimilitude 1. the appearance of being true or real. "the detail gives the novel some verisimilitude" ## Notes Boswell didn’t meeting Johnson until Johnson was 53. *** Boswell went to University with Henry Dundas. P5 *** “Boswell was a sensitive child: physically, delicate, timid, terrified of ghosts, frightened of the dark, and tormented by morbid ideas of external punishment.” He suffered with depression all his life, starting from a young age. He had some sort of breakdown aged 16 and was sent to the village of Moffat to recuperate. He was also there before aged 12 for a “nervous complaint”. Mental illness ran in the family. Potentially made worse by his father marrying his cousin. But when he wasn’t suffering from depression he was usually high-spirited and boisterous. He wasn’t gloomy by nature. Boswell took some pride in his depression. Being prone to ‘melancholy’ was some somewhat fashionable to a certain sort of crowd as it was considered an affliction suffered by those of superior intellects. P5-7 *** Boswell was outgoing and fun. He liked women and women liked him. He fell in and out of love easily. He was also prone to acting the fool. He said he’s sacrifice anything for a laugh, ‘even myself’. He was also fond of acting and was known for being an entertaining mimic and impersonator. NOTE The book says that the theatre in Scotland during Boswell’s time was illegal (but tolerated). I didn’t know this and was curious. GPT-4 explains: During James Boswell's time, the theater in Scotland was indeed controversial and faced legal challenges. The primary reason for this was religious. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the Scottish Reformation led to the establishment of a very strict form of Presbyterianism in Scotland, particularly within the Church of Scotland (often referred to as the Kirk). The leadership of the Kirk held Puritanical views, seeing the theater as immoral, frivolous, and a potential source of vice. They believed that plays encouraged idleness, vanity, and could lead the faithful away from the teachings of the Bible. As a result, public theatrical performances were banned in Scotland for much of the 18th century. While the formal ban made theater illegal, as you mentioned, it was often tolerated, especially in Edinburgh. The public's interest in plays and the arts persisted despite the ban, leading to underground or "guerilla" performances. Over time, the public and even some members of the elite became more receptive to theater, leading to a gradual relaxation of the ban. By the time James Boswell was active in the latter half of the 18th century, theater was becoming more accepted, even if it remained technically illegal. This backdrop made Boswell's theater-going both an act of personal enjoyment and a minor form of rebellion against the more conservative elements of Scottish society. *** Boswell’s father sent him to the University of Glasgow after the University of Edinburgh, in order to give him fewer distractions. It was here that his professor of moral philosophy was Adam Smith. P10. *** Boswell was struck by Adam Smith’s advocacy for a pure English style. During this period the Scots had lots different pronunciations to the English and also Scotticisms – different words entirely. P10 Boswell was conscious of his accent, knowing that the London high society that he wanted to be a part of would look down on anyone too Scottish. He attended lectures by Thomas Sheridan on ‘correct’ English usage. P13 *** Boswell always fancied himself as a poet (though most consider him a very poor one). This started at a young age. And he would write poems and pamphlets under various pseudonyms. One of which was “A Genius”. Ha. P14 *** Boswell always struggled with money. He liked life’s luxuries. He came from a wealthy Scottish family but you get the sense that in London that wasn’t enough. So he spent beyond his means. P14-15 *** Boswell was quite the celebrity hunter. He was also keen to meet the most famous person in town on his travels. And if they turned him away he could be very persistent. *** After his trip to Corsica – where he was one of the first Brits to visit – he offered his expertise on the country to William Pitt the Elder. Pitt had been out of office, but Boswell would never miss an opportunity to get acquainted with another face. Pitt recommended he offer his advice to the current Secretary of State instead. Boswell persisted. And he arrived for the meeting as “native Corsican chief, with stiletto and Paoli’s pistols in his belt, and wearing a cap complete with a tuft of cock’s feathers.” Ha! P40 *** Boswell’s first literary success was his "Account of Corsica" (1768). P41. *** Boswell married his cousin, Margaret Montgomerie. He was a loving father and an affectionate husband, but not loyal. After a few years of marriage he began visiting prostitutes. Be would often confess this to her. He insisted that he call him “Mr Boswell”, rather than “Jamie”. P45 *** Boswell went to the Lord Mayor’s