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diff --git a/2064.txt b/2064.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..36fac99 --- /dev/null +++ b/2064.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6054 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland, +by Samuel Johnson + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland + + +Author: Samuel Johnson + +Release Date: April 20, 2005 [eBook #2064] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A JOURNEY TO THE WESTERN ISLES OF +SCOTLAND*** + + + + + + +Transcribed from the 1775 edition with the corrections noted in the 1785 +errata by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + + +A JOURNEY TO THE WESTERN ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND + + +INCH KEITH + + +I had desired to visit the Hebrides, or Western Islands of Scotland, so +long, that I scarcely remember how the wish was originally excited; and +was in the Autumn of the year 1773 induced to undertake the journey, by +finding in Mr. Boswell a companion, whose acuteness would help my +inquiry, and whose gaiety of conversation and civility of manners are +sufficient to counteract the inconveniences of travel, in countries less +hospitable than we have passed. + +On the eighteenth of August we left Edinburgh, a city too well known to +admit description, and directed our course northward, along the eastern +coast of Scotland, accompanied the first day by another gentleman, who +could stay with us only long enough to shew us how much we lost at +separation. + +As we crossed the Frith of Forth, our curiosity was attracted by Inch +Keith, a small island, which neither of my companions had ever visited, +though, lying within their view, it had all their lives solicited their +notice. Here, by climbing with some difficulty over shattered crags, we +made the first experiment of unfrequented coasts. Inch Keith is nothing +more than a rock covered with a thin layer of earth, not wholly bare of +grass, and very fertile of thistles. A small herd of cows grazes +annually upon it in the summer. It seems never to have afforded to man +or beast a permanent habitation. + +We found only the ruins of a small fort, not so injured by time but that +it might be easily restored to its former state. It seems never to have +been intended as a place of strength, nor was built to endure a siege, +but merely to afford cover to a few soldiers, who perhaps had the charge +of a battery, or were stationed to give signals of approaching danger. +There is therefore no provision of water within the walls, though the +spring is so near, that it might have been easily enclosed. One of the +stones had this inscription: 'Maria Reg. 1564.' It has probably been +neglected from the time that the whole island had the same king. + +We left this little island with our thoughts employed awhile on the +different appearance that it would have made, if it had been placed at +the same distance from London, with the same facility of approach; with +what emulation of price a few rocky acres would have been purchased, and +with what expensive industry they would have been cultivated and adorned. + +When we landed, we found our chaise ready, and passed through Kinghorn, +Kirkaldy, and Cowpar, places not unlike the small or straggling market- +towns in those parts of England where commerce and manufactures have not +yet produced opulence. + +Though we were yet in the most populous part of Scotland, and at so small +a distance from the capital, we met few passengers. + +The roads are neither rough nor dirty; and it affords a southern stranger +a new kind of pleasure to travel so commodiously without the interruption +of toll-gates. Where the bottom is rocky, as it seems commonly to be in +Scotland, a smooth way is made indeed with great labour, but it never +wants repairs; and in those parts where adventitious materials are +necessary, the ground once consolidated is rarely broken; for the inland +commerce is not great, nor are heavy commodities often transported +otherwise than by water. The carriages in common use are small carts, +drawn each by one little horse; and a man seems to derive some degree of +dignity and importance from the reputation of possessing a two-horse +cart. + + + + +ST. ANDREWS + + +At an hour somewhat late we came to St. Andrews, a city once +archiepiscopal; where that university still subsists in which philosophy +was formerly taught by Buchanan, whose name has as fair a claim to +immortality as can be conferred by modern latinity, and perhaps a fairer +than the instability of vernacular languages admits. + +We found, that by the interposition of some invisible friend, lodgings +had been provided for us at the house of one of the professors, whose +easy civility quickly made us forget that we were strangers; and in the +whole time of our stay we were gratified by every mode of kindness, and +entertained with all the elegance of lettered hospitality. + +In the morning we rose to perambulate a city, which only history shews to +have once flourished, and surveyed the ruins of ancient magnificence, of +which even the ruins cannot long be visible, unless some care be taken to +preserve them; and where is the pleasure of preserving such mournful +memorials? They have been till very lately so much neglected, that every +man carried away the stones who fancied that he wanted them. + +The cathedral, of which the foundations may be still traced, and a small +part of the wall is standing, appears to have been a spacious and +majestick building, not unsuitable to the primacy of the kingdom. Of the +architecture, the poor remains can hardly exhibit, even to an artist, a +sufficient specimen. It was demolished, as is well known, in the tumult +and violence of Knox's reformation. + +Not far from the cathedral, on the margin of the water, stands a fragment +of the castle, in which the archbishop anciently resided. It was never +very large, and was built with more attention to security than pleasure. +Cardinal Beatoun is said to have had workmen employed in improving its +fortifications at the time when he was murdered by the ruffians of +reformation, in the manner of which Knox has given what he himself calls +a merry narrative. + +The change of religion in Scotland, eager and vehement as it was, raised +an epidemical enthusiasm, compounded of sullen scrupulousness and warlike +ferocity, which, in a people whom idleness resigned to their own +thoughts, and who, conversing only with each other, suffered no dilution +of their zeal from the gradual influx of new opinions, was long +transmitted in its full strength from the old to the young, but by trade +and intercourse with England, is now visibly abating, and giving way too +fast to that laxity of practice and indifference of opinion, in which +men, not sufficiently instructed to find the middle point, too easily +shelter themselves from rigour and constraint. + +The city of St. Andrews, when it had lost its archiepiscopal +pre-eminence, gradually decayed: One of its streets is now lost; and in +those that remain, there is silence and solitude of inactive indigence +and gloomy depopulation. + +The university, within a few years, consisted of three colleges, but is +now reduced to two; the college of St. Leonard being lately dissolved by +the sale of its buildings and the appropriation of its revenues to the +professors of the two others. The chapel of the alienated college is yet +standing, a fabrick not inelegant of external structure; but I was +always, by some civil excuse, hindred from entering it. A decent +attempt, as I was since told, has been made to convert it into a kind of +green-house, by planting its area with shrubs. This new method of +gardening is unsuccessful; the plants do not hitherto prosper. To what +use it will next be put I have no pleasure in conjecturing. It is +something that its present state is at least not ostentatiously +displayed. Where there is yet shame, there may in time be virtue. + +The dissolution of St. Leonard's college was doubtless necessary; but of +that necessity there is reason to complain. It is surely not without +just reproach, that a nation, of which the commerce is hourly extending, +and the wealth encreasing, denies any participation of its prosperity to +its literary societies; and while its merchants or its nobles are raising +palaces, suffers its universities to moulder into dust. + +Of the two colleges yet standing, one is by the institution of its +founder appropriated to Divinity. It is said to be capable of containing +fifty students; but more than one must occupy a chamber. The library, +which is of late erection, is not very spacious, but elegant and +luminous. + +The doctor, by whom it was shewn, hoped to irritate or subdue my English +vanity by telling me, that we had no such repository of books in England. + +Saint Andrews seems to be a place eminently adapted to study and +education, being situated in a populous, yet a cheap country, and +exposing the minds and manners of young men neither to the levity and +dissoluteness of a capital city, nor to the gross luxury of a town of +commerce, places naturally unpropitious to learning; in one the desire of +knowledge easily gives way to the love of pleasure, and in the other, is +in danger of yielding to the love of money. + +The students however are represented as at this time not exceeding a +hundred. Perhaps it may be some obstruction to their increase that there +is no episcopal chapel in the place. I saw no reason for imputing their +paucity to the present professors; nor can the expence of an academical +education be very reasonably objected. A student of the highest class +may keep his annual session, or as the English call it, his term, which +lasts seven months, for about fifteen pounds, and one of lower rank for +less than ten; in which board, lodging, and instruction are all included. + +The chief magistrate resident in the university, answering to our vice- +chancellor, and to the _rector magnificus_ on the continent, had commonly +the title of Lord Rector; but being addressed only as Mr. Rector in an +inauguratory speech by the present chancellor, he has fallen from his +former dignity of style. Lordship was very liberally annexed by our +ancestors to any station or character of dignity: They said, the Lord +General, and Lord Ambassador; so we still say, my Lord, to the judge upon +the circuit, and yet retain in our Liturgy the Lords of the Council. + +In walking among the ruins of religious buildings, we came to two vaults +over which had formerly stood the house of the sub-prior. One of the +vaults was inhabited by an old woman, who claimed the right of abode +there, as the widow of a man whose ancestors had possessed the same +gloomy mansion for no less than four generations. The right, however it +began, was considered as established by legal prescription, and the old +woman lives undisturbed. She thinks however that she has a claim to +something more than sufferance; for as her husband's name was Bruce, she +is allied to royalty, and told Mr. Boswell that when there were persons +of quality in the place, she was distinguished by some notice; that +indeed she is now neglected, but she spins a thread, has the company of +her cat, and is troublesome to nobody. + +Having now seen whatever this ancient city offered to our curiosity, we +left it with good wishes, having reason to be highly pleased with the +attention that was paid us. But whoever surveys the world must see many +things that give him pain. The kindness of the professors did not +contribute to abate the uneasy remembrance of an university declining, a +college alienated, and a church profaned and hastening to the ground. + +St. Andrews indeed has formerly suffered more atrocious ravages and more +extensive destruction, but recent evils affect with greater force. We +were reconciled to the sight of archiepiscopal ruins. The distance of a +calamity from the present time seems to preclude the mind from contact or +sympathy. Events long past are barely known; they are not considered. We +read with as little emotion the violence of Knox and his followers, as +the irruptions of Alaric and the Goths. Had the university been +destroyed two centuries ago, we should not have regretted it; but to see +it pining in decay and struggling for life, fills the mind with mournful +images and ineffectual wishes. + + + + +ABERBROTHICK + + +As we knew sorrow and wishes to be vain, it was now our business to mind +our way. The roads of Scotland afford little diversion to the traveller, +who seldom sees himself either encountered or overtaken, and who has +nothing to contemplate but grounds that have no visible boundaries, or +are separated by walls of loose stone. From the bank of the Tweed to St. +Andrews I had never seen a single tree, which I did not believe to have +grown up far within the present century. Now and then about a +gentleman's house stands a small plantation, which in Scotch is called a +policy, but of these there are few, and those few all very young. The +variety of sun and shade is here utterly unknown. There is no tree for +either shelter or timber. The oak and the thorn is equally a stranger, +and the whole country is extended in uniform nakedness, except that in +the road between Kirkaldy and Cowpar, I passed for a few yards between +two hedges. A tree might be a show in Scotland as a horse in Venice. At +St. Andrews Mr. Boswell found only one, and recommended it to my notice; +I told him that it was rough and low, or looked as if I thought so. This, +said he, is nothing to another a few miles off. I was still less +delighted to hear that another tree was not to be seen nearer. Nay, said +a gentleman that stood by, I know but of this and that tree in the +county. + +The Lowlands of Scotland had once undoubtedly an equal portion of woods +with other countries. Forests are every where gradually diminished, as +architecture and cultivation prevail by the increase of people and the +introduction of arts. But I believe few regions have been denuded like +this, where many centuries must have passed in waste without the least +thought of future supply. Davies observes in his account of Ireland, +that no Irishman had ever planted an orchard. For that negligence some +excuse might be drawn from an unsettled state of life, and the +instability of property; but in Scotland possession has long been secure, +and inheritance regular, yet it may be doubted whether before the Union +any man between Edinburgh and England had ever set a tree. + +Of this improvidence no other account can be given than that it probably +began in times of tumult, and continued because it had begun. Established +custom is not easily broken, till some great event shakes the whole +system of things, and life seems to recommence upon new principles. That +before the Union the Scots had little trade and little money, is no valid +apology; for plantation is the least expensive of all methods of +improvement. To drop a seed into the ground can cost nothing, and the +trouble is not great of protecting the young plant, till it is out of +danger; though it must be allowed to have some difficulty in places like +these, where they have neither wood for palisades, nor thorns for hedges. + +Our way was over the Firth of Tay, where, though the water was not wide, +we paid four shillings for ferrying the chaise. In Scotland the +necessaries of life are easily procured, but superfluities and elegancies +are of the same price at least as in England, and therefore may be +considered as much dearer. + +We stopped a while at Dundee, where I remember nothing remarkable, and +mounting our chaise again, came about the close of the day to +Aberbrothick. + +The monastery of Aberbrothick is of great renown in the history of +Scotland. Its ruins afford ample testimony of its ancient magnificence: +Its extent might, I suppose, easily be found by following the walls among +the grass and weeds, and its height is known by some parts yet standing. +The arch of one of the gates is entire, and of another only so far +dilapidated as to diversify the appearance. A square apartment of great +loftiness is yet standing; its use I could not conjecture, as its +elevation was very disproportionate to its area. Two corner towers, +particularly attracted our attention. Mr. Boswell, whose inquisitiveness +is seconded by great activity, scrambled in at a high window, but found +the stairs within broken, and could not reach the top. Of the other +tower we were told that the inhabitants sometimes climbed it, but we did +not immediately discern the entrance, and as the night was gathering upon +us, thought