Boswell's diaries, written while he was a practising advocate in Edinburgh, describe the high and low life of the Scottish capital. James Boswell's diaries, written while he was practising as an advocate in Edinburgh between 1767 and 1786, provide a vivid picture of the high and low life of the Scottish capital. A friend of philosophers like David Hume and Adam Smith, Boswell also mixed with the criminal classes, was a prodigious drinker and frequented the town's brothels. Each day he wrote down all that he had done and seen with complete frankness.