ball and banquet. It was a posh event, full of the highest members of society. But rather amusingly when the doors opened for the dining room for dinner there was a mad scrabble by everyone to get the best seats. I love that image. These 1700s characters, dressed the nines, all rushing and pushing to get the best seats. The human core never changes. P48. *** “Pay the visit and the the ramble.” – Samuel Johnson. P49 *** When Samuel Johnson spent a few days at the Boswell family home in Edinburgh, before beginning their Hebrides adventure, he annoyed Boswell’s wife Margaret by his habits of endlessly drinking tea, and spilling candlewax as he read late into the night. P49 *** When on their Hebrides adventure Boswell began to express his regret that Scotland had lost her independence in the Treaty of the Union. And the keeper of the records said that the Scottish Parliament had been bribed with English money to sign the treaty. “Sir, that is no defence”, said Johnson: “that makes you worse”. P51 *** P56-60 is a good section on Boswells and Johnson’s tour of the Hebrides, where they spent time in the Highlands. At first, they were entertained by a Scottish landowner, who they didn’t like, and who they felt didn’t represent their romanticised image of a clan leader from the Highlands. But then they met a clansman who did. It’s worth a re-read. *** Before starting “The Club”, Samuel Johnson was in [The Ivy Lane](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_Lane_Club) club, a literary discussion group. P78. *** After Samuel Johnson‘s death, there was a literary scramble to write biographies of him. His friend said John Hawkins appointed himself as Johnson’s official biographer. He was also Johnson’s executor after death, so had the advantage of access to his private papers and his diary in particular. Hester Thrale was anlso rumoured to be working on a biography. She was a longtime friend and she occupied a special place in Johnson’s heart, and might know secrets in accessible to others. As he was more open with her than others. Boswell was pressured by his publisher and those around him to get working on and finishing a biography of Johnson as soon as possible. In order to cash in. There was unsurity how long public interest in Johnson would continue after his death. But despite all this Boswell would not be rushed. In fact, he wanted to see what others wrote about Johnson, first, in order to “receive additional information and correct mistakes and misrepresentations”. P78-79 *** Diseased people would gather around and close by to a public execution, as they believed that being touched by the sweaty hands of the dying could cure them. P96-97 *** Boswell had a weird fascination with death. He would visit people condemned to die on the day of their execution. He also liked to look at the bodies and their faces afterwards. P97 *** The laid back, gossipy, personal and *“The Journal to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson”* was quite revolutionary and shocking when published. It was so personal that people didn’t know how to take it. Biographies were nearly always positive and focused on big moments, events and didn’t publish private conversations and letters. Edmond Malone helped Boswell tone it down and make it a bit more formal, but it was still a very personal book and many took slight offence. *** Boswell arguably lacked some tact in which opinions on other people by Johnson he included in his *“The Journal to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson”*. As a modern reader we’re glad they’re in there. But he upset a lot of people and lost a lot of friends as a result and people become weary of him. He also upset plenty of powerful acquaintances, who may have helped his career. The book was a great success. But was a disaster when it came to his career prospects. *** It wasn’t until about 18 months after Johnson’s that Boswell started writing “Life”. He first was working on the “Hebrides” and then spent time gathering materials from people far and wide. But he was aware that public interest might wain if he took too long. Plenty of people wrote him letters saying so to. *** "A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilisation." – Samuel Johnson *** In a time when it was considered okay for writers to say things like “if I remember right” and “I think I might have read” Boswell was in contrast keen to find out the source of things he was putting into “Life”. He would gladly go from one side of London to the other just to confirm a date. For the time Boswell was incredibly committed to ensuring as much as possible was accurate. P232-233 > Boswell's persistence, his desire to verify what seemed to others the most trifling detail, his zeal for 'scrupulous authenticity', seemed absurd to many of his contemporaries. The Scottish judge Lord Hailes, who had known Boswell all his life, warned him to omit insignificant details - and to remember that Dr Johnson was the principal subject of the book. Boswell was sensitive to such criticism. 