Johnson

SAMUEL JOHNSON (1709 - 1784)

Dr Johnson arrived in Newcastle on Wednesday 11 August 1773 on his way to join Boswell in Edinburgh for their celebrated tour of Scotland: he sent a note to Boswell from Newcastle, indicating that he would be arriving in Edinburgh on the Saturday. Boswell, however, dates his appearance in Scotland (via Berwick) from 18 August. No doubt Johnson spent some time in Newcastle, from where he was accompanied to Edinburgh by William Scott (later Lord Stowell), the brother of Lord Eldon.

One of Johnson's frequent disparaging remarks about the Scots, incidentally, was that they went to Newcastle 'to be polished by colliers'. The snobbish sneer is undermined however, by the fact that according to the notable historian Richard Welford, Newcastle had no fewer than 36 private academies, boarding and day for both boys and girls, as well as the Royal Grammar School and the charity schools of the various parishes. The city was, after London, the chief urban printing centre of England, with a substantial number of large libraries, news rooms, printers, book-sellers and stationers.

On his way through Northumberland it appears that Johnson, in pre-Romantic fashion, was 'repelled by the wide expanse of hopeless sterility.'

Myers Literary Guide:	The North-East
SAMUEL JOHNSON (1709 - 1784) Dr Johnson arrived in Newcastle on Wednesday 11 August 1773 on his way to join Boswell in Edinburgh for their celebrated tour of Scotland: he sent a note to Boswell from Newcastle, indicating that he would be arriving in Edinburgh on the Saturday. Boswell, however, dates his appearance in Scotland (via Berwick) from 18 August. No doubt Johnson spent some time in Newcastle, from where he was accompanied to Edinburgh by William Scott (later Lord Stowell), the brother of Lord Eldon. One of Johnson's frequent disparaging remarks about the Scots, incidentally, was that they went to Newcastle 'to be polished by colliers'. The snobbish sneer is undermined however, by the fact that according to the notable historian Richard Welford, Newcastle had no fewer than 36 private academies, boarding and day for both boys and girls, as well as the Royal Grammar School and the charity schools of the various parishes. The city was, after London, the chief urban printing centre of England, with a substantial number of large libraries, news rooms, printers, book-sellers and stationers. On his way through Northumberland it appears that Johnson, in pre-Romantic fashion, was 'repelled by the wide expanse of hopeless sterility.'
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