clever and original study...Roger's discussion of these connections is a sophisticated and rewarding one.

London Review of Books

Pat Rogers encompasses the panorama of Johnson and Boswell's relation with Scotland, and offers us a deeper insight into the accounts both men left of their historic tour...a fascinating account of where Scotland stood at this time of great change...The book is a rewarding commentary on the accounts Dr Johnson and Boswell wrote of their transit of Scotland, and for Scots it offers an illuminating insight into this glorious period.

The New Rambler

A study of the intellectual and cultural mileau of Johnson and Boswell's tour of the Hebrides in 1773... in every instance the book is provocative and deepens our appreciation of this famous jaunt considerably... this... absorbing book.

Henry L. Fulton, Studies in Scottish Literature

Rogers has given us an entirely satisfying and thought-provoking study of two fascinating men and their travel books. He has shared generously with us his great learning and deep insight. Above all, he has dressed his thoughts in a lucid and engaging style of writing which makes his book a great pleasure to read.

Lars Hartveit, English Studies, Volume 77, Number 3, May 1996

Waingrow's edition is a treasure-trove of previously hidden detail, rich in implication for our understanding of the Life of Johnson, of Boswell, and of the late eighteenth century in general. Pat Rogers's deft and gracious collection of studies of the tour the two men made to Scotland can in this respect be seen as a companion volume to Waingrow. In what has become a hectic battle-ground of charge and counter-charge, few have written with Rogers's wit and psychological insight, and fewer still have hit upon a formulation which catches better Johnson's involvement with dynastic politics than the notion of him as a 'secret sharer' in Jacobitism.

David Womersley, Jesus College, Oxford, Review of English Studies, Vol. XLVIII, No. 189, Feb '97