'Were I to detail the books which I have consulted, and the inquiries which I have found it necessary to make by various channels, I should probably be thought ridiculously ostentatious," he wrote defensively in the 'Advertisement' to the first edition of the Life. 'Let me only observe, as a specimen of my trouble, that I have sometimes been obliged to run half over London, in order to fix a date correctly; which, when I had accomplished, I well knew would obtain me no praise, though a failure would have been to my discredit. This was a period when most authors, including Johnson himself, were content to rely on previous authorities, or just on memory as a source. Boswell deplored the habit of introducing anecdotes, facts, and even quotations with phrases such as 'I think I have read' or 'If I remember right', when the originals were available to be examined. He was determined to paint a 'Flemish picture' of his friend, faithful to life and accurate in every detail. The nature of such a work consisted of 'innumerable detached particulars', and to ascertain their authenticity Boswell was prepared to go to a degree of trouble beyond that of any other species of composition'. There were moments when he felt that the task might be beyond him. 'You cannot imagine,' he exclaimed to his friend Temple, 'what labour, what perplexity, what vexation, I have endured in arranging a prodigious multiplicity of materials, in supplying omissions, in searching for papers, buried in different and all this besides the exertion of composing and polishing. Many a time have I thought of giving it up. *** The "Life of Samuel Johnson" was published on 16 May 1791. P275 *** Johnson was good at writing ‘dedications’ for King’s, queens, etc. at the start of books. So much so that he often wrote the dedications for other authors books for them. P285 ## Highlights *** > The story of Boswell's life as he wrote the epic Life of Johnson is itself an epic: in the process Boswell experienced an extraordinary degree of exhilaration and depression, pride, humiliation, confidence, doubt, satisfaction, hurt, loneliness, disillusionment and grief. As soon as Johnson died, several biographers entered a race to cash in on his memory: a race that Boswell seemed to have lost when their books appeared before his. He was warned that interest in Johnson was waning, but he continued to miss deadline after deadline. Newspapers gloated at his distress; rivals belittled his role in Johnson's life; friends berated him for being so dilatory. To many, the Great Work seemed a Great Folly. His persistence, his desire to verify even the smallest detail, were ridiculed in the press. It seemed as if he would never finish; he almost abandoned the book in despair. He sank into glooms which rendered him incapable of work for weeks on end. Meanwhile, lack of money caused him constant anxiety. He kept abandoning his book to pursue his career, often for months at a time. At various points he lapsed into heavy drinking, which left him hung over and unable to work. Often he worked while eating, concentrating despite the domestic distractions around him. He neglected his wife, who was terminally ill with tuberculosis; when she died, he was tormented by remorse. As he accumulated more and more source-material, the book swelled; he was warned that nobody would buy such a huge biography at the high price that it would inevitably command. In the wreckage of his disordered mind, he clung to the memory of Johnson as a shipwrecked sailor clings to a rock. Out of the chaos of his own life, in the midst of his disappointment and despair, Boswell immortalized the life of the man he revered above all others. > > By the time the book was finished, his life was in chaos. Boswell had reached fifty without winning any of the glittering prizes he had once confidently anticipated. He had abandoned the Edinburgh bar, but his career at the English bar was at a standstill. His hopes of a seat in Parliament had come to nothing. No other official post that he considered suitable to his talents had come his way, something he found difficult to explain. An arrogant and insulting patron humiliated him. He had disgraced himself repeatedly by drinking and whoring, to the distress of his family and the detriment of his health. His outrageous behaviour made him a laughing-stock. He was embarrassed by debt. As his ambitions withered, one by one, he became desperate; increasingly, his monumental biography of his friend Samuel Johnson was his last hope of achieving anything worthwhile. The book became an apologia - not just for Johnson, but for Boswell too. In making Johnson a hero, Boswell made sense of his own life. > > The final part of my book shows what happened after the Life of Johnson was published. Several of Johnson's friends objected to the way they had been depicted in his biography, and shunned Boswell; he acquired the reputation of a man who could not be trusted. Afterwards, there