proper to desist. Men skilled in architecture might do what +we did not attempt: They might probably form an exact ground-plot of this +venerable edifice. They may from some parts yet standing conjecture its +general form, and perhaps by comparing it with other buildings of the +same kind and the same age, attain an idea very near to truth. I should +scarcely have regretted my journey, had it afforded nothing more than the +sight of Aberbrothick. + + + + +MONTROSE + + +Leaving these fragments of magnificence, we travelled on to Montrose, +which we surveyed in the morning, and found it well built, airy, and +clean. The townhouse is a handsome fabrick with a portico. We then went +to view the English chapel, and found a small church, clean to a degree +unknown in any other part of Scotland, with commodious galleries, and +what was yet less expected, with an organ. + +At our inn we did not find a reception such as we thought proportionate +to the commercial opulence of the place; but Mr. Boswell desired me to +observe that the innkeeper was an Englishman, and I then defended him as +well as I could. + +When I had proceeded thus far, I had opportunities of observing what I +had never heard, that there are many beggars in Scotland. In Edinburgh +the proportion is, I think, not less than in London, and in the smaller +places it is far greater than in English towns of the same extent. It +must, however, be allowed that they are not importunate, nor clamorous. +They solicit silently, or very modestly, and therefore though their +behaviour may strike with more force the heart of a stranger, they are +certainly in danger of missing the attention of their countrymen. Novelty +has always some power, an unaccustomed mode of begging excites an +unaccustomed degree of pity. But the force of novelty is by its own +nature soon at an end; the efficacy of outcry and perseverance is +permanent and certain. + +The road from Montrose exhibited a continuation of the same appearances. +The country is still naked, the hedges are of stone, and the fields so +generally plowed that it is hard to imagine where grass is found for the +horses that till them. The harvest, which was almost ripe, appeared very +plentiful. + +Early in the afternoon Mr. Boswell observed that we were at no great +distance from the house of lord Monboddo. The magnetism of his +conversation easily drew us out of our way, and the entertainment which +we received would have been a sufficient recompense for a much greater +deviation. + +The roads beyond Edinburgh, as they are less frequented, must be expected +to grow gradually rougher; but they were hitherto by no means +incommodious. We travelled on with the gentle pace of a Scotch driver, +who having no rivals in expedition, neither gives himself nor his horses +unnecessary trouble. We did not affect the impatience we did not feel, +but were satisfied with the company of each other as well riding in the +chaise, as sitting at an inn. The night and the day are equally solitary +and equally safe; for where there are so few travellers, why should there +be robbers. + + + + +ABERDEEN + + +We came somewhat late to Aberdeen, and found the inn so full, that we had +some difficulty in obtaining admission, till Mr. Boswell made himself +known: His name overpowered all objection, and we found a very good house +and civil treatment. + +I received the next day a very kind letter from Sir Alexander Gordon, +whom I had formerly known in London, and after a cessation of all +intercourse for near twenty years met here professor of physic in the +King's College. Such unexpected renewals of acquaintance may be numbered +among the most pleasing incidents of life. + +The knowledge of one professor soon procured me the notice of the rest, +and I did not want any token of regard, being conducted wherever there +was any thing which I desired to see, and entertained at once with the +novelty of the place, and the kindness of communication. + +To write of the cities of our own island with the solemnity of +geographical description, as if we had been cast upon a newly discovered +coast, has the appearance of very frivolous ostentation; yet as Scotland +is little known to the greater part of those who may read these +observations, it is not superfluous to relate, that under the name of +Aberdeen are comprised two towns standing about a mile distant from each +other, but governed, I think, by the same magistrates. + +Old Aberdeen is the ancient episcopal city, in which are still to be seen +the remains of the cathedral. It has the appearance of a town in decay, +having been situated in times when commerce was yet unstudied, with very +little attention to the commodities of the harbour. + +New Aberdeen has all the bustle of prosperous trade, and all the shew of +increasing opulence. It is built by the water-side. The houses are +large and lofty, and the streets spacious and clean. They build almost +wholly with the granite used in the new pavement of the streets of +London, which is well known not to want hardness, yet they shape it +easily. It is beautiful and must be very lasting. + +What particular parts of commerce are chiefly exercised by the merchants +of Aberdeen, I have not inquired. The manufacture which forces itself +upon a stranger's eye is that of knit-stockings, on which the women of +the lower class are visibly employed. + +In each of these towns there is a college, or in stricter language, an +university; for in both there are professors of the same parts of +learning, and the colleges hold their sessions and confer degrees +separately, with total independence of one on the other. + +In old Aberdeen stands the King's College, of which the first president +was Hector Boece, or Boethius, who may be justly reverenced as one of the +revivers of elegant learning. When he studied at Paris, he was +acquainted with Erasmus, who afterwards gave him a public testimony of +his esteem, by inscribing to him a catalogue of his works. The stile of +Boethius, though, perhaps, not always rigorously pure, is formed with +great diligence upon ancient models, and wholly uninfected with monastic +barbarity. His history is written with elegance and vigour, but his +fabulousness and credulity are justly blamed. His fabulousness, if he +was the author of the fictions, is a fault for which no apology can be +made; but his credulity may be excused in an age, when all men were +credulous. Learning was then rising on the world; but ages so long +accustomed to darkness, were too much dazzled with its light to see any +thing distinctly. The first race of scholars, in the fifteenth century, +and some time after, were, for the most part, learning to speak, rather +than to think, and were therefore more studious of elegance than of +truth. The contemporaries of Boethius thought it sufficient to know what +the ancients had delivered. The examination of tenets and of facts was +reserved for another generation. + +* * * * * + +Boethius, as president of the university, enjoyed a revenue of forty +Scottish marks, about two pounds four shillings and sixpence of sterling +money. In the present age of trade and taxes, it is difficult even for +the imagination so to raise the value of money, or so to diminish the +demands of life, as to suppose four and forty shillings a year, an +honourable stipend; yet it was probably equal, not only to the needs, but +to the rank of Boethius. The wealth of England was undoubtedly to that +of Scotland more than five to one, and it is known that Henry the eighth, +among whose faults avarice was never reckoned, granted to Roger Ascham, +as a reward of his learning, a pension of ten pounds a year. + +The other, called the Marischal College, is in the new town. The hall is +large and well lighted. One of its ornaments is the picture of Arthur +Johnston, who was principal of the college, and who holds among the Latin +poets of Scotland the next place to the elegant Buchanan. + +In the library I was shewn some curiosities; a Hebrew manuscript of +exquisite penmanship, and a Latin translation of Aristotle's Politicks by +Leonardus Aretinus, written in the Roman character with nicety and +beauty, which, as the art of printing has made them no longer necessary, +are not now to be found. This was one of the latest performances of the +transcribers, for Aretinus died but about twenty years before typography +was invented. This version has been printed, and may be found in +libraries, but is little read; for the same books have been since +translated both by Victorius and Lambinus, who lived in an age more +cultivated, but perhaps owed in part to Aretinus that they were able to +excel him. Much is due to those who first broke the way to knowledge, +and left only to their successors the task of smoothing it. + +In both these colleges the methods of instruction are nearly the same; +the lectures differing only by the accidental difference of diligence, or +ability in the professors. The students wear scarlet gowns and the +professors black, which is, I believe, the academical dress in all the +Scottish universities, except that of Edinburgh, where the scholars are +not distinguished by any particular habit. In the King's College there +is kept a public table, but the scholars of the Marischal College are +boarded in the town. The expence of living is here, according to the +information that I could obtain, somewhat more than at St. Andrews. + +The course of education is extended to four years, at the end of which +those who take a degree, who are not many, become masters of arts, and +whoever is a master may, if he pleases, immediately commence doctor. The +title of doctor, however, was for a considerable time bestowed only on +physicians. The advocates are examined and approved by their own body; +the ministers were not ambitious of titles, or were afraid of being +censured for ambition; and the doctorate in every faculty was commonly +given or sold into other countries. The ministers are now reconciled to +distinction, and as it must always happen that some will excel others, +have thought graduation a proper testimony of uncommon abilities or +acquisitions. + +The indiscriminate collation of degrees has justly taken away that +respect which they originally claimed as stamps, by which the literary +value of men so distinguished was authoritatively denoted. That +academical honours, or any others should be conferred with exact +proportion to merit, is more than human judgment or human integrity have +given reason to expect. Perhaps degrees in universities cannot be better +adjusted by any general rule than by the length of time passed in the +public profession of learning. An English or Irish doctorate cannot be +obtained by a very young man, and it is reasonable to suppose, what is +likewise by experience commonly found true, that he who is by age +qualified to be a doctor, has in so much time gained learning sufficient +not to disgrace the title, or wit sufficient not to desire it. + +The Scotch universities hold but one term or session in the year. That +of St. Andrews continues eight months, that of Aberdeen only five, from +the first of November to the first of April. + +In Aberdeen there is an English Chapel, in which the congregation was +numerous and splendid. The form of public worship used by the church of +England is in Scotland legally practised in licensed chapels served by +clergymen of English or Irish ordination, and by tacit connivance quietly +permitted in separate congregations supplied with ministers by the +successors of the bishops who were deprived at the Revolution. + +We came to Aberdeen on Saturday August 21. On Monday we were invited +into the town-hall, where I had the freedom of the city given me by the +Lord Provost. The honour conferred had all the decorations that +politeness could add, and what I am afraid I should not have had to say +of any city south of the Tweed, I found no petty officer bowing for a +fee. + +The parchment containing the record of admission is, with the seal +appending, fastened to a riband and worn for one day by the new citizen +in his hat. + +By a lady who saw us at the chapel, the Earl of Errol was informed of our +arrival, and we had the honour of an invitation to his seat, called +Slanes Castle, as I am told, improperly, from the castle of that name, +which once stood at a place not far distant. + +The road beyond Aberdeen grew more stony, and continued equally naked of +all vegetable decoration. We travelled over a tract of ground near the +sea, which, not long ago, suffered a very uncommon, and unexpected +calamity. The sand of the shore was raised by a tempest in such +quantities, and carried to such a distance, that an estate was +overwhelmed and lost. Such and so hopeless was the barrenness +superinduced, that the owner, when he was required to pay the usual tax, +desired rather to resign the ground. + + + + +SLANES CASTLE, THE BULLER OF BUCHAN + + +We came in the afternoon to Slanes Castle, built upon the margin of the +sea, so that the walls of one of the towers seem only a continuation of a +perpendicular rock, the foot of which is beaten by the waves. To walk +round the house seemed impracticable. From the windows the eye wanders +over the sea that separates Scotland from Norway, and when the winds beat +with violence must enjoy all the terrifick grandeur of the tempestuous +ocean. I would not for my amusement wish for a storm; but as storms, +whether wished or not, will sometimes happen, I may say, without +violation of humanity, that I should willingly look out upon them from +Slanes Castle. + +When we were about to take our leave, our departure was prohibited by the +countess till we should have seen two places upon the coast, which she +rightly considered as worthy of curiosity, Dun Buy, and the Buller of +Buchan, to which Mr. Boyd very kindly conducted us. + +Dun Buy, which in Erse is said to signify the Yellow Rock, is a double +protuberance of stone, open to the main sea on one side, and parted from +the land by a very narrow channel on the other. It has its name and its +colour from the dung of innumerable sea-fowls, which in the Spring chuse +this place as convenient for incubation, and have their eggs and their +young taken in great abundance. One of the birds that frequent this rock +has, as we were told, its body not larger than a duck's, and yet lays +eggs as large as those of a goose. This bird is by the inhabitants named +a Coot. That which is called Coot in England, is here a Cooter. + +Upon these rocks there was nothing that could long detain attention, and +we soon turned our eyes to the Buller, or Bouilloir of Buchan, which no +man can see with indifference, who has either sense of danger or delight +in rarity. It is a rock perpendicularly tubulated, united on one side +with a high shore, and on the other rising steep to a great height, above +the main sea. The top is open, from which may be seen a dark gulf of +water which flows into the cavity, through a breach made in the lower +part of the inclosing rock. It has the appearance of a vast well +bordered with a wall. The edge of the Buller is not wide, and to those +that walk round, appears very narrow. He that ventures to look downward +sees, that if his foot should slip, he must fall from his dreadful +elevation upon stones on one side, or into water on the other. We +however went round, and were glad when the circuit was completed. + +When we came down to the sea, we saw some boats, and rowers, and resolved +to explore the Buller at the bottom. We entered the arch, which the +water had made, and found ourselves in a place, which, though we could +not think ourselves in danger, we could scarcely survey without some +recoil of the mind. The bason in which we floated was nearly circular, +perhaps thirty yards in diameter. We were inclosed by a natural wall, +rising steep on every side to a height which produced the idea of +insurmountable confinement. The interception of all lateral light caused +a dismal gloom. Round us was a perpendicular rock, above us the distant +sky, and below an unknown profundity of water. If I had any malice +against a walking spirit, instead of laying him in the Red-sea, I would +condemn him to reside in the Buller of Buchan. + +But terrour without danger is only one of the sports of fancy, a +voluntary agitation of the mind that is permitted no longer than it +pleases. We were soon at leisure to examine the place with minute +inspection, and found many cavities which, as the waterman told us, went +backward to a depth which they had never explored. Their extent we had +not time to try; they are said to serve different purposes. Ladies come +hither