A large part of Samuel Johnson’s writing was concerned with contemporary society. In 1773 he had the opportunity to observe and experience a society in many ways far removed from that of London, his home of over thirty years. Accompanied by his friend and biographer James Boswell, he undertook a journey around Scotland and the Western Isles; published two years later, the account of his travels has in recent years come to be regarded as a work of social anthropology. In this post, Janet Neale examines brief extracts from A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland in order to explore this modern interpretation.
Concerned with the study of human society and cultures, social anthropology emerged as an academic discipline long after Samuel Johnson’s death in 1784. In A Journey however, Johnson can be seen directly enquiring into and portraying the society and cultures he encountered; viewed initially as anti-Scots, an understanding of it as a window into a society that was both part of Britain but to a great degree alienated from it, came later. Johnson also used his observations during his travels to speculate on society as a whole, and an example of his methodology can be found in a passage headed ‘Mull’.
A narration of their arrival on the island is followed by a description of its size; he then moves on to its recent history, which gives him an insight into its subsistence economy:
“The consequence of a bad season here is not scarcity, but emptiness; and they whose plenty was barely a supply of natural and present need, when that slender stock fails, must perish with hunger”.
Johnson the moralist then interjects:
“All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own, and if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it”.
The passage moves on to a philosophical reasoning as to whether the planting of tree seeds would benefit the island; thoughts on the relative shortness of human life are interwoven with the practicalities of caring for the trees. The passage ends as it began, with the travel narrative resumed.
Another of his concerns is the effect on the clans of the laws introduced following the rebellions in 1715 and 1745. Johnson sets out the old hierarchy of the clans, the changes he observed brought about by the new laws, and then reasons as to why the clan chiefs would raise their land rents: “When the power of birth and station ceases, no hope remains but from the prevalence of money”. A refusal to pay the new rents leads to eviction for the tenants; the old structures and allegiances are broken.
These passages give a very brief illustration of the blend of elements in the Journey. At its heart is a travelogue, recorded in a journal, and the timeline of this drives the narration. Interspersed with the record of the places and people he and Boswell encountered, is an insight into Johnson himself, in passages of autobiography and philosophic reasoning. The overall effect is of Johnson observing and enquiring, giving a sociological insight into a people and culture he is meeting for the first time.
A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland is a work that contains Johnson’s own first-hand observations and judgments of the society he found there. It examines in detail the islanders’ social and cultural settings, the ways in which they have been obliged to organise themselves, and how religion, politics and economics have shaped their lives, providing them with little hope of escape except emigration from the ‘ordered whole’. In modern terms, these elements constitute a social anthropological study.
Guest Contributor: Janet Neale graduated from the University of Leicester in 2018 with a degree in Humanities & Arts. The degree included an in-depth study of the writings of Samuel Johnson. She has recently completed a Masters in West Midlands History at the University of Birmingham. Read Janet’s previous blog posts about Johnson on Poverty and Johnson on Women’s Education.