was nothing remaining for him to do. The effort had left him exhausted. Sozzled with drink, riddled by venereal infection, despairing of all his hopes, he simply faded away. > > After Boswell's death, the reputation of his book grew steadily, while his own shrank in proportion. The biography's fame promoted the image of its author as Johnson's stooge. Even in his own lifetime Boswell had been mocked as Johnson's lackey; the book made him seem no more than a cipher. While the Life of Johnson came to be recognized as one of the greatest works written in the English language, the name Boswell became a byword for a fool. > > This is a story about literature: about the genesis of one of the most famous books ever written. But it is also a story about life: about an unlikely friendship between two very different but both in their own ways delightful men. They made such a contrast: the one stern, the other frivolous; one heavy, the other skittish; one sceptical, the other protoRomantic. And just as Johnson was quintessentially an Englishman, so Boswell was very conscious of being a Scot. Yet their mutual devotion transcended all their differences, to the greater glory of both. (Page 1) *** > “I have often determined to be strictly sober, and have often fixed an era for the commencement of my proper conduct. I have a curious inclination to have an era for almost everything. The era for my being sober has been advanced from one time to another.” – James Boswell, in his journal (Page 37) *** > Boswell saw Johnson for what would be the last time on 30 June 1784. They met for a 'friendly confidential dinner' - in the eighteenth-century sense of a large meal taken in the late afternoon at the London home of Johnson's intimate friend Sir Joshua Reynolds. Johnson was a dying man, suffering increasingly from breathlessness; the three men discussed the possibility that he might spend the coming winter in Italy, to escape the English damp. During the winter that had just passed, Johnson had been so ill that he had been unable to leave his house for 129 days in succession. Boswell had consulted three Edinburgh doctors on Johnson's condition: the consensus had been that if Johnson were to live through another winter, he should certainly spend it in a milder climate. The problem was the cost. Johnson's friends had discussed among themselves how the money might be raised, and Boswell had come up with the idea of applying to the Lord Chancellor for funds. Lord Thurlow was known to respect Johnson, and vice versa; and as Lord Chancellor he was well placed to press Johnson's claim to support from the state. Johnson already received a Crown pension of £300 a year, granted to him more than twenty years before, in recognition of his achievement as author of the Dictionary of the English Language. > > These plans had been kept secret from Johnson until the day before the dinner at Sir Joshua's, when Boswell had hurried round to Johnson's home in Bolt Court, just north of Fleet Street, to read him the Lord Chancellor's encouraging reply. Johnson had listened attentively. This is taking prodigious pains about a man, he said, when Boswell finished reading. 'O! Sir, your friends would do every thing for you,' Boswell replied affectionately. But Johnson grew more and more agitated, until tears started in his and eyes, he exclaimed, 'GOD bless you all.' For some moments neither man was able to speak. Then Johnson rose abruptly and left the room. > > The next day, at Reynolds's house in Leicester Fields (the south side of Leicester Square), the party discussed whether the expected 'munificence' might come in the form of one large donation, or as an increase to Johnson's pension. Johnson preferred the latter. The other two began to talk of the prospect of a winter in Italy, a country revered by all men of learning for its classical connotations, and one that Johnson had never seen. (He had planned to go there in 1776 with his friends the Thrales, but the trip had been cancelled after the death of their son.) Johnson did not expect much happiness: 'Were I going to Italy to see fine paintings, like Sir Joshua Reynolds, or to run after women, like Boswell, I might be sure to have pleasure in Italy. But when a man goes to Italy merely to feel how he breathes the air, he can enjoy very little.' > > Nevertheless, Johnson felt sufficiently robust to discuss the relative merits of urban and rural life in characteristically dogmatic style. 