sometimes in the summer with collations, and smugglers make them +storehouses for clandestine merchandise. It is hardly to be doubted but +the pirates of ancient times often used them as magazines of arms, or +repositories of plunder. + +To the little vessels used by the northern rovers, the Buller may have +served as a shelter from storms, and perhaps as a retreat from enemies; +the entrance might have been stopped, or guarded with little difficulty, +and though the vessels that were stationed within would have been +battered with stones showered on them from above, yet the crews would +have lain safe in the caverns. + +Next morning we continued our journey, pleased with our reception at +Slanes Castle, of which we had now leisure to recount the grandeur and +the elegance; for our way afforded us few topics of conversation. The +ground was neither uncultivated nor unfruitful; but it was still all +arable. Of flocks or herds there was no appearance. I had now travelled +two hundred miles in Scotland, and seen only one tree not younger than +myself. + + + + +BAMFF + + +We dined this day at the house of Mr. Frazer of Streichton, who shewed us +in his grounds some stones yet standing of a druidical circle, and what I +began to think more worthy of notice, some forest trees of full growth. + +At night we came to Bamff, where I remember nothing that particularly +claimed my attention. The ancient towns of Scotland have generally an +appearance unusual to Englishmen. The houses, whether great or small, +are for the most part built of stones. Their ends are now and then next +the streets, and the entrance into them is very often by a flight of +steps, which reaches up to the second story, the floor which is level +with the ground being entered only by stairs descending within the house. + +The art of joining squares of glass with lead is little used in Scotland, +and in some places is totally forgotten. The frames of their windows are +all of wood. They are more frugal of their glass than the English, and +will often, in houses not otherwise mean, compose a square of two pieces, +not joining like cracked glass, but with one edge laid perhaps half an +inch over the other. Their windows do not move upon hinges, but are +pushed up and drawn down in grooves, yet they are seldom accommodated +with weights and pullies. He that would have his window open must hold +it with his hand, unless what may be sometimes found among good +contrivers, there be a nail which he may stick into a hole, to keep it +from falling. + +What cannot be done without some uncommon trouble or particular +expedient, will not often be done at all. The incommodiousness of the +Scotch windows keeps them very closely shut. The necessity of +ventilating human habitations has not yet been found by our northern +neighbours; and even in houses well built and elegantly furnished, a +stranger may be sometimes forgiven, if he allows himself to wish for +fresher air. + +These diminutive observations seem to take away something from the +dignity of writing, and therefore are never communicated but with +hesitation, and a little fear of abasement and contempt. But it must be +remembered, that life consists not of a series of illustrious actions, or +elegant enjoyments; the greater part of our time passes in compliance +with necessities, in the performance of daily duties, in the removal of +small inconveniences, in the procurement of petty pleasures; and we are +well or ill at ease, as the main stream of life glides on smoothly, or is +ruffled by small obstacles and frequent interruption. The true state of +every nation is the state of common life. The manners of a people are +not to be found in the schools of learning, or the palaces of greatness, +where the national character is obscured or obliterated by travel or +instruction, by philosophy or vanity; nor is public happiness to be +estimated by the assemblies of the gay, or the banquets of the rich. The +great mass of nations is neither rich nor gay: they whose aggregate +constitutes the people, are found in the streets, and the villages, in +the shops and farms; and from them collectively considered, must the +measure of general prosperity be taken. As they approach to delicacy a +nation is refined, as their conveniences are multiplied, a nation, at +least a commercial nation, must be denominated wealthy. + + + + +ELGIN + + +Finding nothing to detain us at Bamff, we set out in the morning, and +having breakfasted at Cullen, about noon came to Elgin, where in the inn, +that we supposed the best, a dinner was set before us, which we could not +eat. This was the first time, and except one, the last, that I found any +reason to complain of a Scotish table; and such disappointments, I +suppose, must be expected in every country, where there is no great +frequency of travellers. + +The ruins of the cathedral of Elgin afforded us another proof of the +waste of reformation. There is enough yet remaining to shew, that it was +once magnificent. Its whole plot is easily traced. On the north side of +the choir, the chapter-house, which is roofed with an arch of stone, +remains entire; and on the south side, another mass of building, which we +could not enter, is preserved by the care of the family of Gordon; but +the body of the church is a mass of fragments. + +A paper was here put into our hands, which deduced from sufficient +authorities the history of this venerable ruin. The church of Elgin had, +in the intestine tumults of the barbarous ages, been laid waste by the +irruption of a highland chief, whom the bishop had offended; but it was +gradually restored to the state, of which the traces may be now +discerned, and was at last not destroyed by the tumultuous violence of +Knox, but more shamefully suffered to dilapidate by deliberate robbery +and frigid indifference. There is still extant, in the books of the +council, an order, of which I cannot remember the date, but which was +doubtless issued after the Reformation, directing that the lead, which +covers the two cathedrals of Elgin and Aberdeen, shall be taken away, and +converted into money for the support of the army. A Scotch army was in +those times very cheaply kept; yet the lead of two churches must have +born so small a proportion to any military expence, that it is hard not +to believe the reason alleged to be merely popular, and the money +intended for some private purse. The order however was obeyed; the two +churches were stripped, and the lead was shipped to be sold in Holland. I +hope every reader will rejoice that this cargo of sacrilege was lost at +sea. + +Let us not however make too much haste to despise our neighbours. Our +own cathedrals are mouldering by unregarded dilapidation. It seems to be +part of the despicable philosophy of the time to despise monuments of +sacred magnificence, and we are in danger of doing that deliberately, +which the Scots did not do but in the unsettled state of an imperfect +constitution. + +Those who had once uncovered the cathedrals never wished to cover them +again; and being thus made useless, they were, first neglected, and +perhaps, as the stone was wanted, afterwards demolished. + +Elgin seems a place of little trade, and thinly inhabited. The episcopal +cities of Scotland, I believe, generally fell with their churches, though +some of them have since recovered by a situation convenient for commerce. +Thus Glasgow, though it has no longer an archbishop, has risen beyond its +original state by the opulence of its traders; and Aberdeen, though its +ancient stock had decayed, flourishes by a new shoot in another place. + +In the chief street of Elgin, the houses jut over the lowest story, like +the old buildings of timber in London, but with greater prominence; so +that there is sometimes a walk for a considerable length under a +cloister, or portico, which is now indeed frequently broken, because the +new houses have another form, but seems to have been uniformly continued +in the old city. + + + + +FORES. CALDER. FORT GEORGE + + +We went forwards the same day to Fores, the town to which Macbeth was +travelling, when he met the weird sisters in his way. This to an +Englishman is classic ground. Our imaginations were heated, and our +thoughts recalled to their old amusements. + +We had now a prelude to the Highlands. We began to leave fertility and +culture behind us, and saw for a great length of road nothing but heath; +yet at Fochabars, a seat belonging to the duke of Gordon, there is an +orchard, which in Scotland I had never seen before, with some timber +trees, and a plantation of oaks. + +At Fores we found good accommodation, but nothing worthy of particular +remark, and next morning entered upon the road, on which Macbeth heard +the fatal prediction; but we travelled on not interrupted by promises of +kingdoms, and came to Nairn, a royal burgh, which, if once it flourished, +is now in a state of miserable decay; but I know not whether its chief +annual magistrate has not still the title of Lord Provost. + +At Nairn we may fix the verge of the Highlands; for here I first saw peat +fires, and first heard the Erse language. We had no motive to stay +longer than to breakfast, and went forward to the house of Mr. Macaulay, +the minister who published an account of St. Kilda, and by his direction +visited Calder Castle, from which Macbeth drew his second title. It has +been formerly a place of strength. The drawbridge is still to be seen, +but the moat is now dry. The tower is very ancient: Its walls are of +great thickness, arched on the top with stone, and surrounded with +battlements. The rest of the house is later, though far from modern. + +We were favoured by a gentleman, who lives in the castle, with a letter +to one of the officers at Fort George, which being the most regular +fortification in the island, well deserves the notice of a traveller, who +has never travelled before. We went thither next day, found a very kind +reception, were led round the works by a gentleman, who explained the use +of every part, and entertained by Sir Eyre Coote, the governour, with +such elegance of conversation as left us no attention to the delicacies +of his table. + +Of Fort George I shall not attempt to give any account. I cannot +delineate it scientifically, and a loose and popular description is of +use only when the imagination is to be amused. There was every where an +appearance of the utmost neatness and regularity. But my suffrage is of +little value, because this and Fort Augustus are the only garrisons that +I ever saw. + +We did not regret the time spent at the fort, though in consequence of +our delay we came somewhat late to Inverness, the town which may properly +be called the capital of the Highlands. Hither the inhabitants of the +inland parts come to be supplied with what they cannot make for +themselves: Hither the young nymphs of the mountains and valleys are sent +for education, and as far as my observation has reached, are not sent in +vain. + + + + +INVERNESS + + +Inverness was the last place which had a regular communication by high +roads with the southern counties. All the ways beyond it have, I +believe, been made by the soldiers in this century. At Inverness +therefore Cromwell, when he subdued Scotland, stationed a garrison, as at +the boundary of the Highlands. The soldiers seem to have incorporated +afterwards with the inhabitants, and to have peopled the place with an +English race; for the language of this town has been long considered as +peculiarly elegant. + +Here is a castle, called the castle of Macbeth, the walls of which are +yet standing. It was no very capacious edifice, but stands upon a rock +so high and steep, that I think it was once not accessible, but by the +help of ladders, or a bridge. Over against it, on another hill, was a +fort built by Cromwell, now totally demolished; for no faction of +Scotland loved the name of Cromwell, or had any desire to continue his +memory. + +Yet what the Romans did to other nations, was in a great degree done by +Cromwell to the Scots; he civilized them by conquest, and introduced by +useful violence the arts of peace. I was told at Aberdeen that the +people learned from Cromwell's soldiers to make shoes and to plant kail. + +How they lived without kail, it is not easy to guess: They cultivate +hardly any other plant for common tables, and when they had not kail they +probably had nothing. The numbers that go barefoot are still sufficient +to shew that shoes may be spared: They are not yet considered as +necessaries of life; for tall boys, not otherwise meanly dressed, run +without them in the streets; and in the islands the sons of gentlemen +pass several of their first years with naked feet. + +I know not whether it be not peculiar to the Scots to have attained the +liberal, without the manual arts, to have excelled in ornamental +knowledge, and to have wanted not only the elegancies, but the +conveniences of common life. Literature soon after its revival found its +way to Scotland, and from the middle of the sixteenth century, almost to +the middle of the seventeenth, the politer studies were very diligently +pursued. The Latin poetry of _Deliciae Poetarum Scotorum_ would have +done honour to any nation, at least till the publication of _May's +Supplement_ the English had very little to oppose. + +Yet men thus ingenious and inquisitive were content to live in total +ignorance of the trades by which human wants are supplied, and to supply +them by the grossest means. Till the Union made them acquainted with +English manners, the culture of their lands was unskilful, and their +domestick life unformed; their tables were coarse as the feasts of +Eskimeaux, and their houses filthy as the cottages of Hottentots. + +Since they have known that their condition was capable of improvement, +their progress in useful knowledge has been rapid and uniform. What +remains to be done they will quickly do, and then wonder, like me, why +that which was so necessary and so easy was so long delayed. But they +must be for ever content to owe to the English that elegance and culture, +which, if they had been vigilant and active, perhaps the English might +have owed to them. + +Here the appearance of life began to alter. I had seen a few women with +plaids at Aberdeen; but at Inverness the Highland manners are common. +There is I think a kirk, in which only the Erse language is used. There +is likewise an English chapel, but meanly built, where on Sunday we saw a +very decent congregation. + +We were now to bid farewel to the luxury of travelling, and to enter a +country upon which perhaps no wheel has ever rolled. We could indeed +have used our post-chaise one day longer, along the military road to Fort +Augustus, but we could have hired no horses beyond Inverness, and we were +not so sparing of ourselves, as to lead them, merely that we might have +one day longer the indulgence of a carriage. + +At Inverness therefore we procured three horses for ourselves and a +servant, and one more for our baggage, which was no very heavy load. We +found in the course of our journey the convenience of having +disencumbered ourselves, by laying aside whatever we could spare; for it +is not to be imagined without experience, how in climbing crags, and +treading bogs, and winding through narrow and obstructed passages, a +little bulk will hinder, and a little weight will burthen; or how often a +man that has pleased himself at home with his own resolution, will, in +the hour of darkness and fatigue, be content to leave behind him every +thing but himself. + + + + +LOUGH NESS + + +We took two Highlanders to run beside us, partly to shew us the way, and +partly to take back from the sea-side the horses, of which they were the +owners. One of them was a man of great liveliness and activity, of whom +his companion said, that he would tire any horse in Inverness. Both of +them were civil and ready-handed. Civility seems part of the national +character of Highlanders. Every chieftain is a monarch, and politeness, +the natural product of royal government, is diffused from the laird +through the whole clan. But they are not commonly dexterous: their +narrowness of life confines them to a few operations, and they are +accustomed to endure little wants more than to remove them. + +We mounted our steeds on the thirtieth of August, and directed our guides +to conduct us to Fort Augustus. It is built at the head of Lough Ness, +of which Inverness stands at the outlet. The way between them has been +cut by the soldiers, and the greater part of it runs along a rock, +levelled with great labour and exactness, near the water-side. + +Most of this day's journey