Note 1 — LIFE AND WRITINGS OF MRS. PIOZZI. (continued 4)
Reading edition
Queen Mary left the Scottish for the English coast, on the Firth of Solway, in a fishing-boat. The incident to which Johnson alludes is introduced in "The Abbot;" where the scene is laid on the sea-shore. The unusual though expressive term "irremeable," is defined in his dictionary, "admitting no return." His authority is Dryden's Virgil:
"The keeper dream'd, the chief without delay Pass'd on, and took th' irremeable way."
The word is a Latin one anglicised:
"Evaditque celer ripam irremeabilis undæ."