Travelling Fast and Slow

I was at a car show recently where one of the extras I paid for was the opportunity to be in the passenger seat of a powerful car (I always think of poor Kinbote and his “powerful Kramler” in Pale Fire when that word comes up automotively) as it raced down the runway at a small airport in Smiths Falls, Ontario, Canada. My driver had a brilliant yellow Audi TT and we reached a top speed of 230 kph.

It was a fun half-minute, and like a practical librarian I was as much impressed by the brakes as I was by the speed that got us to the end so quickly.

That was August 10, 2019.

Johnson and Boswell took a trip together in Scotland that lasted more than three months over the summer and fall of 1773. Each of them ended up publishing a book about it. The trip was to the “western islands of Scotland” or to “the Hebrides” as they styled it, respectively. The archipelago of some 500 islands off the western mainland of Scotland (not all of them inhabited) are today generally divided into the Inner and Outer Hebrides, that is, the ones closest to and farthest from the mainland shore. Johnson was 63 years old and Boswell was 32 when they started – both celebrated birthdays during the trip. The total distance was about 1,000 km, and of course there was no high-powered sports car. They both survived (though there were some dicey moments on the water), as did their friendship, and the two very different books they wrote about the experience are often compared and contrasted still today.

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