was very pleasant. The day, though bright, +was not hot; and the appearance of the country, if I had not seen the +Peak, would have been wholly new. We went upon a surface so hard and +level, that we had little care to hold the bridle, and were therefore at +full leisure for contemplation. On the left were high and steep rocks +shaded with birch, the hardy native of the North, and covered with fern +or heath. On the right the limpid waters of Lough Ness were beating +their bank, and waving their surface by a gentle agitation. Beyond them +were rocks sometimes covered with verdure, and sometimes towering in +horrid nakedness. Now and then we espied a little cornfield, which +served to impress more strongly the general barrenness. + +Lough Ness is about twenty-four miles long, and from one mile to two +miles broad. It is remarkable that Boethius, in his description of +Scotland, gives it twelve miles of breadth. When historians or +geographers exhibit false accounts of places far distant, they may be +forgiven, because they can tell but what they are told; and that their +accounts exceed the truth may be justly supposed, because most men +exaggerate to others, if not to themselves: but Boethius lived at no +great distance; if he never saw the lake, he must have been very +incurious, and if he had seen it, his veracity yielded to very slight +temptations. + +Lough Ness, though not twelve miles broad, is a very remarkable diffusion +of water without islands. It fills a large hollow between two ridges of +high rocks, being supplied partly by the torrents which fall into it on +either side, and partly, as is supposed, by springs at the bottom. Its +water is remarkably clear and pleasant, and is imagined by the natives to +be medicinal. We were told, that it is in some places a hundred and +forty fathoms deep, a profundity scarcely credible, and which probably +those that relate it have never sounded. Its fish are salmon, trout, and +pike. + +It was said at fort Augustus, that Lough Ness is open in the hardest +winters, though a lake not far from it is covered with ice. In +discussing these exceptions from the course of nature, the first question +is, whether the fact be justly stated. That which is strange is +delightful, and a pleasing error is not willingly detected. Accuracy of +narration is not very common, and there are few so rigidly philosophical, +as not to represent as perpetual, what is only frequent, or as constant, +what is really casual. If it be true that Lough Ness never freezes, it +is either sheltered by its high banks from the cold blasts, and exposed +only to those winds which have more power to agitate than congeal; or it +is kept in perpetual motion by the rush of streams from the rocks that +inclose it. Its profundity though it should be such as is represented +can have little part in this exemption; for though deep wells are not +frozen, because their water is secluded from the external air, yet where +a wide surface is exposed to the full influence of a freezing atmosphere, +I know not why the depth should keep it open. Natural philosophy is now +one of the favourite studies of the Scottish nation, and Lough Ness well +deserves to be diligently examined. + +The road on which we travelled, and which was itself a source of +entertainment, is made along the rock, in the direction of the lough, +sometimes by breaking off protuberances, and sometimes by cutting the +great mass of stone to a considerable depth. The fragments are piled in +a loose wall on either side, with apertures left at very short spaces, to +give a passage to the wintry currents. Part of it is bordered with low +trees, from which our guides gathered nuts, and would have had the +appearance of an English lane, except that an English lane is almost +always dirty. It has been made with great labour, but has this +advantage, that it cannot, without equal labour, be broken up. + +Within our sight there were goats feeding or playing. The mountains have +red deer, but they came not within view; and if what is said of their +vigilance and subtlety be true, they have some claim to that palm of +wisdom, which the eastern philosopher, whom Alexander interrogated, gave +to those beasts which live furthest from men. + +Near the way, by the water side, we espied a cottage. This was the first +Highland Hut that I had seen; and as our business was with life and +manners, we were willing to visit it. To enter a habitation without +leave, seems to be not considered here as rudeness or intrusion. The old +laws of hospitality still give this licence to a stranger. + +A hut is constructed with loose stones, ranged for the most part with +some tendency to circularity. It must be placed where the wind cannot +act upon it with violence, because it has no cement; and where the water +will run easily away, because it has no floor but the naked ground. The +wall, which is commonly about six feet high, declines from the +perpendicular a little inward. Such rafters as can be procured are then +raised for a roof, and covered with heath, which makes a strong and warm +thatch, kept from flying off by ropes of twisted heath, of which the +ends, reaching from the center of the thatch to the top of the wall, are +held firm by the weight of a large stone. No light is admitted but at +the entrance, and through a hole in the thatch, which gives vent to the +smoke. This hole is not directly over the fire, lest the rain should +extinguish it; and the smoke therefore naturally fills the place before +it escapes. Such is the general structure of the houses in which one of +the nations of this opulent and powerful island has been hitherto content +to live. Huts however are not more uniform than palaces; and this which +we were inspecting was very far from one of the meanest, for it was +divided into several apartments; and its inhabitants possessed such +property as a pastoral poet might exalt into riches. + +When we entered, we found an old woman boiling goats-flesh in a kettle. +She spoke little English, but we had interpreters at hand; and she was +willing enough to display her whole system of economy. She has five +children, of which none are yet gone from her. The eldest, a boy of +thirteen, and her husband, who is eighty years old, were at work in the +wood. Her two next sons were gone to Inverness to buy meal, by which +oatmeal is always meant. Meal she considered as expensive food, and told +us, that in Spring, when the goats gave milk, the children could live +without it. She is mistress of sixty goats, and I saw many kids in an +enclosure at the end of her house. She had also some poultry. By the +lake we saw a potatoe-garden, and a small spot of ground on which stood +four shucks, containing each twelve sheaves of barley. She has all this +from the labour of their own hands, and for what is necessary to be +bought, her kids and her chickens are sent to market. + +With the true pastoral hospitality, she asked us to sit down and drink +whisky. She is religious, and though the kirk is four miles off, +probably eight English miles, she goes thither every Sunday. We gave her +a shilling, and she begged snuff; for snuff is the luxury of a Highland +cottage. + +Soon afterwards we came to the General's Hut, so called because it was +the temporary abode of Wade, while he superintended the works upon the +road. It is now a house of entertainment for passengers, and we found it +not ill stocked with provisions. + + + + +FALL OF FIERS + + +Towards evening we crossed, by a bridge, the river which makes the +celebrated fall of Fiers. The country at the bridge strikes the +imagination with all the gloom and grandeur of Siberian solitude. The +way makes a flexure, and the mountains, covered with trees, rise at once +on the left hand and in the front. We desired our guides to shew us the +fall, and dismounting, clambered over very rugged crags, till I began to +wish that our curiosity might have been gratified with less trouble and +danger. We came at last to a place where we could overlook the river, +and saw a channel torn, as it seems, through black piles of stone, by +which the stream is obstructed and broken, till it comes to a very steep +descent, of such dreadful depth, that we were naturally inclined to turn +aside our eyes. + +But we visited the place at an unseasonable time, and found it divested +of its dignity and terror. Nature never gives every thing at once. A +long continuance of dry weather, which made the rest of the way easy and +delightful, deprived us of the pleasure expected from the fall of Fiers. +The river having now no water but what the springs supply, showed us only +a swift current, clear and shallow, fretting over the asperities of the +rocky bottom, and we were left to exercise our thoughts, by endeavouring +to conceive the effect of a thousand streams poured from the mountains +into one channel, struggling for expansion in a narrow passage, +exasperated by rocks rising in their way, and at last discharging all +their violence of waters by a sudden fall through the horrid chasm. + +The way now grew less easy, descending by an uneven declivity, but +without either dirt or danger. We did not arrive at Fort Augustus till +it was late. Mr. Boswell, who, between his father's merit and his own, +is sure of reception wherever he comes, sent a servant before to beg +admission and entertainment for that night. Mr. Trapaud, the governor, +treated us with that courtesy which is so closely connected with the +military character. He came out to meet us beyond the gates, and +apologized that, at so late an hour, the rules of a garrison suffered him +to give us entrance only at the postern. + + + + +FORT AUGUSTUS + + +In the morning we viewed the fort, which is much less than that of St. +George, and is said to be commanded by the neighbouring hills. It was +not long ago taken by the Highlanders. But its situation seems well +chosen for pleasure, if not for strength; it stands at the head of the +lake, and, by a sloop of sixty tuns, is supplied from Inverness with +great convenience. + +We were now to cross the Highlands towards the western coast, and to +content ourselves with such accommodations, as a way so little frequented +could afford. The journey was not formidable, for it was but of two +days, very unequally divided, because the only house, where we could be +entertained, was not further off than a third of the way. We soon came +to a high hill, which we mounted by a military road, cut in traverses, so +that as we went upon a higher stage, we saw the baggage following us +below in a contrary direction. To make this way, the rock has been hewn +to a level with labour that might have broken the perseverance of a Roman +legion. + +The country is totally denuded of its wood, but the stumps both of oaks +and firs, which are still found, shew that it has been once a forest of +large timber. I do not remember that we saw any animals, but we were +told that, in the mountains, there are stags, roebucks, goats and +rabbits. + +We did not perceive that this tract was possessed by human beings, except +that once we saw a corn field, in which a lady was walking with some +gentlemen. Their house was certainly at no great distance, but so +situated that we could not descry it. + +Passing on through the dreariness of solitude, we found a party of +soldiers from the fort, working on the road, under the superintendence of +a serjeant. We told them how kindly we had been treated at the garrison, +and as we were enjoying the benefit of their labours, begged leave to +shew our gratitude by a small present. + + + + +ANOCH + + +Early in the afternoon we came to Anoch, a village in Glenmollison of +three huts, one of which is distinguished by a chimney. Here we were to +dine and lodge, and were conducted through the first room, that had the +chimney, into another lighted by a small glass window. The landlord +attended us with great civility, and told us what he could give us to eat +and drink. I found some books on a shelf, among which were a volume or +more of Prideaux's Connection. + +This I mentioned as something unexpected, and perceived that I did not +please him. I praised the propriety of his language, and was answered +that I need not wonder, for he had learned it by grammar. + +By subsequent opportunities of observation, I found that my host's +diction had nothing peculiar. Those Highlanders that can speak English, +commonly speak it well, with few of the words, and little of the tone by +which a Scotchman is distinguished. Their language seems to have been +learned in the army or the navy, or by some communication with those who +could give them good examples of accent and pronunciation. By their +Lowland neighbours they would not willingly be taught; for they have long +considered them as a mean and degenerate race. These prejudices are +wearing fast away; but so much of them still remains, that when I asked a +very learned minister in the islands, which they considered as their most +savage clans: 'Those,' said he, 'that live next the Lowlands.' + +As we came hither early in the day, we had time sufficient to survey the +place. The house was built like other huts of loose stones, but the part +in which we dined and slept was lined with turf and wattled with twigs, +which kept the earth from falling. Near it was a garden of turnips and a +field of potatoes. It stands in a glen, or valley, pleasantly watered by +a winding river. But this country, however it may delight the gazer or +amuse the naturalist, is of no great advantage to its owners. Our +landlord told us of a gentleman, who possesses lands, eighteen Scotch +miles in length, and three in breadth; a space containing at least a +hundred square English miles. He has raised his rents, to the danger of +depopulating his farms, and he fells his timber, and by exerting every +art of augmentation, has obtained an yearly revenue of four hundred +pounds, which for a hundred square miles is three halfpence an acre. + +Some time after dinner we were surprised by the entrance of a young +woman, not inelegant either in mien or dress, who asked us whether we +would have tea. We found that she was the daughter of our host, and +desired her to make it. Her conversation, like her appearance, was +gentle and pleasing. We knew that the girls of the Highlands are all +gentlewomen, and treated her with great respect, which she received as +customary and due, and was neither elated by it, nor confused, but repaid +my civilities without embarassment, and told me how much I honoured her +country by coming to survey it. + +She had been at Inverness to gain the common female qualifications, and +had, like her father, the English pronunciation. I presented her with a +book, which I happened to have about me, and should not be pleased to +think that she forgets me. + +In the evening the soldiers, whom we had passed on the road, came to +spend at our inn the little money that we had given them. They had the +true military impatience of coin in their pockets, and had marched at +least six miles to find the first place where liquor could be bought. +Having never been before in a place so wild and unfrequented, I was glad +of their arrival, because I knew that we had made them friends, and to +gain still more of their good will, we went to them, where they were +carousing in the barn, and added something to our former gift. All that +we gave was not much, but it detained them in the barn, either merry or +quarrelling, the whole night, and in the morning they went back to their +work, with great indignation at the bad qualities of whisky. + +We had gained so much the favour of our host, that, when we left his +house in the morning, he walked by us a great way, and entertained us +with conversation both on his own condition, and that of the country. His +life seemed to be merely pastoral, except that he differed from some of +the ancient Nomades in having a settled dwelling. His wealth consists of +one hundred sheep, as many goats, twelve milk-cows, and twenty-eight +beeves ready for the drover. + +From him we first heard of the general dissatisfaction, which is now +driving the Highlanders into the other hemisphere; and when I asked him +whether they would stay at home, if they were well treated, he answered +with indignation, that no man willingly left his native country. Of the +farm, which he himself occupied, the rent had, in twenty-five years, been +advanced from five to twenty pounds, which he found himself so little +able to pay, that he would be glad to try his fortune in some other +place. Yet he owned the reasonableness of raising the Highland rents in +a certain degree, and declared himself willing