Alexandria Gazette & Advertiser

ANECDOTE OF BOSWELL.

When Boswell was about to publish his Tour in the Hebrides, having a communication of a political nature to make previous to its seeing the light, he adopted the unceremonious method of calling upon the highest Personages in the kingdom for the abovementioned purposes. The Illustrious Personage sent him word he should see him at the levee. Accordingly Boswell took his station in the circle. When it came to his turn to be spoken to, he announced to his Majesty the work he intended to publish, and said his motive for doing so was, in order to know in what manner he was to name a person he should have occasion to mention in the course of his narrative. That to call him the Pretender was what he could not think of doing, as it was against his principles; that to name him the Chevalier St. George was awkward, it being a title that did not in reality belong to him; in this dilemma he wished to have his Majesty's commands upon the subject. "Nay," said the King, "call him what you please." "I may say, then," resumed the author, "that I have your Majesty's sanction for styling him the unfortunate grandson of James the Second." The King made no reply to the disrespectful and indiscreet pertinacity of Boswell, but immediately passed on to the next person in the circle.

[Memoirs of Mrs. Frances Sheridan.