0:00:06 > 0:00:10Today, Scotland stands on the edge of the most important
0:00:10 > 0:00:16event in her history for 300 years, the vote on whether to end her union
0:00:16 > 0:00:21with the rest of the United Kingdom and become, once again, independent.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26Through the centuries of Union, Scotland's greatest writers
0:00:26 > 0:00:31have struggled with questions of national identity and I've chosen
0:00:31 > 0:00:32a handful of the sharpest,
0:00:32 > 0:00:36whose voices are still so clear and so resonant.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40From a bestselling novelist, who cast an enduring
0:00:40 > 0:00:43and seductive spell over popular culture,
0:00:43 > 0:00:48selling stories of tartan-clad clans and noble chiefs,
0:00:48 > 0:00:52to a rebel poet who fought ferociously
0:00:52 > 0:00:56to lay the foundations for a new form of Scottish nationalism.
0:00:58 > 0:01:02But in this film I want to begin closer to home,
0:01:02 > 0:01:07not with novels or poetry, but with the father of modern journalism.
0:01:07 > 0:01:14We are all of us laughable, lovable, and often ridiculous creatures,
0:01:14 > 0:01:17and James Boswell writes it like it is.
0:01:19 > 0:01:23His self-portrait is unflinching and often unflattering.
0:01:25 > 0:01:28He writes what it was like to be a young Scot
0:01:28 > 0:01:30in the green years
0:01:30 > 0:01:34of the Scottish/English Union like nobody else.
0:01:34 > 0:01:36It's James Boswell's life
0:01:36 > 0:01:39and work that capture the spirit of the age.
0:01:39 > 0:01:41Torn between pride in his noble heritage
0:01:41 > 0:01:46and a lusty appreciation of everything the Union had to offer.
0:01:50 > 0:01:54And above all, it's his friendship with one of the most famous,
0:01:54 > 0:01:58iconic Englishmen of the age, which represents the best that
0:01:58 > 0:02:02can happen when a prickly Scot and a proud Englishman work together.
0:02:11 > 0:02:12THUNDER RUMBLES
0:02:14 > 0:02:20Historians have, for centuries, pored over ancient texts to shed
0:02:20 > 0:02:23light upon nations and their people.
0:02:24 > 0:02:28"Now I behold the chiefs, in the pride of their former deeds!
0:02:30 > 0:02:32"Their souls are kindled at the battles of old,
0:02:32 > 0:02:34"at the actions of other times.
0:02:36 > 0:02:38"Their eyes are flames of fire.
0:02:38 > 0:02:42"They roll in search of the foes of the land.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45"Their mighty hands are on their swords.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48"Lightning pours from their sides of steel.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51"They come like streams from the mountains,
0:02:51 > 0:02:54"each rushes roaring from the hill."
0:02:59 > 0:03:03These are the words of the great Gaelic bard Ossian,
0:03:03 > 0:03:06whose stories of heroes, and heroines, kings and princes
0:03:06 > 0:03:11and battles, had been passed down, generation by generation.
0:03:12 > 0:03:15Who were the original people of the British Isles?
0:03:15 > 0:03:20Forget Stonehenge, forget King Arthur and Camelot, forget all
0:03:20 > 0:03:24the English history that is merely game of thrones. The original
0:03:24 > 0:03:28people were the Gaels of Scotland, and the poems of Ossian proved it.
0:03:36 > 0:03:41Brought to light in the 1760s, these myths and legends allowed
0:03:41 > 0:03:44the Scots to hold their heads up high -
0:03:44 > 0:03:47ancient, superior, noble.
0:03:49 > 0:03:55In fact, Ossian himself was a myth, and the poems were a complete fraud.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59They had been invented by a modern writer, James Macpherson,
0:03:59 > 0:04:02and they tell us absolutely nothing at all about the real
0:04:02 > 0:04:05Scotland of the middle of the 18th century,
0:04:05 > 0:04:10just a few decades into its union with England - for that we have
0:04:10 > 0:04:13to turn to a very different writer, a friend of Macpherson's,
0:04:13 > 0:04:18and a hero of mine, but not perhaps an entirely conventional hero.
0:04:20 > 0:04:24James Boswell - the father of modern journalism,
0:04:24 > 0:04:29inventor of the literary biography, and a prolific diarist.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32He has, however, been quite overlooked
0:04:32 > 0:04:34as a Scottish literary giant,
0:04:34 > 0:04:38and the reason lies not in his skills as a writer
0:04:38 > 0:04:40but because of his most famous subject.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45You see, Boswell didn't write about Scottish heroes
0:04:45 > 0:04:49but an all-too-real Englishman -
0:04:49 > 0:04:51Samuel Johnson,
0:04:51 > 0:04:54and the legendary creator of the English Dictionary casts
0:04:54 > 0:04:56a very long shadow.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00After Shakespeare, Johnson remains the most quoted man
0:05:00 > 0:05:02in the English language,
0:05:02 > 0:05:06famous for his caustic aphorisms about every part of life.
0:05:07 > 0:05:11What people don't so readily recall is that it's Boswell's busy pen
0:05:11 > 0:05:12that preserved them for us.
0:05:15 > 0:05:16When a man is tired of London,
0:05:16 > 0:05:22he is tired of life, for there is in London all that life can afford.
0:05:22 > 0:05:24Sir, I have found you an argument,
0:05:24 > 0:05:28I am not obliged to find you an understanding.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
0:05:31 > 0:05:33Sir, a woman's preaching...
0:05:33 > 0:05:36BOSWELL JOINS IN: is like a dog walking on his hind legs.
0:05:36 > 0:05:37It is not done well,
0:05:37 > 0:05:40but you are surprised to find it is done at all.
0:05:40 > 0:05:44No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.
0:05:46 > 0:05:51So why is James Boswell such a great writer in English prose?
0:05:51 > 0:05:55The answer lies in his epic Life Of Dr Johnson.
0:05:55 > 0:05:57This is the first edition.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00Nothing like this book had ever been written in English before.
0:06:00 > 0:06:04We'd had lots of biographies, of course, but they tended to be
0:06:04 > 0:06:08rather generalised, windy, moralistic volumes. This is
0:06:08 > 0:06:10the first one which tries to give the reader
0:06:10 > 0:06:12everything about the subject -
0:06:12 > 0:06:16the cadences of his speech, how he dressed, what he looked like,
0:06:16 > 0:06:19his little ticks and mannerisms, his table manners.
0:06:21 > 0:06:23"When at table, he was totally
0:06:23 > 0:06:27"absorbed in the business of the moment. His looks seemed riveted to
0:06:27 > 0:06:33"the plate, nor would he, unless when in very high company, say one word,
0:06:33 > 0:06:36"or even pay the least attention to what was said by others,
0:06:36 > 0:06:42"till he had satisfied his appetite, which was so fierce, and indulged
0:06:42 > 0:06:46"with such intenseness, that while in the act of eating, the veins in
0:06:46 > 0:06:50"his forehead swelled, and generally a strong perspiration was visible."
0:06:52 > 0:06:57To those whose sensations were delicate, this could not but be
0:06:57 > 0:07:01disgusting, and it was doubtless not very suitable to the character
0:07:01 > 0:07:04of a philosopher, who should be distinguished by self-command.
0:07:12 > 0:07:17As a writer, Boswell didn't deal in myths but in real men
0:07:17 > 0:07:21and women with real passions and real appetites.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24He wanted to record their actual words -
0:07:24 > 0:07:27the insults, the anecdotes, the beliefs.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30And as a result, if you want to know the pith of the period,
0:07:30 > 0:07:32the essence of the times,
0:07:32 > 0:07:36you shouldn't go to any great poet or novelist of the period, you need
0:07:36 > 0:07:40to go to the diaries, the scribbled journals of wee Jimmy Boswell.
0:07:43 > 0:07:46But first it's vital to understand the world in which they were
0:07:46 > 0:07:52written - defined by an event that took place 30 years
0:07:52 > 0:07:54before Boswell was even born.