to pay ten pounds for the +ground which he had formerly had for five. + +Our host having amused us for a time, resigned us to our guides. The +journey of this day was long, not that the distance was great, but that +the way was difficult. We were now in the bosom of the Highlands, with +full leisure to contemplate the appearance and properties of mountainous +regions, such as have been, in many countries, the last shelters of +national distress, and are every where the scenes of adventures, +stratagems, surprises and escapes. + +Mountainous countries are not passed but with difficulty, not merely from +the labour of climbing; for to climb is not always necessary: but because +that which is not mountain is commonly bog, through which the way must be +picked with caution. Where there are hills, there is much rain, and the +torrents pouring down into the intermediate spaces, seldom find so ready +an outlet, as not to stagnate, till they have broken the texture of the +ground. + +Of the hills, which our journey offered to the view on either side, we +did not take the height, nor did we see any that astonished us with their +loftiness. Towards the summit of one, there was a white spot, which I +should have called a naked rock, but the guides, who had better eyes, and +were acquainted with the phenomena of the country, declared it to be +snow. It had already lasted to the end of August, and was likely to +maintain its contest with the sun, till it should be reinforced by +winter. + +The height of mountains philosophically considered is properly computed +from the surface of the next sea; but as it affects the eye or +imagination of the passenger, as it makes either a spectacle or an +obstruction, it must be reckoned from the place where the rise begins to +make a considerable angle with the plain. In extensive continents the +land may, by gradual elevation, attain great height, without any other +appearance than that of a plane gently inclined, and if a hill placed +upon such raised ground be described, as having its altitude equal to the +whole space above the sea, the representation will be fallacious. + +These mountains may be properly enough measured from the inland base; for +it is not much above the sea. As we advanced at evening towards the +western coast, I did not observe the declivity to be greater than is +necessary for the discharge of the inland waters. + +We passed many rivers and rivulets, which commonly ran with a clear +shallow stream over a hard pebbly bottom. These channels, which seem so +much wider than the water that they convey would naturally require, are +formed by the violence of wintry floods, produced by the accumulation of +innumerable streams that fall in rainy weather from the hills, and +bursting away with resistless impetuosity, make themselves a passage +proportionate to their mass. + +Such capricious and temporary waters cannot be expected to produce many +fish. The rapidity of the wintry deluge sweeps them away, and the +scantiness of the summer stream would hardly sustain them above the +ground. This is the reason why in fording the northern rivers, no fishes +are seen, as in England, wandering in the water. + +Of the hills many may be called with Homer's Ida 'abundant in springs', +but few can deserve the epithet which he bestows upon Pelion by 'waving +their leaves.' They exhibit very little variety; being almost wholly +covered with dark heath, and even that seems to be checked in its growth. +What is not heath is nakedness, a little diversified by now and then a +stream rushing down the steep. An eye accustomed to flowery pastures and +waving harvests is astonished and repelled by this wide extent of +hopeless sterility. The appearance is that of matter incapable of form +or usefulness, dismissed by nature from her care and disinherited of her +favours, left in its original elemental state, or quickened only with one +sullen power of useless vegetation. + +It will very readily occur, that this uniformity of barrenness can afford +very little amusement to the traveller; that it is easy to sit at home +and conceive rocks and heath, and waterfalls; and that these journeys are +useless labours, which neither impregnate the imagination, nor enlarge +the understanding. It is true that of far the greater part of things, we +must content ourselves with such knowledge as description may exhibit, or +analogy supply; but it is true likewise, that these ideas are always +incomplete, and that at least, till we have compared them with realities, +we do not know them to be just. As we see more, we become possessed of +more certainties, and consequently gain more principles of reasoning, and +found a wider basis of analogy. + +Regions mountainous and wild, thinly inhabited, and little cultivated, +make a great part of the earth, and he that has never seen them, must +live unacquainted with much of the face of nature, and with one of the +great scenes of human existence. + +As the day advanced towards noon, we entered a narrow valley not very +flowery, but sufficiently verdant. Our guides told us, that the horses +could not travel all day without rest or meat, and intreated us to stop +here, because no grass would be found in any other place. The request +was reasonable and the argument cogent. We therefore willingly +dismounted and diverted ourselves as the place gave us opportunity. + +I sat down on a bank, such as a writer of Romance might have delighted to +feign. I had indeed no trees to whisper over my head, but a clear +rivulet streamed at my feet. The day was calm, the air soft, and all was +rudeness, silence, and solitude. Before me, and on either side, were +high hills, which by hindering the eye from ranging, forced the mind to +find entertainment for itself. Whether I spent the hour well I know not; +for here I first conceived the thought of this narration. + +We were in this place at ease and by choice, and had no evils to suffer +or to fear; yet the imaginations excited by the view of an unknown and +untravelled wilderness are not such as arise in the artificial solitude +of parks and gardens, a flattering notion of self-sufficiency, a placid +indulgence of voluntary delusions, a secure expansion of the fancy, or a +cool concentration of the mental powers. The phantoms which haunt a +desert are want, and misery, and danger; the evils of dereliction rush +upon the thoughts; man is made unwillingly acquainted with his own +weakness, and meditation shows him only how little he can sustain, and +how little he can perform. There were no traces of inhabitants, except +perhaps a rude pile of clods called a summer hut, in which a herdsman had +rested in the favourable seasons. Whoever had been in the place where I +then sat, unprovided with provisions and ignorant of the country, might, +at least before the roads were made, have wandered among the rocks, till +he had perished with hardship, before he could have found either food or +shelter. Yet what are these hillocks to the ridges of Taurus, or these +spots of wildness to the desarts of America? + +It was not long before we were invited to mount, and continued our +journey along the side of a lough, kept full by many streams, which with +more or less rapidity and noise, crossed the road from the hills on the +other hand. These currents, in their diminished state, after several dry +months, afford, to one who has always lived in level countries, an +unusual and delightful spectacle; but in the rainy season, such as every +winter may be expected to bring, must precipitate an impetuous and +tremendous flood. I suppose the way by which we went, is at that time +impassable. + + + + +GLENSHEALS + + +The lough at last ended in a river broad and shallow like the rest, but +that it may be passed when it is deeper, there is a bridge over it. +Beyond it is a valley called Glensheals, inhabited by the clan of Macrae. +Here we found a village called Auknasheals, consisting of many huts, +perhaps twenty, built all of dry-stone, that is, stones piled up without +mortar. + +We had, by the direction of the officers at Fort Augustus, taken bread +for ourselves, and tobacco for those Highlanders who might show us any +kindness. We were now at a place where we could obtain milk, but we must +have wanted bread if we had not brought it. The people of this valley +did not appear to know any English, and our guides now became doubly +necessary as interpreters. A woman, whose hut was distinguished by +greater spaciousness and better architecture, brought out some pails of +milk. The villagers gathered about us in considerable numbers, I believe +without any evil intention, but with a very savage wildness of aspect and +manner. When our meal was over, Mr. Boswell sliced the bread, and +divided it amongst them, as he supposed them never to have tasted a +wheaten loaf before. He then gave them little pieces of twisted tobacco, +and among the children we distributed a small handful of halfpence, which +they received with great eagerness. Yet I have been since told, that the +people of that valley are not indigent; and when we mentioned them +afterwards as needy and pitiable, a Highland lady let us know, that we +might spare our commiseration; for the dame whose milk we drank had +probably more than a dozen milk-cows. She seemed unwilling to take any +price, but being pressed to make a demand, at last named a shilling. +Honesty is not greater where elegance is less. One of the bystanders, as +we were told afterwards, advised her to ask for more, but she said a +shilling was enough. We gave her half a crown, and I hope got some +credit for our behaviour; for the company said, if our interpreters did +not flatter us, that they had not seen such a day since the old laird of +Macleod passed through their country. + +The Macraes, as we heard afterwards in the Hebrides, were originally an +indigent and subordinate clan, and having no farms nor stock, were in +great numbers servants to the Maclellans, who, in the war of Charles the +First, took arms at the call of the heroic Montrose, and were, in one of +his battles, almost all destroyed. The women that were left at home, +being thus deprived of their husbands, like the Scythian ladies of old, +married their servants, and the Macraes became a considerable race. + + + + +THE HIGHLANDS + + +As we continued our journey, we were at leisure to extend our +speculations, and to investigate the reason of those peculiarities by +which such rugged regions as these before us are generally distinguished. + +Mountainous countries commonly contain the original, at least the oldest +race of inhabitants, for they are not easily conquered, because they must +be entered by narrow ways, exposed to every power of mischief from those +that occupy the heights; and every new ridge is a new fortress, where the +defendants have again the same advantages. If the assailants either +force the strait, or storm the summit, they gain only so much ground; +their enemies are fled to take possession of the next rock, and the +pursuers stand at gaze, knowing neither where the ways of escape wind +among the steeps, nor where the bog has firmness to sustain them: besides +that, mountaineers have an agility in climbing and descending distinct +from strength or courage, and attainable only by use. + +If the war be not soon concluded, the invaders are dislodged by hunger; +for in those anxious and toilsome marches, provisions cannot easily be +carried, and are never to be found. The wealth of mountains is cattle, +which, while the men stand in the passes, the women drive away. Such +lands at last cannot repay the expence of conquest, and therefore perhaps +have not been so often invaded by the mere ambition of dominion; as by +resentment of robberies and insults, or the desire of enjoying in +security the more fruitful provinces. + +As mountains are long before they are conquered, they are likewise long +before they are civilized. Men are softened by intercourse mutually +profitable, and instructed by comparing their own notions with those of +others. Thus Caesar found the maritime parts of Britain made less +barbarous by their commerce with the Gauls. Into a barren and rough +tract no stranger is brought either by the hope of gain or of pleasure. +The inhabitants having neither commodities for sale, nor money for +purchase, seldom visit more polished places, or if they do visit them, +seldom return. + +It sometimes happens that by conquest, intermixture, or gradual +refinement, the cultivated parts of a country change their language. The +mountaineers then become a distinct nation, cut off by dissimilitude of +speech from conversation with their neighbours. Thus in Biscay, the +original Cantabrian, and in Dalecarlia, the old Swedish still subsists. +Thus Wales and the Highlands speak the tongue of the first inhabitants of +Britain, while the other parts have received first the Saxon, and in some +degree afterwards the French, and then formed a third language between +them. + +That the primitive manners are continued where the primitive language is +spoken, no nation will desire me to suppose, for the manners of +mountaineers are commonly savage, but they are rather produced by their +situation than derived from their ancestors. + +Such seems to be the disposition of man, that whatever makes a +distinction produces rivalry. England, before other causes of enmity +were found, was disturbed for some centuries by the contests of the +northern and southern counties; so that at Oxford, the peace of study +could for a long time be preserved only by chusing annually one of the +Proctors from each side of the Trent. A tract intersected by many ridges +of mountains, naturally divides its inhabitants into petty nations, which +are made by a thousand causes enemies to each other. Each will exalt its +own chiefs, each will boast the valour of its men, or the beauty of its +women, and every claim of superiority irritates competition; injuries +will sometimes be done, and be more injuriously defended; retaliation +will sometimes be attempted, and the debt exacted with too much interest. + +In the Highlands it was a law, that if a robber was sheltered from +justice, any man of the same clan might be taken in his place. This was +a kind of irregular justice, which, though necessary in savage times, +could hardly fail to end in a feud, and a feud once kindled among an idle +people with no variety of pursuits to divert their thoughts, burnt on for +ages either sullenly glowing in secret mischief, or openly blazing into +public violence. Of the effects of this violent judicature, there are +not wanting memorials. The cave is now to be seen to which one of the +Campbells, who had injured the Macdonalds, retired with a body of his own +clan. The Macdonalds required the offender, and being refused, made a +fire at the mouth of the cave, by which he and his adherents were +suffocated together. + +Mountaineers are warlike, because by their feuds and competitions they +consider themselves as surrounded with enemies, and are always prepared +to repel incursions, or to make them. Like the Greeks in their +unpolished state, described by Thucydides, the Highlanders, till lately, +went always armed, and carried their weapons to visits, and to church. + +Mountaineers are thievish, because they are poor, and having neither +manufactures nor commerce, can grow richer only by robbery. They +regularly plunder their neighbours, for their neighbours are commonly +their enemies; and having lost that reverence for property, by which the +order of civil life is preserved, soon consider all as enemies, whom they +do not reckon as friends, and think themselves licensed to invade +whatever they are not obliged to protect. + +By a strict administration of the laws, since the laws have been +introduced into the Highlands, this disposition to thievery is very much +represt. Thirty years ago no herd had ever been conducted through the +mountains, without paying tribute in the night, to some of the clans; but +cattle are now driven, and passengers travel without danger, fear, or +molestation. + +Among a warlike people, the quality of highest esteem is personal +courage, and with the ostentatious display of courage are closely +connected promptitude of offence and quickness of resentment. The +Highlanders, before they were disarmed, were so addicted to quarrels, +that the boys used to follow any publick procession or ceremony, however +festive, or however solemn, in expectation of the battle, which was sure +to happen before the company dispersed. + +Mountainous regions are sometimes so remote from the seat of government, +and so difficult of access, that they are very little