Ireland Government And Business Contacts Handbook Book

In 1773 Samuel Johnson undertook a journey to the Hebrides, accompanied by the ever faithful James Boswell. Travelling at the slow pace of the eighteenth century it took them 83 days to complete the journey. Reading at my own slow pace it has taken me somewhat longer to complete the book - this would be a good book to study but its hard work at the end of a long day.
It is held together by two key tensions. The date of Johnson's trip is 28 years after the final Jacobite uprising and 3 years before the publication of The Wealth of Nations, both key dates in the history of Scotland. Johnson is drawn to the highlands by the hope of finding the kind of Clan culture that was destroyed at Culloden, a sort of pre-modern society held together by older and more Romantic values. But as he admits what he came to find was already dead. Instead he provides a very sober commentary on life on the islands, readily adopting the language of political economy - deploring emigration and calling for agricultural improvements. (What is interesting is that Johnson finds the scenery that draws most modern visitors to the highlands deplorable and desolate).
However in contrast to Johnson's highly serious description is Boswell's accompanying account of Johnson's progress, which paints a different and more entertaining picture. Johnson is something of a conversational brawler, never entering a conversation unless he hopes to provoke a lively discussion, which he, of curse, gets the best of. Amusing as Boswell's accounts of Johnson are though, I find Boswell's own style annoying and ingratiating.