0:07:57 > 0:08:02In 1707, the streets of Edinburgh were a flurry of pamphleteers,
0:08:02 > 0:08:07campaigners, and naked nationalism, as Scotland faced a monumental
0:08:07 > 0:08:11vote on the Act of Union with England.
0:08:11 > 0:08:16Not a popular vote back then, mind you, no referendum in 1707,
0:08:16 > 0:08:19but the choice of a privileged few politicians.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24The old Scottish Parliament of nobles and landowners
0:08:24 > 0:08:28tore themselves in two over the question of the Union.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32Huge feuds, great speeches, massive emotion.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35And then, in 1707,
0:08:35 > 0:08:39the old Scots Parliament voted itself into oblivion.
0:08:41 > 0:08:43Sitting here in the empty chamber,
0:08:43 > 0:08:45it's hard not to be swept up
0:08:45 > 0:08:48by the mythic significance of that decision -
0:08:48 > 0:08:51a noble alliance forged, or a nation lost?
0:08:55 > 0:08:58But, like Boswell, I'm more interested in focusing
0:08:58 > 0:09:00on the facts.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03And for that, I've come to see rare documents
0:09:03 > 0:09:05that chart the rocky road to Union.
0:09:07 > 0:09:11So what we have here, Andrew, is a volume containing
0:09:11 > 0:09:14the minutes of the proceedings in the Scots Parliament,
0:09:14 > 0:09:15moment by moment,
0:09:15 > 0:09:19debating all the different Articles of Union.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23And here you have these very rare examples of the votes
0:09:23 > 0:09:25and here you see all the nobility, the barons,
0:09:25 > 0:09:29all those people who had a vote, their names are listed here
0:09:29 > 0:09:32and whether they voted yes or no, aye or nay.
0:09:33 > 0:09:36It's hard to have a view about the Union
0:09:36 > 0:09:39until you've really read these very closely.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42What's very interesting to me is that this is the practical,
0:09:42 > 0:09:44detailed, tough negotiations
0:09:44 > 0:09:46that people say would follow a yes vote now.
0:09:46 > 0:09:48It's about how do we negotiate these practical details
0:09:48 > 0:09:51of living together or living a little bit further apart?
0:09:51 > 0:09:53How is it done? Here we are.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56Absolutely amazing, Bill, I can't believe I'm actually
0:09:56 > 0:10:00- reading this stuff.- But what we have here, Andrew, in another
0:10:00 > 0:10:02volume, is very exciting,
0:10:02 > 0:10:06it's a similar collection of the minutes, with other material,
0:10:06 > 0:10:08but it's the Boswell copy.
0:10:08 > 0:10:10The Boswell family copy, fantastic!
0:10:10 > 0:10:13It's the book that Boswell would have
0:10:13 > 0:10:16pulled off the shelf in the library to really understand what
0:10:16 > 0:10:21this union was about. If you don't know what's happened in the past,
0:10:21 > 0:10:24you won't necessarily know how to look forward to the future.
0:10:24 > 0:10:29True then, true now - this is not history, this is current affairs.
0:10:30 > 0:10:32But it's hard to imagine what,
0:10:32 > 0:10:36if any, answers Boswell would have found amongst these dry pages.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40While they outline in minute detail what happened,
0:10:40 > 0:10:43they offer very little clue as to why.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47Unless you know a little of the bigger picture, which is
0:10:47 > 0:10:51an even more familiar story, of greedy bankers
0:10:51 > 0:10:55and dodgy investments and the risking of other people's money.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01A few years before, a scheme to open up a Scottish trading
0:11:01 > 0:11:06outpost in Panama, called Darien, attracted huge investment -
0:11:06 > 0:11:08it proved disastrous.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13The Darien scheme was supposed to be the beginnings
0:11:13 > 0:11:17of an independent Scottish empire and a wave of enthusiasm
0:11:17 > 0:11:19coursed through the country,
0:11:19 > 0:11:23but the scheme was destroyed by three formidable enemies -
0:11:23 > 0:11:27the Spanish, disease, and the English.
0:11:27 > 0:11:32The failure of Darien cost Scotland a quarter of her entire wealth
0:11:32 > 0:11:36almost overnight, and powerfully reinforced the argument at
0:11:36 > 0:11:40the time of the Union that Scotland was simply too poor to go it alone.
0:11:42 > 0:11:46The Union had, in fact, merely accentuated division...
0:11:47 > 0:11:50..between a desire to go it alone
0:11:50 > 0:11:53and the need to somehow make it work together.
0:11:55 > 0:12:00But Scotland had long been a country divided - by religion,
0:12:00 > 0:12:02by politics and by geography.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09It can be clumsily split into two distinct parts.
0:12:09 > 0:12:13The Highlands - wild, untamed, and unruly.
0:12:16 > 0:12:20And the Lowlands - a place of civilisation, privilege
0:12:20 > 0:12:27and education, where, in 1740, James Boswell was born to landed gentry.
0:12:28 > 0:12:32Boswell was brought up here on their grounds at Auchinleck.
0:12:32 > 0:12:37It's kind of undistinguished rolling farmland with some trees planted by
0:12:37 > 0:12:41the family, but right in the middle of it there is plonked down this.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49It's like a slice of Jane Austen slap bang in the heart of Ayrshire.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54This quintessentially English country house was, in fact,
0:12:54 > 0:12:59designed by Boswell's father, Lord Auchinleck, in the late 1750s,
0:12:59 > 0:13:02but stands as the perfect monument to the man -
0:13:02 > 0:13:06formal, austere, Georgian.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10A respected judge and a devout Presbyterian,
0:13:10 > 0:13:12he was sober and serious.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18His son was the polar opposite in every way.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22Boswell's early years were anything but idyllic.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28Boswell was a nervous, sickly, lonely child,
0:13:28 > 0:13:32haunted by fears of damnation and over-protected by his mother.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35Around the age of 17, he seems to have gone through
0:13:35 > 0:13:39something like a nervous breakdown, but he emerged from this
0:13:39 > 0:13:42with his personality miraculously transformed,
0:13:42 > 0:13:46like a gorgeous butterfly emerging from a little green caterpillar.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50He was now flamboyant, colourful and gregarious.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54By now, he was attending Edinburgh University, where
0:13:54 > 0:13:58he enjoyed his first, addictive tastes of freedom.
0:14:03 > 0:14:07At the time, the city was the hub of the Scottish Enlightenment.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11Home to the greatest economists and philosophers of the age.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15Boswell must have been exposed to radical new ideas.
0:14:15 > 0:14:19It was here he developed a passion for literature
0:14:19 > 0:14:20and the theatre,
0:14:20 > 0:14:23hanging out with actresses and arty types.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29None of which would have exactly delighted his father,
0:14:29 > 0:14:30Lord Auchinleck.
0:14:30 > 0:14:34Disappointed fathers and wayward sons - that is an old story,
0:14:34 > 0:14:36but this one is a cracker!
0:14:36 > 0:14:41The old man is austere, abstemious and self-controlled,
0:14:41 > 0:14:44his son not so much.
0:14:44 > 0:14:48Now, Lord Auchinleck designed this house himself
0:14:48 > 0:14:52and on the front he put a slogan expressly aimed at his son.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55What this means is, roughly speaking,
0:14:55 > 0:14:57"This may be the back-end of beyond,
0:14:57 > 0:15:01"but if you have a sober disposition,
0:15:01 > 0:15:03"everything you seek is right here."
0:15:03 > 0:15:07Boswell came to love this house later on in his life, but his
0:15:07 > 0:15:11early years were spent as a kind of living heckle on that slogan.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15"Everything I need is here? Old man, you must be mad!"
0:15:17 > 0:15:19The differences between father
0:15:19 > 0:15:22and son went right to the heart of the Scottish psyche.
0:15:22 > 0:15:26Lord Auchinleck was pro-Union and supported King George
0:15:26 > 0:15:28and the Hanoverian dynasty.
