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Ladies and Gentlemen, your most devoted!

Long title
Ladies and Gentlemen, your most devoted!
Year
1760
Original text

Ladies and Gentlemen, your most devoted!
Since beards have wisdom evermore denoted,
I now ambitious to obtain esteem
Have fall'n upon this useful stratagem.
Behold me, then, a man not light or airy,
You view a most profound apothecary.

But hark! - I Hear a formidable groan;
Some dreadful critic with a surly tone
Exclaims: 'What can the idiot mean by this?
'Tis sure his own poor stuff - come, let us hiss;
For one thing's sure - I have said nought amiss.
Well, thank my stars - 'tis lucky - I'll go on;
I beg you'll hear me out, I'll soon be done.
All I intended, then, to say - d'ye see? -
Was only this: t'inform the house that we
Propose tonight, by comical narration,
To strike your tympanums with such vibration
That ev'ry gloomy count'nance shall be mended,
While ev'ry feature is with mirth distended.
Pardon the formal chillness of my story -
Indeed, I'm quite abash'd t'appear before ye.
How cam I hither? Pox upon these feet!
I wish I saw the door - I'd soon retreat.
O, here it is! I go de tout mon cæur.
Ladies and Gentlemen, votre serviteur!

Notes

Probably written by James Boswell ca. 1760 as an address to the Soaping Club of which he was a founding member.

Original sources

Edinburgh

Location in Boswell's time

For the first three decades of James Boswell's life, Edinburgh consisted mainly of what is now known as the "Old Town". In 1766 a competition to design the "New Town" was held, to overcome the problems of the increasingly overcrowded Old Town, which at the time probably had around 80,000 inhabitants.

The location today

Still the capital of Scotland, and according to a 2009 YouGov poll "most desirable city in which to live in the UK".

Association with Boswell

Most people acquainted with Boswell's works know of his passion for London and his love for Auchinleck. However, it was in Edinburgh that he was born, grew up, and spend most of his adult life, and his journals clearly show a significant and emotional attachment to the city.

Locations

Russell Street, London

Location in Boswell's time

Russell Street was built in the 1630s, named after the Russells, Earls and Dukes of Bedford, and it soon became popular due to it's vicinity to Drury Lane, the Covent Garden piazza and later the Theatre Royal at Covent Garden built in 1732.

In 1763 Mortimer's Universal Director of Trades listed nine residents in the street: an engraver, a music-master, a printer, a clockmaker, a distiller, a metal-button maker, two apothecaries and a grocer. On the street was also Tom's (at No. 17) and the Turk's Head (at or near No. 20), both popular coffee houses. The latter should not be confused with the Turk's Head at Gerrard Street, the regular meeting place of the literary club.

It was in No. 8, in Thomas Davies bookshop, that Boswell and Johnson met for the first time on May 16, 1763. Thomas Davies had lived there since 1760 and would continue to do so until his death in 1785.

The location today

The very building that was in the 1760s the site of Thomas Davies old bookshop at no. 8 is today home to Balthazar Boulangerie, a trendy patisserie serving cakes, sweets and sandwiches all day (http://balthazarlondon.com/boulangerie/), which should not be confused with it's "mother" the Balthazar Restaurant on the actual corner of Russell Street and Covent Garden. On the street is also the Fortune Theatre (built 1924 on the site of the old Albion Tavern). On the corner of Russell Street and Catherine Street is also the third reincarnation of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

Association with Boswell

Boswell knew Thomas Davies since 1760, and visited his bookshop occasionally during his stay in London 1762-63. It was here that he met Robert Dodsley, Oliver Goldsmith and Samuel Johnson for the first time.

Locations

Downing Street, London

Location in Boswell's time

Downing Street, adjacent to Whitehall, was built in the 1680s by Sir George Downing (1623-1684), 1st Baronet of East Hatley. It soon became a center of power and Downing Street no. 10 has been the official residence of the British Prime Minister since 1735.

In the 1760s, when Boswell lived there,  it was home to the Office of Plantations and to some private housing, accomodating among others civil servants from the various government offices in the vicinity.

The location today

Access to Downing Street by the general public was restricted in the 1970s and further tightened in 1982 and 1989.

The street itself bears little resemblance to how it looked in the 1760s. The houses between Number 10 and Whitehall were taken over by the government and demolished in 1824 to allow the construction of the Privy Council Office, Board of Trade and Treasury offices.

In 1861 the houses on the west side of Downing Street gave way to new purpose-built government offices for the Foreign Office, India Office, Colonial Office and the Home Office. 

Association with Boswell

Boswell rented a room in the house of Thomas Terrie in Downing Street from November 26, 1762 until July 7, 1763.

Related links
Downing Street (Wikipedia)

Locations

Auchinleck House, Ayrshire

Location in Boswell's time

Auchinleck House (2013)
Auchinleck House (2013)

The present-day Auchinleck House was built ca. 1758-60 by Alexander Boswell, replacing what became known as the Auchinleck Old Place, which was built in 1612. Most remains of an even older castle on the lands had already disappeared by then.

The architecture of the house itself borrows heavily from nearby Dumfries House, which was built just a few years earlier by the Earl of Dumfries. However, being of more limited means that his neighbour, Alexander (then known as Lord Auchinleck, due to his position as a judge in the Court of Sessions) opted for a smaller solution. The architect of Auchinleck House is not known, and it has been speculated that Lord Auchinleck simply told a builder to design a smaller version of Dumfries House with a more compressed main building and without any wings. Even so, Auchinleck House did contain some advanced features for its day, including some very modern plumbing, as was later discovered when the house was renovated in the late 20th century.