under the influence +of the sovereign, or within the reach of national justice. Law is +nothing without power; and the sentence of a distant court could not be +easily executed, nor perhaps very safely promulgated, among men +ignorantly proud and habitually violent, unconnected with the general +system, and accustomed to reverence only their own lords. It has +therefore been necessary to erect many particular jurisdictions, and +commit the punishment of crimes, and the decision of right to the +proprietors of the country who could enforce their own decrees. It +immediately appears that such judges will be often ignorant, and often +partial; but in the immaturity of political establishments no better +expedient could be found. As government advances towards perfection, +provincial judicature is perhaps in every empire gradually abolished. + +Those who had thus the dispensation of law, were by consequence +themselves lawless. Their vassals had no shelter from outrages and +oppressions; but were condemned to endure, without resistance, the +caprices of wantonness, and the rage of cruelty. + +In the Highlands, some great lords had an hereditary jurisdiction over +counties; and some chieftains over their own lands; till the final +conquest of the Highlands afforded an opportunity of crushing all the +local courts, and of extending the general benefits of equal law to the +low and the high, in the deepest recesses and obscurest corners. + +While the chiefs had this resemblance of royalty, they had little +inclination to appeal, on any question, to superior judicatures. A claim +of lands between two powerful lairds was decided like a contest for +dominion between sovereign powers. They drew their forces into the +field, and right attended on the strongest. This was, in ruder times, +the common practice, which the kings of Scotland could seldom control. + +Even so lately as in the last years of King William, a battle was fought +at Mull Roy, on a plain a few miles to the south of Inverness, between +the clans of Mackintosh and Macdonald of Keppoch. Col. Macdonald, the +head of a small clan, refused to pay the dues demanded from him by +Mackintosh, as his superior lord. They disdained the interposition of +judges and laws, and calling each his followers to maintain the dignity +of the clan, fought a formal battle, in which several considerable men +fell on the side of Mackintosh, without a complete victory to either. +This is said to have been the last open war made between the clans by +their own authority. + +The Highland lords made treaties, and formed alliances, of which some +traces may still be found, and some consequences still remain as lasting +evidences of petty regality. The terms of one of these confederacies +were, that each should support the other in the right, or in the wrong, +except against the king. + +The inhabitants of mountains form distinct races, and are careful to +preserve their genealogies. Men in a small district necessarily mingle +blood by intermarriages, and combine at last into one family, with a +common interest in the honour and disgrace of every individual. Then +begins that union of affections, and co-operation of endeavours, that +constitute a clan. They who consider themselves as ennobled by their +family, will think highly of their progenitors, and they who through +successive generations live always together in the same place, will +preserve local stories and hereditary prejudices. Thus every Highlander +can talk of his ancestors, and recount the outrages which they suffered +from the wicked inhabitants of the next valley. + +Such are the effects of habitation among mountains, and such were the +qualities of the Highlanders, while their rocks secluded them from the +rest of mankind, and kept them an unaltered and discriminated race. They +are now losing their distinction, and hastening to mingle with the +general community. + + + + +GLENELG + + +We left Auknasheals and the Macraes its the afternoon, and in the evening +came to Ratiken, a high hill on which a road is cut, but so steep and +narrow, that it is very difficult. There is now a design of making +another way round the bottom. Upon one of the precipices, my horse, +weary with the steepness of the rise, staggered a little, and I called in +haste to the Highlander to hold him. This was the only moment of my +journey, in which I thought myself endangered. + +Having surmounted the hill at last, we were told that at Glenelg, on the +sea-side, we should come to a house of lime and slate and glass. This +image of magnificence raised our expectation. At last we came to our inn +weary and peevish, and began to inquire for meat and beds. + +Of the provisions the negative catalogue was very copious. Here was no +meat, no milk, no bread, no eggs, no wine. We did not express much +satisfaction. Here however we were to stay. Whisky we might have, and I +believe at last they caught a fowl and killed it. We had some bread, and +with that we prepared ourselves to be contented, when we had a very +eminent proof of Highland hospitality. Along some miles of the way, in +the evening, a gentleman's servant had kept us company on foot with very +little notice on our part. He left us near Glenelg, and we thought on +him no more till he came to us again, in about two hours, with a present +from his master of rum and sugar. The man had mentioned his company, and +the gentleman, whose name, I think, is Gordon, well knowing the penury of +the place, had this attention to two men, whose names perhaps he had not +heard, by whom his kindness was not likely to be ever repaid, and who +could be recommended to him only by their necessities. + +We were now to examine our lodging. Out of one of the beds, on which we +were to repose, started up, at our entrance, a man black as a Cyclops +from the forge. Other circumstances of no elegant recital concurred to +disgust us. We had been frighted by a lady at Edinburgh, with +discouraging representations of Highland lodgings. Sleep, however, was +necessary. Our Highlanders had at last found some hay, with which the +inn could not supply them. I directed them to bring a bundle into the +room, and slept upon it in my riding coat. Mr. Boswell being more +delicate, laid himself sheets with hay over and under him, and lay in +linen like a gentleman. + + + + +SKY. ARMIDEL + + +In the morning, September the second, we found ourselves on the edge of +the sea. Having procured a boat, we dismissed our Highlanders, whom I +would recommend to the service of any future travellers, and were ferried +over to the Isle of Sky. We landed at Armidel, where we were met on the +sands by Sir Alexander Macdonald, who was at that time there with his +lady, preparing to leave the island and reside at Edinburgh. + +Armidel is a neat house, built where the Macdonalds had once a seat, +which was burnt in the commotions that followed the Revolution. The +walled orchard, which belonged to the former house, still remains. It is +well shaded by tall ash trees, of a species, as Mr. Janes the fossilist +informed me, uncommonly valuable. This plantation is very properly +mentioned by Dr. Campbell, in his new account of the state of Britain, +and deserves attention; because it proves that the present nakedness of +the Hebrides is not wholly the fault of Nature. + +As we sat at Sir Alexander's table, we were entertained, according to the +ancient usage of the North, with the melody of the bagpipe. Everything +in those countries has its history. As the bagpiper was playing, an +elderly Gentleman informed us, that in some remote time, the Macdonalds +of Glengary having been injured, or offended by the inhabitants of +Culloden, and resolving to have justice or vengeance, came to Culloden on +a Sunday, where finding their enemies at worship, they shut them up in +the church, which they set on fire; and this, said he, is the tune that +the piper played while they were burning. + +Narrations like this, however uncertain, deserve the notice of the +traveller, because they are the only records of a nation that has no +historians, and afford the most genuine representation of the life and +character of the ancient Highlanders. + +Under the denomination of Highlander are comprehended in Scotland all +that now speak the Erse language, or retain the primitive manners, +whether they live among the mountains or in the islands; and in that +sense I use the name, when there is not some apparent reason for making a +distinction. + +In Sky I first observed the use of Brogues, a kind of artless shoes, +stitched with thongs so loosely, that though they defend the foot from +stones, they do not exclude water. Brogues were formerly made of raw +hides, with the hair inwards, and such are perhaps still used in rude and +remote parts; but they are said not to last above two days. Where life +is somewhat improved, they are now made of leather tanned with oak bark, +as in other places, or with the bark of birch, or roots of tormentil, a +substance recommended in defect of bark, about forty years ago, to the +Irish tanners, by one to whom the parliament of that kingdom voted a +reward. The leather of Sky is not completely penetrated by vegetable +matter, and therefore cannot be very durable. + +My inquiries about brogues, gave me an early specimen of Highland +information. One day I was told, that to make brogues was a domestick +art, which every man practised for himself, and that a pair of brogues +was the work of an hour. I supposed that the husband made brogues as the +wife made an apron, till next day it was told me, that a brogue-maker was +a trade, and that a pair would cost half a crown. It will easily occur +that these representations may both be true, and that, in some places, +men may buy them, and in others, make them for themselves; but I had both +the accounts in the same house within two days. + +Many of my subsequent inquiries upon more interesting topicks ended in +the like uncertainty. He that travels in the Highlands may easily +saturate his soul with intelligence, if he will acquiesce in the first +account. The Highlander gives to every question an answer so prompt and +peremptory, that skepticism itself is dared into silence, and the mind +sinks before the bold reporter in unresisting credulity; but, if a second +question be ventured, it breaks the enchantment; for it is immediately +discovered, that what was told so confidently was told at hazard, and +that such fearlessness of assertion was either the sport of negligence, +or the refuge of ignorance. + +If individuals are thus at variance with themselves, it can be no wonder +that the accounts of different men are contradictory. The traditions of +an ignorant and savage people have been for ages negligently heard, and +unskilfully related. Distant events must have been mingled together, and +the actions of one man given to another. These, however, are +deficiencies in story, for which no man is now to be censured. It were +enough, if what there is yet opportunity of examining were accurately +inspected, and justly represented; but such is the laxity of Highland +conversation, that the inquirer is kept in continual suspense, and by a +kind of intellectual retrogradation, knows less as he hears more. + +In the islands the plaid is rarely worn. The law by which the +Highlanders have been obliged to change the form of their dress, has, in +all the places that we have visited, been universally obeyed. I have +seen only one gentleman completely clothed in the ancient habit, and by +him it was worn only occasionally and wantonly. The common people do not +think themselves under any legal necessity of having coats; for they say +that the law against plaids was made by Lord Hardwicke, and was in force +only for his life: but the same poverty that made it then difficult for +them to change their clothing, hinders them now from changing it again. + +The fillibeg, or lower garment, is still very common, and the bonnet +almost universal; but their attire is such as produces, in a sufficient +degree, the effect intended by the law, of abolishing the dissimilitude +of appearance between the Highlanders and the other inhabitants of +Britain; and, if dress be supposed to have much influence, facilitates +their coalition with their fellow-subjects. + +What we have long used we naturally like, and therefore the Highlanders +were unwilling to lay aside their plaid, which yet to an unprejudiced +spectator must appear an incommodious and cumbersome dress; for hanging +loose upon the body, it must flutter in a quick motion, or require one of +the hands to keep it close. The Romans always laid aside the gown when +they had anything to do. It was a dress so unsuitable to war, that the +same word which signified a gown signified peace. The chief use of a +plaid seems to be this, that they could commodiously wrap themselves in +it, when they were obliged to sleep without a better cover. + +In our passage from Scotland to Sky, we were wet for the first time with +a shower. This was the beginning of the Highland winter, after which we +were told that a succession of three dry days was not to be expected for +many months. The winter of the Hebrides consists of little more than +rain and wind. As they are surrounded by an ocean never frozen, the +blasts that come to them over the water are too much softened to have the +power of congelation. The salt loughs, or inlets of the sea, which shoot +very far into the island, never have any ice upon them, and the pools of +fresh water will never bear the walker. The snow that sometimes falls, +is soon dissolved by the air, or the rain. + +This is not the description of a cruel climate, yet the dark months are +here a time of great distress; because the summer can do little more than +feed itself, and winter comes with its cold and its scarcity upon +families very slenderly provided. + + + + +CORIATACHAN IN SKY + + +The third or fourth day after our arrival at Armidel, brought us an +invitation to the isle of Raasay, which lies east of Sky. It is +incredible how soon the account of any event is propagated in these +narrow countries by the love of talk, which much leisure produces, and +the relief given to the mind in the penury of insular conversation by a +new topick. The arrival of strangers at a place so rarely visited, +excites rumour, and quickens curiosity. I know not whether we touched at +any corner, where Fame had not already prepared us a reception. + +To gain a commodious passage to Raasay, it was necessary to pass over a +large part of Sky. We were furnished therefore with horses and a guide. +In the Islands there are no roads, nor any marks by which a stranger may +find his way. The horseman has always at his side a native of the place, +who, by pursuing game, or tending cattle, or being often employed in +messages or conduct, has learned where the ridge of the hill has breadth +sufficient to allow a horse and his rider a passage, and where the moss +or bog is hard enough to bear them. The bogs are avoided as toilsome at +least, if not unsafe, and therefore the journey is made generally from +precipice to precipice; from which if the eye ventures to look down, it +sees below a gloomy cavity, whence the rush of water is sometimes heard. + +But there seems to be in all this more alarm than danger. The Highlander +walks carefully before, and the horse, accustomed to the ground, follows +him with little deviation. Sometimes the hill is too steep for the +horseman to keep his seat, and sometimes the moss is too tremulous to +bear the double weight of horse and man. The rider then dismounts, and +all shift as they can. + +Journies made in this manner are rather tedious than long. A very few +miles require several hours. From Armidel we came at night to +Coriatachan, a house very pleasantly situated between two brooks, with +one of the highest hills of the island behind it. It is the residence of +Mr. Mackinnon, by whom we were treated with very liberal hospitality, +among a more numerous and elegant company than it could have been +supposed easy to collect. + +The hill behind the house we did not climb. The weather was rough, and +the height and steepness discouraged us. We were told that there is a +cairne upon it. A cairne is a heap of stones thrown upon the grave of +one eminent for dignity of birth, or splendour of atchievements. It is +said that by digging, an urn is always found under these cairnes: they +must therefore have been thus piled by a people whose custom was to burn +the dead. To pile stones is, I believe, a northern custom, and to burn +the body was the Roman practice; nor do I know when it was that these two +acts of sepulture were united. + +The