0:15:28 > 0:15:33His son romanticised Scotland before the Union and admired
0:15:33 > 0:15:36the deposed Catholic, King James.
0:15:36 > 0:15:38Now, while it may seem odd for the younger man to hanker after
0:15:38 > 0:15:40the good old days,
0:15:40 > 0:15:43this was all still very much fresh in the memory.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47Boswell would have been just five years old
0:15:47 > 0:15:50when King James's grandson, Bonnie Prince Charlie,
0:15:50 > 0:15:54led the Jacobites against the government forces here at Culloden.
0:16:01 > 0:16:03Government casualties were light
0:16:03 > 0:16:06but the Highlanders suffered severe losses.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12The young prince turned tail and fled.
0:16:12 > 0:16:14Those he left behind were butchered.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26The biggest casualty of Culloden wouldn't be the Jacobite cause
0:16:26 > 0:16:29but the Highland way of life itself.
0:16:29 > 0:16:34From now on, Gaelic culture was to be suppressed at all costs.
0:16:35 > 0:16:39For a very long time, Culloden was misunderstood as
0:16:39 > 0:16:43a straightforward battle between the Scots and the English.
0:16:43 > 0:16:44It wasn't.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48There were, in fact, plenty of Scots fighting on the government side.
0:16:48 > 0:16:52This was really a battle between the old and the new,
0:16:52 > 0:16:57between the rising Britain of merchants, lawyers and shopkeepers,
0:16:57 > 0:17:02and the old, romantic world of the clans and ancient Gaelic culture.
0:17:03 > 0:17:05Scots of Boswell's time were
0:17:05 > 0:17:08profoundly confused about the meaning of Culloden.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11When Boswell himself was a small boy, he declared that he was
0:17:11 > 0:17:14a Jacobite and would pray for King James.
0:17:14 > 0:17:16One of his uncles shook his head and said, "No, no, no,
0:17:16 > 0:17:19"I will give you this coin if you change your mind
0:17:19 > 0:17:21"and pray for King George and the Hanoverians."
0:17:21 > 0:17:24Boswell instantly trousered the coin and changed his position,
0:17:24 > 0:17:28which tells you a great deal about James Boswell,
0:17:28 > 0:17:30and quite a bit about Scotland.
0:17:33 > 0:17:37Boswell struggled between his head and his heart, but he ultimately
0:17:37 > 0:17:41did what he was told, following his father's path into the law.
0:17:42 > 0:17:43Serious study, however,
0:17:43 > 0:17:46was never going to be enough to keep his attention.
0:17:46 > 0:17:53In 1760, aged 19, he fled to London in search of adventure.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56I was all life and joy.
0:17:56 > 0:17:59I repeated Cato's soliloquy on the immortality of the soul
0:17:59 > 0:18:04and my own soul bounded forth a certain prospect of happy futurity.
0:18:04 > 0:18:08I gave three huzzahs, and we went briskly in.
0:18:17 > 0:18:22'This is not an unfamiliar story - an ambitious young man leaving
0:18:22 > 0:18:25'Scotland behind to make his name amongst the bright lights.'
0:18:27 > 0:18:31I love Boswell and I always have done since my mother gave me
0:18:31 > 0:18:34a copy of his London journal when I was still very young
0:18:34 > 0:18:38and impressionable, and ever since then I've been compelled by
0:18:38 > 0:18:42his ambition, by his wild-eyed naivety,
0:18:42 > 0:18:44his enthusiasm, and by his courage.
0:18:44 > 0:18:48And, of course, I can relate to a man torn between patriotism
0:18:48 > 0:18:50and the excitement of the big city -
0:18:50 > 0:18:55in our case, between love of Scotland and lust for London.
0:19:01 > 0:19:02In the 18th century,
0:19:02 > 0:19:05London was overrun with ambitious Scots determined to make
0:19:05 > 0:19:10the most of the opportunities the Union had brought them.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13But what many of them soon discovered was the accent had to go.
0:19:14 > 0:19:19Societies were formed and how-to guides were published,
0:19:19 > 0:19:22all aimed at removing the dreaded Scotticism.
0:19:24 > 0:19:28Don't say "wee", say "little".
0:19:28 > 0:19:31Never say "bairn", say "child".
0:19:31 > 0:19:34Don't say a "chest", a coffin.
0:19:34 > 0:19:38Don't say "youthy", say "youthful".
0:19:38 > 0:19:43Don't say "geck" "gawk" or "gawky", say "a foolish fellow".
0:19:43 > 0:19:49Don't say "lug", say "ear", even for those of us who do have big lugs.
0:19:49 > 0:19:51It is a very strange thing to do.
0:19:51 > 0:19:55Language is intimately involved with our sense of who we are and
0:19:55 > 0:20:00here are the pro-Union Scots ripping out from their own throats the old
0:20:00 > 0:20:03traditional words of Scotland that had been there for generations.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08All this is enough to send a shudder through any proud Scot,
0:20:08 > 0:20:13but arguably the biggest betrayal was perpetrated in an attic
0:20:13 > 0:20:16right in the heart of London,
0:20:16 > 0:20:22where a group of Scotsmen were working for Samuel Johnson on his most ambitious undertaking...
0:20:23 > 0:20:25..an English dictionary.
0:20:27 > 0:20:31This rather bare garret is the very room where Johnson's
0:20:31 > 0:20:33dictionary was composed,
0:20:33 > 0:20:35and while it has to be admitted
0:20:35 > 0:20:38that his Scots workers were essentially cheap,
0:20:38 > 0:20:42migrant labour, there is a delicious irony in the fact that they
0:20:42 > 0:20:48were employed at all by a man whose view of the Scots was so plain.
0:20:50 > 0:20:56"Oats, a grain which in England is generally given to horses.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59But in Scotland appears to support the people.
0:20:59 > 0:21:05The noblest prospect a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that
0:21:05 > 0:21:07leads him to England.
0:21:07 > 0:21:11Much may be made of a Scotchman, if he be caught young.
0:21:13 > 0:21:17Johnson was bullish and opinionated.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21The arrogance of formalising an entire language epitomised
0:21:21 > 0:21:25a man with a supreme confidence in his own ability.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28Coupled with a physical presence that ensured he was as imposing
0:21:28 > 0:21:32in person as he was in print, he became feared
0:21:32 > 0:21:34and revered in equal measure,
0:21:34 > 0:21:38the very embodiment of an Englishman.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42Young Boswell was happily establishing
0:21:42 > 0:21:44an altogether different reputation.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49Like most 22-year-olds loose in the big city,
0:21:49 > 0:21:53Boswell was here to find himself and have fun.
0:21:53 > 0:21:59He wanted the three great gets - get famous, get drunk and get laid.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05Fame would come later on, but when it came to the drink
0:22:05 > 0:22:08and the women he was triumphantly successful.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12We know about his huge alcoholic excesses and hangovers,
0:22:12 > 0:22:16and his dirty encounters with prostitutes in London parks,
0:22:16 > 0:22:19and the resultant gonorrhoea, because he wrote it all down,
0:22:19 > 0:22:23confessions which, in the 21st century would be meaty,
0:22:23 > 0:22:26but, in the 18th century, were quite extraordinary.
0:22:29 > 0:22:34"I came softly in the room and in a sweet delirium slipped into bed
0:22:34 > 0:22:38"and was immediately clasped in her snowy arms
0:22:38 > 0:22:41"and pressed to her milky white bosom."
0:22:42 > 0:22:47Good heavens! What a loose did we give to amorous dalliance.
0:22:47 > 0:22:51The friendly curtain of darkness concealed our blushes.
0:22:51 > 0:22:58In a moment, I felt myself animated with the strongest powers of love,
0:22:58 > 0:23:04and from my dearest creature's kindness had a most luscious feast.
0:23:04 > 0:23:09Proud of my godlike vigour, I resumed the noble game.
