"Journeys made in this manner are rather tedious and long. A very few miles requires several hours."
Traveling by horseback, Johnson grows increasingly frustrated by the slow pace. He's not accustomed to riding horseback, so he's especially uncomfortable, making the trip feel even longer. Still, he's receiving a first-hand, in-depth look at the countryside.
"Some method to stop this epidemic desire of wandering, which spreads its contagion from valley to valley, ought to be sought with great diligence."
From the outside, Johnson is quick to condemn the Scottish for ignoring the plagues in their region, but he doesn't see the difficulty of his suggestions. The locals would love nothing more than to prevent the spread of disease and the rising depopulation of their homeland, but they don't have the resources to fight the diseases because fo the isolation of farms from communities as well as the general poverty and self-reliance of the people. Hailing from the bustling London city, Johnson cannot recognize the unique struggles of this area.
"Of the Earse language, as I understand nothing, I cannot say more than I have been told. It is a rude language of a barbarous people, who had few thoughts to express, and were content, as they conceived grossly, to be grossly understood."
Johnson relies upon the prejudiced opinions of guides and others to inform his own opinion of the native language. He believes the people to be "barbarous," a term implying a superiority in Johnson's attitude. He credits the locals with no equality of intellect, considering them people too simple to develop a beautiful language.
". . . And that the sounds of the highlanders were never expressed by letters, till some little books of piety were translated, and a metrical version of the Pslams was made by the Synod of Argyle."
Johnson is one of the most prominent men to propagate this bit of misinformation. Actually, the native Scottish Gaelic language was a written language, but the misconception was commonly spread by those who despised the Scottish by means of racial prejudice. As Johnson reports what he has heard, he fails to investigate the truth of the matter because the story reinforces his own prejudice concerning the local language.
