During their historic tour of Scotland, James Boswell and Samuel Johnson visited Boswell's home in Edinburgh, where Johnson had the pleasure of meeting his companion's wife. While Mrs. Boswell did not think much of Johnson and received him with a graceful kindness, she was less forgiving of her husband's devotion to the portly, ill-mannered, ill-complexioned lexographer.

"I have seen many a bear led by a man," she informed her husband, "but I never before saw a man led by a bear."

[Boswell's fawning devotion (which Macaulay called "Lues Boswelliana, or disease of admiration") is apparent in many of his passages, for example: "The Doctor's hair was looking particularly ruffled and exciting today, not unlike the waifs of long grass on Inch. Looking over the rocks to the West, their sublime bodies crouched hard against the furious sea I am reminded that the Doctor is using my head as an armrest. Will continue journal later and tell you how I contracted gonorrhea again."]