0:23:09 > 0:23:11I was in full glow of health.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15Sobriety had preserved me from effeminacy and weakness
0:23:15 > 0:23:19and my bounding blood beat quick and high alarms.
0:23:19 > 0:23:24A more voluptuous night I had never enjoyed.
0:23:24 > 0:23:28Five times was I fairly lost in supreme rapture.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39Clearly Boswell and Johnson lived very different lives in London and
0:23:39 > 0:23:44it was, frankly, quite unlikely they would ever have reason to meet.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47Boswell wanted to hang out with the in-crowd,
0:23:47 > 0:23:49the celebrities of the day.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52And 18th century London was very different from London now.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56Now if you want to be a celebrity, you have to have a tattoo or
0:23:56 > 0:24:01wear a dress with holes in it, then you actually had to achieve
0:24:01 > 0:24:04something, write great poems or essays on Shakespeare.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08And there was no bigger celebrity than Samuel Johnson.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15But even Boswell's puppyish self-confidence was
0:24:15 > 0:24:19put to the test when the two men's paths finally crossed.
0:24:19 > 0:24:23Here, in what was once a bookshop called Davies, Boswell was
0:24:23 > 0:24:26taking tea when Johnson unexpectedly arrived.
0:24:31 > 0:24:33I was much agitated
0:24:33 > 0:24:36and recollecting his prejudice against the Scotch,
0:24:36 > 0:24:39of which I had heard much, I said to Davies, "Don't tell him
0:24:39 > 0:24:44"where I come from!" "From Scotland," cried Davies, roguishly.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50"Mr Johnson," said I, "I do indeed come from Scotland,
0:24:50 > 0:24:52"but I can't help it."
0:24:52 > 0:24:55That, sir, I find, is what a very great number of your countrymen
0:24:55 > 0:24:57cannot help.
0:24:58 > 0:25:00"This stroke stunned me greatly,
0:25:00 > 0:25:05"and when we were sat down I found myself not a little embarrassed
0:25:05 > 0:25:08"and apprehensive of what might come next."
0:25:11 > 0:25:14And what happened next was quite unexpected.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18Over the coming weeks, a firm and famous friendship was forged.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22Johnson loved vigorous debate and youthful exuberance
0:25:22 > 0:25:25and Boswell was more than happy to supply both.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29Although it's hard not to feel uneasy at Boswell's haste
0:25:29 > 0:25:33in denying his Scottishness to oil up to the great bear.
0:25:34 > 0:25:36Reading his diaries it's easy to wonder
0:25:36 > 0:25:39if Boswell had forgotten himself altogether.
0:25:39 > 0:25:44There's nothing more from the rebel who wanted to break up the Union.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48Instead, it's pages and pages of pleasure seeking.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55And yet there are moments when Boswell casts
0:25:55 > 0:25:59a light on the darker side of being a Scot in the big city,
0:25:59 > 0:26:02most searingly exposed one evening
0:26:02 > 0:26:06when he was indulging in one of his favourite pastimes.
0:26:07 > 0:26:11Just before the curtain rose on a new production of a comic opera
0:26:11 > 0:26:14at a Covent Garden theatre, Boswell noticed that two
0:26:14 > 0:26:19Highland officers, just back from serving abroad, had arrived.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26A mob from the upper gallery roared out, "No Scots! No Scots!
0:26:26 > 0:26:29"Out with them!" Hissed and pelted them with apples.
0:26:29 > 0:26:35My heart warmed to my countrymen. My Scotch blood boiled with indignation.
0:26:35 > 0:26:40I jumped up on the benches and roared out, "Damn you, you rascals!"
0:26:40 > 0:26:43Hissed, and was in the greatest rage.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46I'm very sure at that time I should have been the most
0:26:46 > 0:26:51distinguished of heroes. I hated the English.
0:26:51 > 0:26:59I wished from my soul that the Union was broke and that we might give them another battle of Bannockburn!
0:27:03 > 0:27:08This was the first time Boswell really let his own feelings show.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11He didn't want to end the Union. He was enjoying its fruits
0:27:11 > 0:27:16far too much for that, but he was a divided, even a torn, man.
0:27:19 > 0:27:23Boswell was acutely aware that he was an outsider.
0:27:25 > 0:27:28He struggled to choose between the freedoms of his British future
0:27:28 > 0:27:30and the obligations
0:27:30 > 0:27:32of his Scottish past.
0:27:32 > 0:27:37Finally, in 1763, his father made the decision for him,
0:27:37 > 0:27:40when he told his son to stop messing about
0:27:40 > 0:27:44and travel to Utrecht in Holland to further his study in the law.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50Boswell, deprived of Johnson and the distractions of London,
0:27:50 > 0:27:52fell into a deep depression.
0:27:54 > 0:27:59He took comfort in an ambitious and surprisingly serious project.
0:28:01 > 0:28:04"The Scottish language is being lost every day
0:28:04 > 0:28:07"and in a short time will become quite unintelligible.
0:28:09 > 0:28:12"It is for that reason that I have undertaken to make a dictionary
0:28:12 > 0:28:17"of our tongue through which one will always have the means of learning it,
0:28:17 > 0:28:19"like any other dead language."
0:28:22 > 0:28:26Tantalisingly, we've only known of the dictionary through
0:28:26 > 0:28:28scattered clues in Boswell's writing.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31The dictionary itself has never been found until recently,
0:28:31 > 0:28:33quite by chance.
0:28:33 > 0:28:35Buried among the books
0:28:35 > 0:28:38and manuscripts of the Bodleian Library in Oxford,
0:28:38 > 0:28:44an enthusiastic researcher came across an unattributed manuscript.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48For Boswell, of all people, to write this,
0:28:48 > 0:28:52the first ever dictionary of the Scots language, was an act
0:28:52 > 0:28:56of perhaps surprising, patriotic assertion at a time when
0:28:56 > 0:28:59so many other Scots were trying to lose their own culture,
0:28:59 > 0:29:02because the words people use, the language,
0:29:02 > 0:29:05is the essence of a people.
0:29:05 > 0:29:08This is the dictionary of conversations in streets,
0:29:08 > 0:29:12in fields, in villages, between living Scotsmen
0:29:12 > 0:29:15and that gives it a kind of directness, a sort of shock
0:29:15 > 0:29:18earthiness which perhaps Johnson's dictionary often lacks.
0:29:18 > 0:29:22It's full of words like "bubbles" for snot,
0:29:22 > 0:29:26and "dowp" for backside, and, above all, "mappin" for "harlot",
0:29:26 > 0:29:30a word that Boswell, as we know, needed to use quite frequently.
0:29:31 > 0:29:36Boswell was clearly attempting to impress his hero, Samuel Johnson.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39But he was also treading on the territory of that other
0:29:39 > 0:29:42looming figure in his life, his father.
0:29:44 > 0:29:47Lord Auchinleck was a scholar of Scottish language
0:29:47 > 0:29:51and yet Boswell never seeks out his help or his advice.
0:29:51 > 0:29:55He must have fantasised about the moment he returned home
0:29:55 > 0:29:59and finally presented his great achievement.
0:29:59 > 0:30:03Frustratingly but predictably, Boswell got distracted.
0:30:03 > 0:30:07He abandoned his task in favour of heading off on a Grand Tour
0:30:07 > 0:30:11across Europe, ticking off along the way the great
0:30:11 > 0:30:14intellectual capitals of Geneva and Rome.
0:30:14 > 0:30:18But it would, in fact, be one little island in the Mediterranean
0:30:18 > 0:30:19that would inspire him the most.
0:30:21 > 0:30:25Corsica - a small, mountainous country with an ancient,
0:30:25 > 0:30:31violent and romantic past in thrall to a much larger neighbour.
0:30:31 > 0:30:34It's not so difficult to see why Boswell was interested.
0:30:34 > 0:30:38What is harder is to understand why its leader, General Paoli,
0:30:38 > 0:30:42who is the kind of Che Guevara of the story, falls for Boswell,
0:30:42 > 0:30:45of all people, because Boswell is not instantly attractive.