'Those who are content to live in the country,' he pronounced, 'are fit for the country.' This remark must have tantalized Boswell, who was on the point of leaving for Scotland yet again, and who was still hesitating about whether to live in London, Edinburgh or Auchinleck. Only a few weeks earlier, Johnson had at last succumbed to Boswell's bullying and provided the advice he wanted: he agreed that Boswell might try his luck in London after all. Even then, Boswell had not been satisfied until Johnson had given him this opinion in writing. Boswell planned to frame Johnson's letter and hang it on the wall, so that if anyone asked why he had come to London, he could point to it and say: 'There are my reasons!' > > After the dinner was over, Reynolds offered his guests a ride home in his coach. This was a kindness to Johnson, who could not now walk any distance without discomfort. Outside Johnson's lodgings, the coach waited while the two friends made their goodbyes. Then Johnson stepped down on to the pavement. He called out 'Fare you well', and without looking back, sprang away with a kind of pathetic briskness'.48 > > Johnson returned to Bolt Court to find a letter waiting from Hester Thrale. For nearly twenty years, since she was in her early twenties, this lively, quick-witted, and bird-like woman (only four feet eleven inches tall) had been his intimate friend and confidante. Her husband Henry, a wealthy brewer, had also been one of his most trusted friends. The Thrales' large, comfortable houses in Streatham and Southwark had been like second homes to him. He had kept his own room in each of them; he had been accepted there almost as part of the family. But three years before, Henry Thrale had died; since then, for reasons that Johnson may have suspected but could not wholly comprehend, Hester Thrale had begun to withdraw from him. 'Do not neglect me, nor relinquish me,' he wrote to her: 'Nobody will ever love you better, or honour you more.' But he had seen her less and less; even when he had been so desperately ill, she would not come to him. Now her letter explained everything: she had fallen in love with her daughter's singing teacher, the Italian Gabriel Piozzi, and planned to marry him. Johnson was shocked and hurt. He sent her an angry letter, and though he subsequently tried to retract, their friendship was at an end. He never saw her again. Boswell had gone back to Scotland; and he had lost Hester Thrale for ever. (Page 69) *** > Boswell had first met Johnson in London in the summer of 1763, only six weeks before departing to study in Holland. He had seen him again briefly on his return from the Grand Tour in 1766. After he qualified as an advocate later that year, Boswell was generally able to see Johnson only while the Courts in Edinburgh were in recess, usually during the spring. He made a journey to London in the spring of 1768, and another in the autumn of 1769; then he came to London in the spring of 1772, 1773, 1775, 1776, 1778, 1779, 1781, 1783 and 1784, and during several of these trips went on forays with Johnson to Lichfield, Oxford, Bath, Bristol and elsewhere. His London stays lasted an average of about ten weeks, and of course during much of this time he was not with Johnson. He also came to London for a fortnight in the autumn of 1779, and spent eleven days with Johnson at Taylor's home in Ashbourne in 1777. In all, including the 100-odd days he spent with Johnson in Scotland, it has been calculated that there were about 400 days on which the two men met, in a period of friendship covering more than twenty-one years. > > Boswell planned to include his own correspondence with Johnson in the text of his biography. His letters to and from Johnson would provide links between the scenes he had recorded in his journal. These required some explanation: Boswell would need to indicate when he was in London, where Johnson could communicate with him freely, and when he was away. He would be obliged to explain the breaks and the resumptions in the correspondence. To provide a context for the letters, he would have to outline his own activities. The text of the Life of Johnson therefore provided a history of the friendship between the author and his subject. The author would become a character in his own book. The meeting between the two men became a turning-point in the story. (Page 172) *** > Boswell dined with Lonsdale every day, and every day the pattern was the same. Lonsdale harangued, and when anyone ventured to speak, even to express agreement, Lonsdale silenced him, ordering 'You shall hear.' One of Lonsdale's cronies whistled like a bird when Lonsdale treated him with contempt. No private conversation was tolerated. He snapped at a servant who made a noise. He declaimed forcefully on subjects of his own choosing, and recited his favourite poetry at inordinate length. Boswell was struck by the force of Lonsdale's physiognomy, his utterance, his memory. He perceived that several of his fellow-diners took refuge in sleep. Lonsdale himself sometimes appeared to doze off, though Boswell was warned not to relax his guard, as this could be a pretence. > > It gradually became apparent to Boswell that it was better not to argue with Lonsdale, even on legal matters. Though Boswell was being paid for his advice, Lonsdale was not interested in his opinion. Lonsdale surrounded himself with hangers-on, all dependent on him, united in fear and greed. Boswell was amazed when Lonsdale ate a whole plate of fresh oysters without offering anybody else one. Most