A SCENE FROM THE HEBRIDES
In leaving an old woman’s cottage in the Hebrides Boswell believes that she is afraid that he and Johnson wanted to bed her and suggests that it is the Doctor who has alarmed her virtue.
“No, sir,” said he. “She’ll say, ‘There came a wicked young fellow, a wild young dog, who I believe would have ravished me had there not been with him a grave old gentleman who repressed him. But when he gets out of sight of his tutor, I’ll warrant you he’ll spare no woman he meets, young or old.’ “No,” said I, “she’ll say, ‘There was a terrible ruffian who would have forced me had it not been for a gentle, mild-looking youth, who, I take it, is an angel.’ ”
James Boswell | Hester Lynch Piozzi | Samuel Johnson | Miscellany