0:30:45 > 0:30:49And yet he clearly had something, because time and time again,
0:30:49 > 0:30:52famous men and women absolutely go for him.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55I think he had a kind of seedy charisma
0:30:55 > 0:30:57we can't quite recapture now.
0:30:57 > 0:31:01At any rate, Boswell comes back to London and he publishes his journal
0:31:01 > 0:31:06of the travels in Corsica and he becomes famous for the first time.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13He parades around London, dressed up as a Corsican bandit.
0:31:13 > 0:31:16And for most of his life he's not known as the biographer
0:31:16 > 0:31:20of Johnson, he's known as Corsica Boswell.
0:31:20 > 0:31:22A celebrated figure at last,
0:31:22 > 0:31:27translations of his Journal sold widely across Europe.
0:31:27 > 0:31:32But if Johnson was impressed, he hid it well in his letters.
0:31:32 > 0:31:35I wish you would empty your head of Corsica,
0:31:35 > 0:31:38which I think has filled it for rather too long.
0:31:38 > 0:31:43But at all events, I shall be glad, very glad, to see you.
0:31:45 > 0:31:51I am, sir, yours affectionately, Sam Johnson.
0:31:51 > 0:31:53But how can you bid me empty my mind of Corsica?
0:31:53 > 0:31:57My noble-minded friend, do you not feel for an oppressed nation
0:31:57 > 0:31:59bravely struggling to be free?
0:31:59 > 0:32:01Consider fairly what is the case.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04The Corsicans never received any kindness from the Genoese.
0:32:04 > 0:32:06They never agreed to be subject to them.
0:32:06 > 0:32:08They owe them nothing,
0:32:08 > 0:32:11and when reduced to an abject state of slavery by force shall they not
0:32:11 > 0:32:15rise in the great cause of liberty and break the galling yoke?
0:32:17 > 0:32:20Corsica gave Boswell the courage to state words
0:32:20 > 0:32:23he would never dare utter in defence of his own country.
0:32:25 > 0:32:28Fame and fortune seemed to herald a more serious
0:32:28 > 0:32:31and responsible man altogether.
0:32:31 > 0:32:34A qualified lawyer in Edinburgh, Boswell even got married
0:32:34 > 0:32:36and started a family.
0:32:37 > 0:32:40But appearances can be deceptive.
0:32:40 > 0:32:44While in Scotland, he played the role of dutiful husband
0:32:44 > 0:32:47and father, in England, he was playing a very different part.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02Indulging in regular jaunts to London, Boswell was free
0:33:02 > 0:33:05to enjoy wine, women, and, of course,
0:33:05 > 0:33:09the company of his hero and mentor, Samuel Johnson.
0:33:12 > 0:33:14But he wasn't the only Scottish writer making
0:33:14 > 0:33:16a splash in the capital.
0:33:16 > 0:33:19James Macpherson claimed to have
0:33:19 > 0:33:23found and translated the ancient poems of a Gaelic bard called
0:33:23 > 0:33:28Ossian, and the publication of these epic tales of heroism caused
0:33:28 > 0:33:32a sensation, not just in England but across the continent.
0:33:32 > 0:33:37At last, Scottish culture was not something to hide or be suppressed.
0:33:39 > 0:33:42Reading them today, it's frankly hard to see why.
0:33:42 > 0:33:44They are the most terrible tosh.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47Nonetheless, this was the early age of Romanticism
0:33:47 > 0:33:50and it appealed to something in the atmosphere,
0:33:50 > 0:33:51everyone loved them.
0:33:51 > 0:33:53Not everyone, not Samuel Johnson.
0:33:53 > 0:33:58Johnson became convinced the poems were a complete fraud
0:33:58 > 0:34:00and the trouble with Johnson is once he thought something
0:34:00 > 0:34:02he couldn't help saying so.
0:34:02 > 0:34:06This, not unnaturally, infuriated James Macpherson,
0:34:06 > 0:34:09another big, strong man, six foot three,
0:34:09 > 0:34:11and he challenged Johnson to a duel.
0:34:11 > 0:34:15Johnson took to carrying a weighted stick with him
0:34:15 > 0:34:20at all times for protection but none of this stopped his invective.
0:34:20 > 0:34:23I hope I shall never be deterred from detecting
0:34:23 > 0:34:26what I think a cheat by the menaces of a ruffian!
0:34:26 > 0:34:29What would you have me retract?
0:34:29 > 0:34:32I thought your book an imposture.
0:34:32 > 0:34:35I think it an imposture still.
0:34:37 > 0:34:40Johnson's attitude to the Scots was legendary
0:34:40 > 0:34:43and merely inflamed by his feud with Macpherson.
0:34:43 > 0:34:46So I think it's even more astonishing to find that
0:34:46 > 0:34:49Boswell now set off upon a fresh mission -
0:34:49 > 0:34:53he would take Samuel Johnson on a tour of Scotland.
0:34:53 > 0:34:57Johnson was not a man easily moved in any sense
0:34:57 > 0:35:00and it is a testament to his feelings for Boswell that he
0:35:00 > 0:35:02agreed to set out on the journey at all.
0:35:02 > 0:35:06This was a bold and risky gamble, to take the most opinionated
0:35:06 > 0:35:10and influential Englishman north of the border.
0:35:17 > 0:35:21The great journey began here in the relative civilisation
0:35:21 > 0:35:23of central Edinburgh.
0:35:24 > 0:35:28I say relative, because Edinburgh in the 1770s wasn't
0:35:28 > 0:35:31quite as sophisticated as London.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35When Johnson arrived he called for lemonade, the waiter brought it,
0:35:35 > 0:35:38he said, "I'd like some sugar," the waiter dropped it into the glass
0:35:38 > 0:35:41and then mixed it with his extremely dirty finger.
0:35:41 > 0:35:45Johnson was appalled and outraged. But worse was to follow.
0:35:45 > 0:35:50The Scottish habit at the time was after one had done one's business
0:35:50 > 0:35:54to throw the resulting deposit out of a high window
0:35:54 > 0:35:56into the street, shouting out "Gardyloo!"
0:35:56 > 0:35:59which comes from the French "garde a l'eau",
0:35:59 > 0:36:01or "watch out for the water",
0:36:01 > 0:36:03and worse.
0:36:03 > 0:36:05And the great Dr Johnson was very nearly hit
0:36:05 > 0:36:08by a flying Scottish turd.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11But Johnson was rarely at a loss for something to say
0:36:11 > 0:36:16so he turned to Boswell, and said, "Sir, I smell you in the dark."
0:36:20 > 0:36:22All right, not perhaps the most auspicious start
0:36:22 > 0:36:27but Boswell was undeterred and headed to the old Parliament Hall.
0:36:36 > 0:36:40Always wanting to test him, Boswell brought Johnson here
0:36:40 > 0:36:43to the scene of the Scottish Parliament's suicide.
0:36:43 > 0:36:47"I here began to indulge old Scottish sentiments and to express
0:36:47 > 0:36:53"a warm regret that by our Union with England we were no more.
0:36:53 > 0:36:55"Our independent kingdom was lost."
0:36:55 > 0:36:57Would the old man soften?
0:36:57 > 0:36:58He would not!
0:36:58 > 0:37:02"You would have been glad, however, to have had us last war, sir,
0:37:02 > 0:37:04"to fight your battles."
0:37:04 > 0:37:07"We should have had you for the same price,
0:37:07 > 0:37:10"though there had been no Union, as we might have had Swiss or other troops.
0:37:10 > 0:37:14"No, no, I shall agree to a separation.
0:37:14 > 0:37:16"You have only to go home."
0:37:19 > 0:37:22If Edinburgh didn't thaw Johnson's attitude,
0:37:22 > 0:37:26the wild north was an even less appealing proposition.