weather was next day too violent for the continuation of our journey; +but we had no reason to complain of the interruption. We saw in every +place, what we chiefly desired to know, the manners of the people. We +had company, and, if we had chosen retirement, we might have had books. + +I never was in any house of the Islands, where I did not find books in +more languages than one, if I staid long enough to want them, except one +from which the family was removed. Literature is not neglected by the +higher rank of the Hebridians. + +It need not, I suppose, be mentioned, that in countries so little +frequented as the Islands, there are no houses where travellers are +entertained for money. He that wanders about these wilds, either +procures recommendations to those whose habitations lie near his way, or, +when night and weariness come upon him, takes the chance of general +hospitality. If he finds only a cottage, he can expect little more than +shelter; for the cottagers have little more for themselves: but if his +good fortune brings him to the residence of a gentleman, he will be glad +of a storm to prolong his stay. There is, however, one inn by the sea- +side at Sconsor, in Sky, where the post-office is kept. + +At the tables where a stranger is received, neither plenty nor delicacy +is wanting. A tract of land so thinly inhabited, must have much wild- +fowl; and I scarcely remember to have seen a dinner without them. The +moorgame is every where to be had. That the sea abounds with fish, needs +not be told, for it supplies a great part of Europe. The Isle of Sky has +stags and roebucks, but no hares. They sell very numerous droves of oxen +yearly to England, and therefore cannot be supposed to want beef at home. +Sheep and goats are in great numbers, and they have the common domestick +fowls. + +But as here is nothing to be bought, every family must kill its own meat, +and roast part of it somewhat sooner than Apicius would prescribe. Every +kind of flesh is undoubtedly excelled by the variety and emulation of +English markets; but that which is not best may be yet very far from bad, +and he that shall complain of his fare in the Hebrides, has improved his +delicacy more than his manhood. + +Their fowls are not like those plumped for sale by the poulterers of +London, but they are as good as other places commonly afford, except that +the geese, by feeding in the sea, have universally a fishy rankness. + +These geese seem to be of a middle race, between the wild and domestick +kinds. They are so tame as to own a home, and so wild as sometimes to +fly quite away. + +Their native bread is made of oats, or barley. Of oatmeal they spread +very thin cakes, coarse and hard, to which unaccustomed palates are not +easily reconciled. The barley cakes are thicker and softer; I began to +eat them without unwillingness; the blackness of their colour raises some +dislike, but the taste is not disagreeable. In most houses there is +wheat flower, with which we were sure to be treated, if we staid long +enough to have it kneaded and baked. As neither yeast nor leaven are +used among them, their bread of every kind is unfermented. They make +only cakes, and never mould a loaf. + +A man of the Hebrides, for of the women's diet I can give no account, as +soon as he appears in the morning, swallows a glass of whisky; yet they +are not a drunken race, at least I never was present at much +intemperance; but no man is so abstemious as to refuse the morning dram, +which they call a skalk. + +The word whisky signifies water, and is applied by way of eminence to +strong water, or distilled liquor. The spirit drunk in the North is +drawn from barley. I never tasted it, except once for experiment at the +inn in Inverary, when I thought it preferable to any English malt brandy. +It was strong, but not pungent, and was free from the empyreumatick taste +or smell. What was the process I had no opportunity of inquiring, nor do +I wish to improve the art of making poison pleasant. + +Not long after the dram, may be expected the breakfast, a meal in which +the Scots, whether of the lowlands or mountains, must be confessed to +excel us. The tea and coffee are accompanied not only with butter, but +with honey, conserves, and marmalades. If an epicure could remove by a +wish, in quest of sensual gratifications, wherever he had supped he would +breakfast in Scotland. + +In the islands however, they do what I found it not very easy to endure. +They pollute the tea-table by plates piled with large slices of cheshire +cheese, which mingles its less grateful odours with the fragrance of the +tea. + +Where many questions are to be asked, some will be omitted. I forgot to +inquire how they were supplied with so much exotic luxury. Perhaps the +French may bring them wine for wool, and the Dutch give them tea and +coffee at the fishing season, in exchange for fresh provision. Their +trade is unconstrained; they pay no customs, for there is no officer to +demand them; whatever therefore is made dear only by impost, is obtained +here at an easy rate. + +A dinner in the Western Islands differs very little from a dinner in +England, except that in the place of tarts, there are always set +different preparations of milk. This part of their diet will admit some +improvement. Though they have milk, and eggs, and sugar, few of them +know how to compound them in a custard. Their gardens afford them no +great variety, but they have always some vegetables on the table. +Potatoes at least are never wanting, which, though they have not known +them long, are now one of the principal parts of their food. They are +not of the mealy, but the viscous kind. + +Their more elaborate cookery, or made dishes, an Englishman at the first +taste is not likely to approve, but the culinary compositions of every +country are often such as become grateful to other nations only by +degrees; though I have read a French author, who, in the elation of his +heart, says, that French cookery pleases all foreigners, but foreign +cookery never satisfies a Frenchman. + +Their suppers are, like their dinners, various and plentiful. The table +is always covered with elegant linen. Their plates for common use are +often of that kind of manufacture which is called cream coloured, or +queen's ware. They use silver on all occasions where it is common in +England, nor did I ever find the spoon of horn, but in one house. + +The knives are not often either very bright, or very sharp. They are +indeed instruments of which the Highlanders have not been long acquainted +with the general use. They were not regularly laid on the table, before +the prohibition of arms, and the change of dress. Thirty years ago the +Highlander wore his knife as a companion to his dirk or dagger, and when +the company sat down to meat, the men who had knives, cut the flesh into +small pieces for the women, who with their fingers conveyed it to their +mouths. + +There was perhaps never any change of national manners so quick, so +great, and so general, as that which has operated in the Highlands, by +the last conquest, and the subsequent laws. We came thither too late to +see what we expected, a people of peculiar appearance, and a system of +antiquated life. The clans retain little now of their original +character, their ferocity of temper is softened, their military ardour is +extinguished, their dignity of independence is depressed, their contempt +of government subdued, and the reverence for their chiefs abated. Of +what they had before the late conquest of their country, there remain +only their language and their poverty. Their language is attacked on +every side. Schools are erected, in which English only is taught, and +there were lately some who thought it reasonable to refuse them a version +of the holy scriptures, that they might have no monument of their mother- +tongue. + +That their poverty is gradually abated, cannot be mentioned among the +unpleasing consequences of subjection. They are now acquainted with +money, and the possibility of gain will by degrees make them industrious. +Such is the effect of the late regulations, that a longer journey than to +the Highlands must be taken by him whose curiosity pants for savage +virtues and barbarous grandeur. + + + + +RAASAY + + +At the first intermission of the stormy weather we were informed, that +the boat, which was to convey us to Raasay, attended us on the coast. We +had from this time our intelligence facilitated, and our conversation +enlarged, by the company of Mr. Macqueen, minister of a parish in Sky, +whose knowledge and politeness give him a title equally to kindness and +respect, and who, from this time, never forsook us till we were preparing +to leave Sky, and the adjacent places. + +The boat was under the direction of Mr. Malcolm Macleod, a gentleman of +Raasay. The water was calm, and the rowers were vigorous; so that our +passage was quick and pleasant. When we came near the island, we saw the +laird's house, a neat modern fabrick, and found Mr. Macleod, the +proprietor of the Island, with many gentlemen, expecting us on the beach. +We had, as at all other places, some difficulty in landing. The craggs +were irregularly broken, and a false step would have been very +mischievous. + +It seemed that the rocks might, with no great labour, have been hewn +almost into a regular flight of steps; and as there are no other landing +places, I considered this rugged ascent as the consequence of a form of +life inured to hardships, and therefore not studious of nice +accommodations. But I know not whether, for many ages, it was not +considered as a part of military policy, to keep the country not easily +accessible. The rocks are natural fortifications, and an enemy climbing +with difficulty, was easily destroyed by those who stood high above him. + +Our reception exceeded our expectations. We found nothing but civility, +elegance, and plenty. After the usual refreshments, and the usual +conversation, the evening came upon us. The carpet was then rolled off +the floor; the musician was called, and the whole company was invited to +dance, nor did ever fairies trip with greater alacrity. The general air +of festivity, which predominated in this place, so far remote from all +those regions which the mind has been used to contemplate as the mansions +of pleasure, struck the imagination with a delightful surprise, analogous +to that which is felt at an unexpected emersion from darkness into light. + +When it was time to sup, the dance ceased, and six and thirty persons sat +down to two tables in the same room. After supper the ladies sung Erse +songs, to which I listened as an English audience to an Italian opera, +delighted with the sound of words which I did not understand. + +I inquired the subjects of the songs, and was told of one, that it was a +love song, and of another, that it was a farewell composed by one of the +Islanders that was going, in this epidemical fury of emigration, to seek +his fortune in America. What sentiments would arise, on such an +occasion, in the heart of one who had not been taught to lament by +precedent, I should gladly have known; but the lady, by whom I sat, +thought herself not equal to the work of translating. + +Mr. Macleod is the proprietor of the islands of Raasay, Rona, and Fladda, +and possesses an extensive district in Sky. The estate has not, during +four hundred years, gained or lost a single acre. He acknowledges +Macleod of Dunvegan as his chief, though his ancestors have formerly +disputed the pre-eminence. + +One of the old Highland alliances has continued for two hundred years, +and is still subsisting between Macleod of Raasay and Macdonald of Sky, +in consequence of which, the survivor always inherits the arms of the +deceased; a natural memorial of military friendship. At the death of the +late Sir James Macdonald, his sword was delivered to the present laird of +Raasay. + +The family of Raasay consists of the laird, the lady, three sons and ten +daughters. For the sons there is a tutor in the house, and the lady is +said to be very skilful and diligent in the education of her girls. More +gentleness of manners, or a more pleasing appearance of domestick +society, is not found in the most polished countries. + +Raasay is the only inhabited island in Mr. Macleod's possession. Rona +and Fladda afford only pasture for cattle, of which one hundred and sixty +winter in Rona, under the superintendence of a solitary herdsman. + +The length of Raasay is, by computation, fifteen miles, and the breadth +two. These countries have never been measured, and the computation by +miles is negligent and arbitrary. We observed in travelling, that the +nominal and real distance of places had very little relation to each +other. Raasay probably contains near a hundred square miles. It affords +not much ground, notwithstanding its extent, either for tillage, or +pasture; for it is rough, rocky, and barren. The cattle often perish by +falling from the precipices. It is like the other islands, I think, +generally naked of shade, but it is naked by neglect; for the laird has +an orchard, and very large forest trees grow about his house. Like other +hilly countries it has many rivulets. One of the brooks turns a corn- +mill, and at least one produces trouts. + +In the streams or fresh lakes of the Islands, I have never heard of any +other fish than trouts and eels. The trouts, which I have seen, are not +large; the colour of their flesh is tinged as in England. Of their eels +I can give no account, having never tasted them; for I believe they are +not considered as wholesome food. + +It is not very easy to fix the principles upon which mankind have agreed +to eat some animals, and reject others; and as the principle is not +evident, it is not uniform. That which is selected as delicate in one +country, is by its neighbours abhorred as loathsome. The Neapolitans +lately refused to eat potatoes in a famine. An Englishman is not easily +persuaded to dine on snails with an Italian, on frogs with a Frenchman, +or on horseflesh with a Tartar. The vulgar inhabitants of Sky, I know +not whether of the other islands, have not only eels, but pork and bacon +in abhorrence, and accordingly I never saw a hog in the Hebrides, except +one at Dunvegan. + +Raasay has wild fowl in abundance, but neither deer, hares, nor rabbits. +Why it has them not, might be asked, but that of such questions there is +no end. Why does any nation want what it might have? Why are not spices +transplanted to America? Why does tea continue to be brought from China? +Life improves but by slow degrees, and much in every place is yet to do. +Attempts have been made to raise roebucks in Raasay, but without effect. +The young ones it is extremely difficult to rear, and the old can very +seldom be taken alive. + +Hares and rabbits might be more easily obtained. That they have few or +none of either in Sky, they impute to the ravage of the foxes, and have +therefore set, for some years past, a price upon their heads, which, as +the number was diminished, has been gradually raised, from three +shillings and sixpence to a guinea, a sum so great in this part of the +world, that, in a short time, Sky may be as free from foxes, as England +from wolves. The fund for these rewards is a tax of sixpence in the +pound, imposed by the farmers on themselves, and said to be paid with +great willingness. + +The beasts of prey in the Islands are foxes, otters, and weasels. The +foxes are bigger than those of England; but the otters exceed ours in a +far greater proportion. I saw one at Armidel, of a size much beyond that +which I supposed them ever to attain; and Mr. Maclean, the heir of Col, a +man of middle stature, informed me that he once shot an otter, of which +the tail reached the ground, when he held up the head to a level with his +own. I expected the otter to have a foot particularly formed for the art +of swimming; but upon examination, I did not find it differing much from +that of a spaniel. As he preys in the sea, he does little visible +mischief, and is killed only for his fur. White otters are sometimes +seen. + +In Raasay they might have hares and rabbits, for they have no foxes. Some +depredations, such as were never made before, have caused a suspicion +that a fox has been lately landed in the Island by spite or wantonness. +This imaginary stranger has never yet been seen, and therefore, perhaps, +the mischief was done by some other animal. It is not likely that a +creature so ungentle, whose head could have been sold in Sky for a +guinea, should be kept alive only to gratify the malice of sending him to +prey upon a neighbour: and the passage