Boswell and Dr Johnson first met Macdonald when they were guests of Sir Alexander Macdonald at Armadale on September 4, 1773. On the next day, Sir Alexander and Boswell went to Macdonald's, who was Sir Alexander's facto in the district of Sleat, after dinner, where they were served punch and port. Boswell, in his journal, admitted that he "drank freely of punch by way of being social, and after supper I drank freely of port by way of keeping off a taedium vitae. Altogether, I had too much."