0:37:26 > 0:37:30And yet, having journeyed for three weeks all the way to
0:37:30 > 0:37:35Inverness, Boswell and Johnson would decide to spend a whole month,
0:37:35 > 0:37:39more than a third of their entire tour, on one small island.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56Now this is, bizarrely and unforgivably,
0:37:56 > 0:38:00my first time on Skye, and it can get a bit wild and woolly.
0:38:00 > 0:38:06But you have to imagine Johnson and Boswell doing this on ponies
0:38:06 > 0:38:10with old-fashioned clothing, this was a genuinely daunting wilderness.
0:38:12 > 0:38:16It was a bit like the first Europeans breaking through
0:38:16 > 0:38:18to the American Wild West.
0:38:22 > 0:38:26Bleak, beautiful, unforgiving and harsh,
0:38:26 > 0:38:29this landscape would have challenged even the fittest traveller,
0:38:29 > 0:38:33let alone the 63-year-old Dr Johnson.
0:38:34 > 0:38:39And to make matters worse, they chose to travel in September.
0:38:39 > 0:38:40THUNDER ROLLS
0:38:44 > 0:38:48Their first experiences of local hospitality were mixed -
0:38:48 > 0:38:53at best, charmingly rustic, at worst, primitive,
0:38:53 > 0:38:56not helped by the torrential rain.
0:38:58 > 0:39:02However, after a week, the clouds began to lift and they were able to
0:39:02 > 0:39:04sail across to the Isle of Raasay.
0:39:04 > 0:39:06At last, fortune shined on them.
0:39:09 > 0:39:13Boswell and Johnson enjoyed a wonderful four days of drinking
0:39:13 > 0:39:18and dancing, topped off with an invitation from the clan chief
0:39:18 > 0:39:23of the MacLeods to come and join him at his castle at Dunvegan.
0:39:23 > 0:39:27No surprise perhaps that while Johnson rested his weary feet,
0:39:27 > 0:39:29Boswell found the energy
0:39:29 > 0:39:30to climb the nearest mountain
0:39:30 > 0:39:32and dance a jig!
0:39:36 > 0:39:38Back on Skye, Boswell
0:39:38 > 0:39:42and Johnson chose to take the long route to Dunvegan Castle.
0:39:42 > 0:39:45There was an even more eminent appointment
0:39:45 > 0:39:47they were determined to keep,
0:39:47 > 0:39:49to meet Flora MacDonald -
0:39:49 > 0:39:55a woman who has become mythologised in Scottish culture,
0:39:55 > 0:39:57and even then was a living legend.
0:40:00 > 0:40:0320 years earlier, she'd risked life and limb to harbour
0:40:03 > 0:40:08Bonnie Prince Charlie, disguising him as her maidservant
0:40:08 > 0:40:09to get him out of Scotland.
0:40:13 > 0:40:17To see Dr Samuel Johnson, great champion of the English Tories,
0:40:17 > 0:40:22salute Miss Flora MacDonald in the Isle of Skye was a striking sight.
0:40:26 > 0:40:30We were entertained with the usual hospitality by Mr MacDonald
0:40:30 > 0:40:33and his lady, Flora MacDonald,
0:40:33 > 0:40:36a name that will be mentioned in history
0:40:36 > 0:40:41and if courage and fidelity be virtues, mentioned with honour.
0:40:44 > 0:40:47Boswell was almost skipping with delight at introducing
0:40:47 > 0:40:50the old English Tory to the Jacobite heroine,
0:40:50 > 0:40:55and Johnson was suitably impressed, not just by her soft features and
0:40:55 > 0:40:59demeanour, but by the courage and loyalty she had shown to her prince.
0:40:59 > 0:41:04Unlike the mythic poems of Ossian, this was a genuine modern
0:41:04 > 0:41:06story of Highland heroism.
0:41:09 > 0:41:12For all the mythology that surrounded her,
0:41:12 > 0:41:16the circumstances that Flora found herself in were all too real.
0:41:18 > 0:41:23The Highlands were an economy and a culture in decline
0:41:23 > 0:41:27and it would be less than a year before Flora MacDonald herself
0:41:27 > 0:41:29would emigrate to America.
0:41:33 > 0:41:36The destruction of the old Highland way of life was caused by
0:41:36 > 0:41:39two things coming together at the same time.
0:41:39 > 0:41:41On the one hand, the repression after Culloden,
0:41:41 > 0:41:45and that was real and bloodthirsty and hugely destructive
0:41:45 > 0:41:47of the Gaelic culture.
0:41:47 > 0:41:49But there were also big economic forces.
0:41:49 > 0:41:53The owners of the glens and the hills discovered that it
0:41:53 > 0:41:57was much cheaper and easier to have sheep rather than stroppy people.
0:41:57 > 0:42:00And at the same time the opening up of America gave the people
0:42:00 > 0:42:03here a reason to hope for a better life.
0:42:08 > 0:42:12Leaving Flora behind them, Boswell and Johnson continued
0:42:12 > 0:42:15on their journey to Dunvegan, across particularly tough terrain.
0:42:22 > 0:42:26"We passed through a wild moor, in many places so soft that we
0:42:26 > 0:42:29"were obliged to walk, which was very fatiguing to Dr Johnson.
0:42:32 > 0:42:36"Once he had advanced on horseback to a very bad step. There was
0:42:36 > 0:42:38"a steep declivity on his left to which he was
0:42:38 > 0:42:42"so near that there was no room for him to dismount in the usual way.
0:42:42 > 0:42:44"He tried to alight on the other side,
0:42:44 > 0:42:46"as if he had been a young buck indeed,
0:42:46 > 0:42:50"but in the attempt he fell at his length upon the ground."
0:42:53 > 0:42:57So, it was with some relief that they finally saw the austere
0:42:57 > 0:43:00and exposed building jutting out from the rocks.
0:43:02 > 0:43:06And even more so when they breached the castle walls.
0:43:20 > 0:43:24Now, the house may have changed but the effect has not.
0:43:24 > 0:43:29This was an unexpected haven of sophistication and geniality,
0:43:29 > 0:43:34with good food, a cracking library, and gracious company.
0:43:34 > 0:43:37Rising out of the moorland and the rain,
0:43:37 > 0:43:41this was a little bubble of friendship and society.
0:43:43 > 0:43:48Johnson and Boswell decided to stay in Dunvegan for a whole week
0:43:48 > 0:43:52and during that time a miracle happened.
0:43:52 > 0:43:54BAGPIPES PLAY
0:43:56 > 0:43:58"We had the music of the bagpipe every day
0:43:58 > 0:44:00"at Armidale, Dunvegan and Col.
0:44:03 > 0:44:07"Dr Johnson appeared fond of it and used often to stand for some time
0:44:07 > 0:44:10"with his ear close to the great drone."
0:44:12 > 0:44:17Samuel Johnson was quite deaf, but he had loved it here, it was a kind
0:44:17 > 0:44:21of paradise for him and he couldn't bear that he had to go home.
0:44:24 > 0:44:26"The kind treatment which I have found wherever I go
0:44:26 > 0:44:29"makes me leave with some heaviness of heart
0:44:29 > 0:44:32"an island which I am not likely to see again.
0:44:32 > 0:44:36"Lady MacLeod and the young ladies have, with their hospitality and
0:44:36 > 0:44:39"politeness, made an impression on my mind
0:44:39 > 0:44:41"which will not easily be effaced.
0:44:41 > 0:44:46"Be pleased to tell them that I remember them with great kindness and great respect.
0:44:46 > 0:44:50"I am, sir, your most obliged and humble servant, Sam Johnson."
0:44:50 > 0:44:53It's a remarkable letter, it's sort of splodged slightly.
0:44:53 > 0:44:56Possibly because he wrote it in the rain, or possibly because
0:44:56 > 0:44:59it's been pored over ever since by the family, we're not sure.
