Boswell’s diaries, written while he was a practising advocate in Edinburgh, describe the high and low life of the Scottish capital. James Boswell’s diaries, written while he was practising as an advocate in Edinburgh between 1767 and 1786, provide a vivid picture of the high and low life of the Scottish capital. A friend of philosophers like David Hume and Adam Smith, Boswell also mixed with the criminal classes, was a prodigious drinker and frequented the town’s brothels. Each day he wrote down all that he had done and seen with complete frankness.
Editorial Reviews
Review
‘Boswell’s journals are an incomparable, intoxicating, timeless record of life in Enlightenment Edinburgh.’ — The Sunday Herald, August 19, 2001
An enjoyable anthology. —
Times Literary Supplement, September 14, 2001
Boswell’s tempestuous career as a Scottish advocate can now be followed in compulsive detail. —
The New York Review of Books, September 20, 2001
The publishers are to be congratulated for producing this handsome volume at such a modest price. —
Literary Review, October 2001
Undoubtedly the most vivid, honest and complete account that exists of Edinburgh at one of its great periods. —
The Scotsman, September 1, 2001
About the Author
James Boswell was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of the English writer Samuel Johnson, Life of Samuel Johnson.
Hugh Milne studied Law at the University of Edinburgh and has been employed as a solicitor since admission in 1977. He has spent many years researching the background to Boswell’s Edinburgh Journals. He is married with two daughters.
‘The Hon. Henry Erskine and I drove out to Dreghorn, where we had a party at bowls. Lord Covington and Lord Gardenstone, Charles Hay, and Wauchope of Niddrie and his lady and a daughter dined…I drank too much. We had whilst after dinner. When I returned to town, I was a good deal intoxicated, ranged the streets, and having met with a comely, fresh-looking girl, madly ventured to lie with her on the north brae of the castle hill. I told my dear wife immediately.’
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