Record Number: 21167

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'I mentioned Sir John Dalrymple's "Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland", and his discoveries to the prejudice of Lord Russel and Algernon Sydney. Johnson. " Why, Sir, every body who had just notions of government thought them rascals before. It is well that all mankind now see them to be rascals." Boswell. "But, Sir, may not those discoveries be true without their being rascals?" Johnson. "Consider, Sir, would any of them have been willing to have had it known that they intrigued with France? Depend upon it, Sir, he who does what he is afraid should be known has something rotten about him. This Dalrymple seems to be an honest fellow; for he tells equally what makes against both sides. But nothing can be poorer than his mode of writing, it is the mere bouncing of a school boy: Great He! but greater She! and such stuff." I could not agree with him in this criticism; for though Sir John Dalrymple's style is not regularly formed in any respect, and one cannot help smiling sometimes at his affected grandiloquence, there is in his writing a pointed vivacity, and much of a gentlemanly spirit.'

Century:

1700-1799

Date:

Until: 3 Apr 1773

Country:

n/a

Time

n/a

Place:

n/a

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

---

Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

James Boswell

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

29 Oct 1740

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

writer and lawyer

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

Scotland

Country of Experience:

n/a

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

---

Text Being Read:

Author:

John Dalrymple

Title:

Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland

Genre:

History

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

21167

Source:

Print

Author:

James Boswell

Editor:

R.W. Chapman

Title:

Life of Johnson

Place of Publication:

Oxford

Date of Publication:

1980

Vol:

n/a

Page:

508

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

James Boswell, R.W. Chapman (ed.), Life of Johnson (Oxford, 1980), p. 508, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=21167, accessed: 29 September 2023

---

Additional Comments:

Originally published 1791.