The location today

Auchinleck House was uninhabited and not taken care of for a few decades until in 1986 it was turned over to the Scottish Historic Buildings Trust (SHBT) by a descendant of the 18th century Boswells. The SHBT did some renovations on the building before, in 1999, Auchinleck House was sold to the Landmark Trust.

It has since been thoroughly renovated and is now open both for visiting and for staying, accommodating up to thirteen guests at a time.

Auchinleck House is located some 4 km west of the village of Auchinleck, and it is most easily accessible by car. If you're not driving yourself, you can take bus X76 from Glasgow via Kilmarnock and get off either at Auchinleck Main Street or a bit further on in the town of Cumnock. A cab (one-way) will cost you around £15-20 from Cumnock. Don't forget to bring your wellies, as the grounds can be rather muddy.

If you decide to stop by Auchinleck itself, don't forget to visit the village church, next to which is the Boswell Mausoleum, the biographer's final resting place. The pub across the road from the church is named Boswell Arms, but apart from that, it has no connection with Boswell. 

Association with Boswell

Contrary to what was thought by some of his early biographers, James Boswell was almost certainly not born at Auchinleck, which in 1740 was still in the possession of his grandfather, but in his father's house in Edinburgh. Boswell's father became the 8th Laird of Auchinleck in 1749, and Boswell himself became the 9th Laird in 1782. Boswell was enormously fond of the place and the surrounding lands, as is documented in his journal and by his surviving correspondence with overseers James Bruce and Andrew Gibb.

Related links
Auchinleck House (Landmark Trust)

Locations

Is James Boswell related to....?

Question

Is James Boswell related to....?

Answer

Boswell's Circus

The first Boswell's Circus was founded in 1882 by James Clements Boswell, the son of the clown and artist James Boswell (1826-1859). It closed in 1898. J. C. Boswell had five sons who were all artists, and the circus was revived in 1912 as Boswell's Royal Hippodrome and Circus Company. It later became known as Boswell Brother's Circus and Menagerie, and later again as just Boswell's Circus. The artist family of Boswell is not close, if at all, related to the biographer James Boswell (1740-1795). You can read more about the circus and it's history here.

Eve Boswell

Pop singer Eve Boswell was born Eva Keleti in Budapest, Hungary in 1924. In 1939 she joined Boswell's circus (see above) as an artist. She fell in love with Trevor McIntosh, step-son to one of the owners of the circus, whom she later married. He also taught her English and suggested she change her name to Eve Boswell, after the circus. As is the case with the Boswell family who founded the circus, Eve Keleti Boswell is obviously not related to James Boswell, the biographer. You can read the story of her life in an obituary here.

The Boswell sisters

The Boswell sisters (the Bozzies) was a popular US harmony singing group active in the 1920s and 30s. It consisted of sisters Martha Boswell (1905-1958), Connie Boswell (1907-1976) and Helvetia Boswell (1911-1988), daughters of Alfred Clyde Boswell (1877-1944) and Meldania Foore (1870-1947). According to army records, A. C. Boswell was born in the US in 1877, and there appears to be no immediate connection between him (or his daughters) and James Boswell, the biographer. Read more about there Boswell Sisters here.

Leonard Boswell

US Congressman Leonard Boswell was born 1934 in Missouri, the son of Melvin and Margaret Boswell. There is no apparent link to Boswell the biographer.

James Boswell (1906-1971)

The painter James Boswell (1906-1971) was born in New Zealand, the son of Scottish born schoolmaster Edward Blair Buchanan Boswell (1860-1933) and Ida Fair.  Edward B. B. Boswell was born in Lanarkshire, son of James Boswell, who was born in Ormiston, East Lothian about 1832. James was the son of the caster Alexander Boswell and his wife Jane. Alexander's father seems to have been a James Boswell born ca. 1781. While the names James and Alexander run in both the family of the biographer and of the painter, there is no evidence of any family relationship between the two.

Who, then, is related to James Boswell?

If you want to know who actually IS related to James Boswell, you can visit our sister-site boswell-family.com. There you can see charts of Boswell's ancestors and descendants and you can even have the system compute how Boswell is related to any other person in the database, such as King Edward III of England or Boswell's friend and mentor, the 10th Earl of Eglinton. 

Was James Boswell a freemason?

Question

Was James Boswell really a freemason?

Answer

James Boswell was admitted a Freemason in the Canongate Kilwinning Lodge in Edinburgh on August 14, 1759, probably on a recommendation from his uncle John Boswell. Later on, he became Master of his lodge for two terms, and Depute Grand Master of Scotland from 1776 to 1778. Incidentally, the Grand Master of Scotland during Boswell's terms as Depute was his close personal friend Sir William Forbes.

How did James Boswell die?

Question

How did James Boswell die?

Answer

Boswell died in the early morning of May 19, 1795, in his London apartment at Great Portland Street. He was buried at Auchinleck a few weeks later.

Boswell's final downfall began when, on April 14 of that year, he suddenly fell ill during a meeting at the club and had to be taken home to his lodgings. From this time on, until his death, he suffered from fever, shiverings, headache and stomach disorder. He remained confident of a recovery until the last, although unable to read, write or even leave his bed.

William Ober, in Boswell's Clap and Other Essays: Medical Analyses of Literary Men's Afflictions (1978), suggests that the actual cause of death was uraemia provoked by an acute recrudescence of chronic urinary tract infections. The book is available via AbeBooks.

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