0:44:59 > 0:45:00I love the idea of them
0:45:00 > 0:45:03sitting there in the rain and just about making the words visible.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06Now we know that Johnson was a romantic about these things
0:45:06 > 0:45:08and he wanted your family to stay firmly rooted
0:45:08 > 0:45:10to their rock in Dunvegan, not to move.
0:45:10 > 0:45:12They weren't quite so keen, were they?
0:45:12 > 0:45:15I don't think so, I think for Dr Johnson it was romantic,
0:45:15 > 0:45:18I think for poor Lady MacLeod it was very difficult.
0:45:18 > 0:45:20I think she didn't buy Johnson's argument that it was
0:45:20 > 0:45:24given by the four corners of the earth or the heavens to achieve
0:45:24 > 0:45:26and they must never ever quit the rock.
0:45:26 > 0:45:28I think she said, "That's OK for you to say, you live in London."
0:45:28 > 0:45:31She was quite a woman, there's a beautiful painting of her,
0:45:31 > 0:45:33but she was the one that entranced Johnson.
0:45:33 > 0:45:35What's interesting for me is that, you know,
0:45:35 > 0:45:38with portraits they're inanimate objects and having this
0:45:38 > 0:45:41incredible snapshot with Boswell's diary showing a little bit
0:45:41 > 0:45:43of Dr Johnson and the dialogue between him and my family,
0:45:43 > 0:45:45it really brings them to life,
0:45:45 > 0:45:47and it's just lovely to hear their voices.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54"At Dunvegan I had tasted lotus,
0:45:54 > 0:45:57"and was in danger of forgetting that I was ever to depart."
0:45:59 > 0:46:03Johnson had clearly fallen for the romantic drama of Highland life,
0:46:03 > 0:46:08he even fantasised about staying far longer.
0:46:09 > 0:46:13"There is a beautiful little island in the Loch of Dunvegan, called Isay.
0:46:13 > 0:46:17"MacLeod said he would give it to Dr Johnson, on condition
0:46:17 > 0:46:21"of him residing on it three months in the year, nay one month.
0:46:21 > 0:46:25"Dr Johnson was highly amused with the fancy.
0:46:26 > 0:46:29"He talked a great deal of this island."
0:46:31 > 0:46:35It became a light, childish dream for Samuel Johnson.
0:46:35 > 0:46:38He dreamed of building a house here and fortifying it with cannon
0:46:38 > 0:46:41and sallying out and attacking other islands.
0:46:41 > 0:46:45His enemies always called him "Ursa Major", the Great Bear.
0:46:45 > 0:46:49And I think it's perfectly possible to imagine the bear himself
0:46:49 > 0:46:52capering with delight on his own little kingdom.
0:46:53 > 0:46:57It's cold and it's breezy and he'd have felt queasy
0:46:57 > 0:47:00but the great Samuel Johnson nearly ruled Isay.
0:47:03 > 0:47:06The archetypal Englishman his very own laird?
0:47:06 > 0:47:08Boswell must have been flushed with success,
0:47:08 > 0:47:10but the tour was far from over.
0:47:10 > 0:47:15There remained one person Boswell felt duty-bound to introduce.
0:47:18 > 0:47:21The pair finally headed south, to Auchinleck.
0:47:23 > 0:47:27Here the two paternal forces in Boswell's life were to collide.
0:47:27 > 0:47:31Boswell was uncharacteristically nervous.
0:47:31 > 0:47:34He begged Johnson to avoid topics that would cause an argument..
0:47:36 > 0:47:39..and Johnson promised he would, of course, avoid subjects
0:47:39 > 0:47:41that would be disagreeable.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46That was a promise that Johnson couldn't have honoured even if
0:47:46 > 0:47:47he'd wanted to.
0:47:47 > 0:47:50Modern opinion is that his many tics
0:47:50 > 0:47:53and spasms were symptoms of Tourette's syndrome.
0:47:53 > 0:47:56Effectively, he couldn't help himself.
0:47:56 > 0:47:57But here in this library,
0:47:57 > 0:48:01day after day, he did his best to rein himself in.
0:48:01 > 0:48:05Until, right at the end, it all went catastrophically wrong.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10"If I recollect right, the contest began
0:48:10 > 0:48:13"while my father was showing him his collection of medals
0:48:13 > 0:48:18"and Oliver Cromwell's coin unfortunately introduced Charles I and Toryism.
0:48:19 > 0:48:23"They became exceedingly warm, and violent, and I was very much
0:48:23 > 0:48:27"distressed by being present at such an altercation between the two men,
0:48:27 > 0:48:31"both of whom I reverenced, yet I durst not interfere."
0:48:36 > 0:48:40It would certainly be very unbecoming in me to exhibit
0:48:40 > 0:48:43my honoured father, and my respected friend, as intellectual gladiators,
0:48:43 > 0:48:45for the entertainment of the public.
0:48:45 > 0:48:49Therefore, I suppress what would, I dare say,
0:48:49 > 0:48:53make an interesting scene in this dramatic sketch,
0:48:53 > 0:48:58this account of the transit of Johnson over the Caledonian hemisphere.
0:48:58 > 0:49:04Now this is really weird because Boswell never self-censors.
0:49:04 > 0:49:07There is nothing about his most embarrassing and shameful encounters
0:49:07 > 0:49:12with prostitutes, or his gonorrhoea, or his bowel problems, that he
0:49:12 > 0:49:16won't write down, which is why he is such an interesting writer.
0:49:16 > 0:49:19But on this occasion, probably for the first and only time,
0:49:19 > 0:49:22he shuts the door on us.
0:49:22 > 0:49:24There's something about the confrontation
0:49:24 > 0:49:26between the revered Samuel Johnson
0:49:26 > 0:49:31and his own admired father which is simply too painful to write down.
0:49:31 > 0:49:35One gets the sense that there are cracks or fissures running through
0:49:35 > 0:49:41Boswell's personality and he simply can't bear to let us peer into them.
0:49:45 > 0:49:49Despite the unfortunate clash, Boswell's gamble had paid off.
0:49:49 > 0:49:54The tour had achieved the seemingly impossible and shown Johnson
0:49:54 > 0:49:59a Scotland of nobility, beauty, culture and hospitality.
0:50:01 > 0:50:03He said to me often, that the time he
0:50:03 > 0:50:07spent in this tour was the pleasantest part of his life,
0:50:07 > 0:50:12and he asked me if I would lose the recollection of it for 500 pounds.
0:50:12 > 0:50:15I answered I would not,
0:50:15 > 0:50:18and he applauded my setting such
0:50:18 > 0:50:21a value on an accession of new images in my mind.
0:50:24 > 0:50:28Now, you might take Boswell's words with a pinch of salt,
0:50:28 > 0:50:32so let's judge Samuel Johnson on his actions, not on words.
0:50:32 > 0:50:36When he goes down to London again, the first thing that Johnson does
0:50:36 > 0:50:41is promote vigorously the widespread distribution of the Bible in Gaelic.
0:50:41 > 0:50:44And thanks to Johnson, it's the Bible,
0:50:44 > 0:50:46not the spurious poems of Ossian,
0:50:46 > 0:50:48that's become the most important book
0:50:48 > 0:50:49in the Scottish Highlands.
0:50:49 > 0:50:54A great gift to the Scottish people from that alleged
0:50:54 > 0:50:57Scotophobe, Samuel Johnson.
0:51:00 > 0:51:04A decade after the tour, Johnson died, aged 75.
0:51:07 > 0:51:09Still reeling from the shock,
0:51:09 > 0:51:14the very next day Boswell was petitioned to write the life of his dear friend.
0:51:18 > 0:51:21Finally, he stuck to a task, and it was published to great acclaim.
0:51:23 > 0:51:27Widely regarded today as the greatest work of 18th century English prose,
0:51:27 > 0:51:33it ensured Samuel Johnson would go on to become a cultural colossus.
0:51:35 > 0:51:38But in death, as in life, this was far from a partnership of equals.