insulting of all, Lonsdale denied his guests wine, while drinking it himself. When a new guest naïvely asked for some white wine, Lonsdale replied: 'No. That has never been asked for here.' In a private moment, one of the hangers-on explained that while Lonsdale would spend thousands of pounds at elections, he was a miser who begrudged sixpence, let alone the six shillings a bottle of claret cost. Lonsdale was notorious for refusing to pay tradesmen's bills, meeting all protests with an invitation to sue. > > One evening two of the MPs stole away to dine comfortably at another public house and to drink good wine: only to be rebuked in front of the others when Lonsdale discovered what they had done. > > Eventually, after enduring such treatment for a week and a half, Boswell got up the nerve to ask for some wine himself. At first Lonsdale tried to fend off his request by saying that the wine in public houses was often laced with arsenic, but, perhaps realizing that he could not maintain this argument and drink himself, he eventually acquiesced. 'Mister Boswell of Auchinleck, shall you and I drink a glass of wine together?' > > An earlier dinner had provided a clue to Lonsdale's character. He explained that as the youngest boy at a school in Hertfordshire, he had acted as fag for twenty older boys with whom he shared a room. At half past five every morning he was obliged to go and fetch water for the others, which involved pumping until his fingers were numb. There was a fire at one end of the room which the big boys kept to themselves, not allowing the little boys to come near. The older boys would take the blankets from the little boys' beds. The 'pissing place' was at the far end of the room from the fire, and the big boys would not take the trouble to go to it, but piss by the little boys' beds. Lonsdale approved of this system, and described how he in turn imposed the same conditions on the next youngest boy to arrive. Boswell was shocked. He could not help thinking it curious that such a domineering figure as Lonsdale had been thus kept in subjection. It makes a very pernicious succession of slavery and tyranny. The big boys, recollecting what they have suffered, are barbarously severe upon the little boys; and perhaps his own domination has been inflamed by that education." > > The election business proceeded tediously, until at last the election was held. The poll showed 554 votes for Lonsdale's candidate, 407 of which had been cast by 'honorary freemen': two more than the number of votes cast for the rival candidate, who promptly petitioned the House of Commons against the outcome. After the election Boswell felt obliged to accompany Lonsdale to his home, Lowther Castle. He escaped just before Christmas, with a more than useful fee of 150 guineas. Back in London, he attended the Committee of the House of Commons considering the result of the Carlisle election, which gave its decision against Lonsdale's candidate on 26 February 1787. (Page 180) *** > Boswell's persistence, his desire to verify what seemed to others the most trifling detail, his zeal for 'scrupulous authenticity', seemed absurd to many of his contemporaries. The Scottish judge Lord Hailes, who had known Boswell all his life, warned him to omit insignificant details - and to remember that Dr Johnson was the principal subject of the book. Boswell was sensitive to such criticism. 'Were I to detail the books which I have consulted, and the inquiries which I have found it necessary to make by various channels, I should probably be thought ridiculously ostentatious," he wrote defensively in the 'Advertisement' to the first edition of the Life. 'Let me only observe, as a specimen of my trouble, that I have sometimes been obliged to run half over London, in order to fix a date correctly; which, when I had accomplished, I well knew would obtain me no praise, though a failure would have been to my discredit. This was a period when most authors, including Johnson himself, were content to rely on previous authorities, or just on memory as a source. Boswell deplored the habit of introducing anecdotes, facts, and even quotations with phrases such as 'I think I have read' or 'If I remember right', when the originals were available to be examined. He was determined to paint a 'Flemish picture' of his friend, faithful to life and accurate in every detail. The nature of such a work consisted of 'innumerable detached particulars', and to ascertain their authenticity Boswell was prepared to go to a degree of trouble beyond that of any other species of composition'. There were moments when he felt that the task might be beyond him. 'You cannot imagine,' he exclaimed to his friend Temple, 'what labour, what perplexity, what vexation, I have endured in arranging a prodigious multiplicity of materials, in supplying omissions, in searching for papers, buried in different and all this besides the exertion of composing and polishing. Many a time have I thought of giving it up. (Page 233)