0:51:40 > 0:51:44Samuel Johnson was buried in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey,
0:51:44 > 0:51:47though, gallingly, just a few feet from the great Ossian
0:51:47 > 0:51:50fraudster, James Macpherson.
0:51:54 > 0:51:58But it is in St Paul's Cathedral where the grumpy, garrulous,
0:51:58 > 0:52:02greedy Englishman cuts the most impressive figure.
0:52:05 > 0:52:08So grand and impressive that, frankly,
0:52:08 > 0:52:12it's hard to recognise him as the same man.
0:52:13 > 0:52:18It was actually James Boswell who campaigned and raised the money for
0:52:18 > 0:52:21this magnificent statue which makes
0:52:21 > 0:52:23Sam Johnson look like a Roman boxer -
0:52:23 > 0:52:28the man of letters as a beefy, meaty hero,
0:52:28 > 0:52:31and even today people from all around the world
0:52:31 > 0:52:33pass by to pay homage.
0:52:33 > 0:52:37So how, you may ask yourself, was James Boswell remembered?
0:52:41 > 0:52:46Surely I am a man of genius. I deserve to be taken notice of.
0:52:46 > 0:52:50Oh, that my grandchildren might read this character of me.
0:52:50 > 0:52:54James Boswell, a most amiable man.
0:52:54 > 0:52:58He improved and beautified his paternal estate of Auchinleck,
0:52:58 > 0:53:00made a distinguished figure in parliament,
0:53:00 > 0:53:04had the honour to command a regiment of footguards,
0:53:04 > 0:53:08and was one of the brightest wits in the court of George III.
0:53:10 > 0:53:11SUDDEN CLICK
0:53:12 > 0:53:15It didn't turn out quite as Boswell had imagined.
0:53:16 > 0:53:19He became neither a soldier nor an MP.
0:53:20 > 0:53:25In fact, poor Boswell died in 1795, aged 54,
0:53:25 > 0:53:30of a urinary tract infection probably caused by gonorrhoea.
0:53:35 > 0:53:37His body was laid to rest back in Scotland,
0:53:37 > 0:53:40in the churchyard of Auchinleck.
0:53:40 > 0:53:42You'd miss it if you didn't know where to look.
0:53:42 > 0:53:48There are no statues here, no crowds, not even a plaque.
0:53:53 > 0:53:56So, James, it's a bit derelict, it's a bit damp,
0:53:56 > 0:53:58where exactly are we?
0:53:58 > 0:54:01We're standing in the Boswell family mausoleum
0:54:01 > 0:54:03in Auchinleck churchyard
0:54:03 > 0:54:06and it is normally bolted and barred from everybody
0:54:06 > 0:54:09and rarely entered.
0:54:09 > 0:54:11It's almost as if Scotland doesn't really want to
0:54:11 > 0:54:13remember James Boswell.
0:54:13 > 0:54:14Where is the man himself?
0:54:14 > 0:54:17Well, we're, I have to say, standing almost above him
0:54:17 > 0:54:20because he's buried beneath this trap door.
0:54:22 > 0:54:24It's like the scene from Hamlet, Hamlet's ghost.
0:54:24 > 0:54:25It is indeed.
0:54:27 > 0:54:28Oh, my God!
0:54:30 > 0:54:33God, it's a dark and a gloomy sight.
0:54:41 > 0:54:44"JB". There he is.
0:54:44 > 0:54:47So this is literally a comedown.
0:54:47 > 0:54:52The last burying place of a man who has been scandalously
0:54:52 > 0:54:54overlooked in his own Scotland.
0:54:54 > 0:54:56Poor Bozzy.
0:54:56 > 0:54:59And this, you know, is just not right.
0:54:59 > 0:55:02There are the mortal remains of one of the greatest journalists
0:55:02 > 0:55:06who ever lived, the man who invented the modern literary biography.
0:55:06 > 0:55:10He should be surrounded by the most extraordinary baroque building
0:55:10 > 0:55:14you've ever seen, full of noise and dancing and laughter and the
0:55:14 > 0:55:16clinking and breaking of glasses.
0:55:16 > 0:55:19Not the silence, not the rain!
0:55:26 > 0:55:31But times are changing, and Boswell is stepping out of the shadows.
0:55:32 > 0:55:35Until a century ago, Boswell's achievement
0:55:35 > 0:55:38remained very much his Life Of Johnson.
0:55:38 > 0:55:42His diaries remained under lock and key, a shameful family secret.
0:55:42 > 0:55:46But finally a persistent professor from Yale University
0:55:46 > 0:55:50secured their publication and they soon jostled Churchill's
0:55:50 > 0:55:53memoirs at the very top of the bestsellers' lists.
0:55:57 > 0:56:01Today, Boswell enthusiasts can pilgrimage to the family estate
0:56:01 > 0:56:04to attend an annual book festival.
0:56:04 > 0:56:07You can even stay in the house.
0:56:10 > 0:56:13The empty rooms are overrun by arty types.
0:56:13 > 0:56:18Boswell would have been so pleased - his father, I think, less so.
0:56:21 > 0:56:26Not only did he pioneer the whole modern field of literary biography with that Life Of Johnson.
0:56:26 > 0:56:29You open up any newspaper with bestseller lists
0:56:29 > 0:56:32and there will be biographies in that list somewhere,
0:56:32 > 0:56:35and quite probably biographies of writers, which is
0:56:35 > 0:56:38a strange thing when you think about it, because what do writers do?
0:56:38 > 0:56:41Nothing. They sit around and write, what could be interesting about this?
0:56:43 > 0:56:46It's slightly intimidating. I've got up today
0:56:46 > 0:56:50and here I am sitting at an old desk in Boswell's own business room,
0:56:50 > 0:56:54the very room, probably, where he wrote some of his great diary.
0:56:54 > 0:56:55I write a diary as well,
0:56:55 > 0:56:58I write a diary every day and have done for many, many years.
0:56:58 > 0:57:00It's a kind of idiotic schoolboy diary,
0:57:00 > 0:57:04"Got up, sun shining, had eggs for breakfast, very tasty" -
0:57:04 > 0:57:07that kind of diary. I ask myself why I'm writing it.
0:57:07 > 0:57:10I think it's a kind of act of kind of mental hygiene,
0:57:10 > 0:57:12a sort of throat-clearing every day, a tic,
0:57:12 > 0:57:15a habit, and also, of course, outrageous vanity.
0:57:15 > 0:57:17I guess Boswell thought a bit the same,
0:57:17 > 0:57:20a lot of his diary is his reflections on how much he's
0:57:20 > 0:57:23messed up his life, how much he's had to drink, how much he's
0:57:23 > 0:57:26had to eat, which is why, of course, it's still so readable.
0:57:30 > 0:57:36Confused, inconsistent, passionate and pragmatic by turns, his is
0:57:36 > 0:57:41not a heroic story, but James Boswell laid himself bare -
0:57:41 > 0:57:46a real man constantly searching for his place inside the Union.
0:57:48 > 0:57:52If he'd never come to London, he'd never have found his life's
0:57:52 > 0:57:54great subject, and if he'd never met Johnson,
0:57:54 > 0:57:59then Johnson would have seemed a thinner, duller man today.
0:58:00 > 0:58:05So, less Boswell without Johnson, and less Johnson without Boswell.
0:58:05 > 0:58:09This is perhaps the prime example in literature of two men,
0:58:09 > 0:58:13the Scot and the Englishman, who achieved far more together
0:58:13 > 0:58:15than they would ever have done had they never met.
0:58:19 > 0:58:22In the next programme, a Scottish writer will prove,
0:58:22 > 0:58:26once and for all, that if you really want to be remembered you don't
0:58:26 > 0:58:30get bogged down by murky facts, you tell a cracking tale!
0:58:32 > 0:58:36Walter Scott created a seductive and enduring myth of tartan
0:58:36 > 0:58:40and chieftains, which remains, for better or worse,
0:58:40 > 0:58:44the most recognisable face of Scottish identity.