from Sky is wider than a fox would +venture to swim, unless he were chased by dogs into the sea, and perhaps +than his strength would enable him to cross. How beasts of prey came +into any islands is not easy to guess. In cold countries they take +advantage of hard winters, and travel over the ice: but this is a very +scanty solution; for they are found where they have no discoverable means +of coming. + +The corn of this island is but little. I saw the harvest of a small +field. The women reaped the Corn, and the men bound up the sheaves. The +strokes of the sickle were timed by the modulation of the harvest song, +in which all their voices were united. They accompany in the Highlands +every action, which can be done in equal time, with an appropriated +strain, which has, they say, not much meaning; but its effects are +regularity and cheerfulness. The ancient proceleusmatick song, by which +the rowers of gallies were animated, may be supposed to have been of this +kind. There is now an oar-song used by the Hebridians. + +The ground of Raasay seems fitter for cattle than for corn, and of black +cattle I suppose the number is very great. The Laird himself keeps a +herd of four hundred, one hundred of which are annually sold. Of an +extensive domain, which he holds in his own hands, he considers the sale +of cattle as repaying him the rent, and supports the plenty of a very +liberal table with the remaining product. + +Raasay is supposed to have been very long inhabited. On one side of it +they show caves, into which the rude nations of the first ages retreated +from the weather. These dreary vaults might have had other uses. There +is still a cavity near the house called the oar-cave, in which the +seamen, after one of those piratical expeditions, which in rougher times +were very frequent, used, as tradition tells, to hide their oars. This +hollow was near the sea, that nothing so necessary might be far to be +fetched; and it was secret, that enemies, if they landed, could find +nothing. Yet it is not very evident of what use it was to hide their +oars from those, who, if they were masters of the coast, could take away +their boats. + +A proof much stronger of the distance at which the first possessors of +this island lived from the present time, is afforded by the stone heads +of arrows which are very frequently picked up. The people call them Elf- +bolts, and believe that the fairies shoot them at the cattle. They +nearly resemble those which Mr. Banks has lately brought from the savage +countries in the Pacifick Ocean, and must have been made by a nation to +which the use of metals was unknown. + +The number of this little community has never been counted by its ruler, +nor have I obtained any positive account, consistent with the result of +political computation. Not many years ago, the late Laird led out one +hundred men upon a military expedition. The sixth part of a people is +supposed capable of bearing arms: Raasay had therefore six hundred +inhabitants. But because it is not likely, that every man able to serve +in the field would follow the summons, or that the chief would leave his +lands totally defenceless, or take away all the hands qualified for +labour, let it be supposed, that half as many might be permitted to stay +at home. The whole number will then be nine hundred, or nine to a square +mile; a degree of populousness greater than those tracts of desolation +can often show. They are content with their country, and faithful to +their chiefs, and yet uninfected with the fever of migration. + +Near the house, at Raasay, is a chapel unroofed and ruinous, which has +long been used only as a place of burial. About the churches, in the +Islands, are small squares inclosed with stone, which belong to +particular families, as repositories for the dead. At Raasay there is +one, I think, for the proprietor, and one for some collateral house. + +It is told by Martin, that at the death of the Lady of the Island, it has +been here the custom to erect a cross. This we found not to be true. The +stones that stand about the chapel at a small distance, some of which +perhaps have crosses cut upon them, are believed to have been not funeral +monuments, but the ancient boundaries of the sanctuary or consecrated +ground. + +Martin was a man not illiterate: he was an inhabitant of Sky, and +therefore was within reach of intelligence, and with no great difficulty +might have visited the places which he undertakes to describe; yet with +all his opportunities, he has often suffered himself to be deceived. He +lived in the last century, when the chiefs of the clans had lost little +of their original influence. The mountains were yet unpenetrated, no +inlet was opened to foreign novelties, and the feudal institution +operated upon life with their full force. He might therefore have +displayed a series of subordination and a form of government, which, in +more luminous and improved regions, have been long forgotten, and have +delighted his readers with many uncouth customs that are now disused, and +wild opinions that prevail no longer. But he probably had not knowledge +of the world sufficient to qualify him for judging what would deserve or +gain the attention of mankind. The mode of life which was familiar to +himself, he did not suppose unknown to others, nor imagined that he could +give pleasure by telling that of which it was, in his little country, +impossible to be ignorant. + +What he has neglected cannot now be performed. In nations, where there +is hardly the use of letters, what is once out of sight is lost for ever. +They think but little, and of their few thoughts, none are wasted on the +past, in which they are neither interested by fear nor hope. Their only +registers are stated observances and practical representations. For this +reason an age of ignorance is an age of ceremony. Pageants, and +processions, and commemorations, gradually shrink away, as better methods +come into use of recording events, and preserving rights. + +It is not only in Raasay that the chapel is unroofed and useless; through +the few islands which we visited, we neither saw nor heard of any house +of prayer, except in Sky, that was not in ruins. The malignant influence +of Calvinism has blasted ceremony and decency together; and if the +remembrance of papal superstition is obliterated, the monuments of papal +piety are likewise effaced. + +It has been, for many years, popular to talk of the lazy devotion of the +Romish clergy; over the sleepy laziness of men that erected churches, we +may indulge our superiority with a new triumph, by comparing it with the +fervid activity of those who suffer them to fall. + +Of the destruction of churches, the decay of religion must in time be the +consequence; for while the publick acts of the ministry are now performed +in houses, a very small number can be present; and as the greater part of +the Islanders make no use of books, all must necessarily live in total +ignorance who want the opportunity of vocal instruction. + +From these remains of ancient sanctity, which are every where to be +found, it has been conjectured, that, for the last two centuries, the +inhabitants of the Islands have decreased in number. This argument, +which supposes that the churches have been suffered to fall, only because +they were no longer necessary, would have some force, if the houses of +worship still remaining were sufficient for the people. But since they +have now no churches at all, these venerable fragments do not prove the +people of former times to have been more numerous, but to have been more +devout. If the inhabitants were doubled with their present principles, +it appears not that any provision for publick worship would be made. +Where the religion of a country enforces consecrated buildings, the +number of those buildings may be supposed to afford some indication, +however uncertain, of the populousness of the place; but where by a +change of manners a nation is contented to live without them, their decay +implies no diminution of inhabitants. + +Some of these dilapidations are said to be found in islands now +uninhabited; but I doubt whether we can thence infer that they were ever +peopled. The religion of the middle age, is well known to have placed +too much hope in lonely austerities. Voluntary solitude was the great +act of propitiation, by which crimes were effaced, and conscience was +appeased; it is therefore not unlikely, that oratories were often built +in places where retirement was sure to have no disturbance. + +Raasay has little that can detain a traveller, except the Laird and his +family; but their power wants no auxiliaries. Such a seat of +hospitality, amidst the winds and waters, fills the imagination with a +delightful contrariety of images. Without is the rough ocean and the +rocky land, the beating billows and the howling storm: within is plenty +and elegance, beauty and gaiety, the song and the dance. In Raasay, if I +could have found an Ulysses, I had fancied a Phoeacia. + + + + +DUNVEGAN + + +At Raasay, by good fortune, Macleod, so the chief of the clan is called, +was paying a visit, and by him we were invited to his seat at Dunvegan. +Raasay has a stout boat, built in Norway, in which, with six oars, he +conveyed us back to Sky. We landed at Port Re, so called, because James +the Fifth of Scotland, who had curiosity to visit the Islands, came into +it. The port is made by an inlet of the sea, deep and narrow, where a +ship lay waiting to dispeople Sky, by carrying the natives away to +America. + +In coasting Sky, we passed by the cavern in which it was the custom, as +Martin relates, to catch birds in the night, by making a fire at the +entrance. This practice is disused; for the birds, as is known often to +happen, have changed their haunts. + +Here we dined at a publick house, I believe the only inn of the island, +and having mounted our horses, travelled in the manner already described, +till we came to Kingsborough, a place distinguished by that name, because +the King lodged here when he landed at Port Re. We were entertained with +the usual hospitality by Mr. Macdonald and his lady, Flora Macdonald, a +name that will be mentioned in history, and if courage and fidelity be +virtues, mentioned with honour. She is a woman of middle stature, soft +features, gentle manners, and elegant presence. + +In the morning we sent our horses round a promontory to meet us, and +spared ourselves part of the day's fatigue, by crossing an arm of the +sea. We had at last some difficulty in coming to Dunvegan; for our way +led over an extensive moor, where every step was to be taken with +caution, and we were often obliged to alight, because the ground could +not be trusted. In travelling this watery flat, I perceived that it had +a visible declivity, and might without much expence or difficulty be +drained. But difficulty and expence are relative terms, which have +different meanings in different places. + +To Dunvegan we came, very willing to be at rest, and found our fatigue +amply recompensed by our reception. Lady Macleod, who had lived many +years in England, was newly come hither with her son and four daughters, +who knew all the arts of southern elegance, and all the modes of English +economy. Here therefore we settled, and did not spoil the present hour +with thoughts of departure. + +Dunvegan is a rocky prominence, that juts out into a bay, on the west +side of Sky. The house, which is the principal seat of Macleod, is +partly old and partly modern; it is built upon the rock, and looks upon +the water. It forms two sides of a small square: on the third side is +the skeleton of a castle of unknown antiquity, supposed to have been a +Norwegian fortress, when the Danes were masters of the Islands. It is so +nearly entire, that it might have easily been made habitable, were there +not an ominous tradition in the family, that the owner shall not long +outlive the reparation. The grandfather of the present Laird, in +defiance of prediction, began the work, but desisted in a little time, +and applied his money to worse uses. + +As the inhabitants of the Hebrides lived, for many ages, in continual +expectation of hostilities, the chief of every clan resided in a +fortress. This house was accessible only from the water, till the last +possessor opened an entrance by stairs upon the land. + +They had formerly reason to be afraid, not only of declared wars and +authorized invaders, or of roving pirates, which, in the northern seas, +must have been very common; but of inroads and insults from rival clans, +who, in the plenitude of feudal independence, asked no leave of their +Sovereign to make war on one another. Sky has been ravaged by a feud +between the two mighty powers of Macdonald and Macleod. Macdonald having +married a Macleod upon some discontent dismissed her, perhaps because she +had brought him no children. Before the reign of James the Fifth, a +Highland Laird made a trial of his wife for a certain time, and if she +did not please him, he was then at liberty to send her away. This +however must always have offended, and Macleod resenting the injury, +whatever were its circumstances, declared, that the wedding had been +solemnized without a bonfire, but that the separation should be better +illuminated; and raising a little army, set fire to the territories of +Macdonald, who returned the visit, and prevailed. + +Another story may show the disorderly state of insular neighbourhood. The +inhabitants of the Isle of Egg, meeting a boat manned by Macleods, tied +the crew hand and foot, and set them a-drift. Macleod landed upon Egg, +and demanded the offenders; but the inhabitants refusing to surrender +them, retreated to a cavern, into which they thought their enemies +unlikely to follow them. Macleod choked them with smoke, and left them +lying dead by families as they stood. + +Here the violence of the weather confined us for some time, not at all to +our discontent or inconvenience. We would indeed very willingly have +visited the Islands, which might be seen from the house scattered in the +sea, and I was particularly desirous to have viewed Isay; but the storms +did not permit us to launch a boat, and we were condemned to listen in +idleness to the wind, except when we were better engaged by listening to +the ladies. + +We had here more wind than waves, and suffered the severity of a tempest, +without enjoying its magnificence. The sea being broken by the multitude +of islands, does not roar with so much noise, nor beat the shore with +such foamy violence, as I have remarked on the coast of Sussex. Though, +while I was in the Hebrides, the wind was extremely turbulent, I never +saw very high billows. + +The country about Dunvegan is rough and barren. There are no trees, +except in the orchard, which is a low sheltered spot surrounded with a +wall. + +When this house was intended to sustain a siege, a well was made in the +court, by boring the rock downwards, till water was found, which though +so near to the sea, I have not heard mentioned as brackish, though it has +some hardness, or other qualities, which make it less fit for use; and +the family is now better supplied from a stream, which runs by the rock, +from two pleasing waterfalls. + +Here we saw some traces of former manners, and heard some standing +traditions. In the house is kept an ox's horn, hollowed so as to hold +perhaps two quarts, which the heir of Macleod was expected to swallow at +one draught, as a test of his manhood, before he was permitted to bear +arms, or could claim a seat among the men. It is held that the return of +the Laird to Dunvegan, after any considerable absence, produces a +plentiful capture of herrings; and that, if any woman crosses the water +to the opposite Island, the herrings will desert the coast. Boetius +tells the same of some other place. This tradition is not uniform. Some +hold that no woman may pass, and others that none may pass but a Macleod. + +Among other guests, which the hospitality of Dunvegan brought to the +table, a visit was paid by the Laird and Lady of a small island south of +Sky, of which the proper name is Muack, which signifies swine. It is +commonly called Muck, which the proprietor not liking, has endeavoured, +without effect, to change to Monk. It is usual to call gentlemen in +Scotland by the name of their possessions, as Raasay, Bernera, Loch Buy, +a practice necessary in countries inhabited by clans, where all that live +in the same territory have one name, and must be therefore discriminated +by some addition. This gentleman, whose name, I think, is Maclean, +should be regularly called Muck; but the appellation, which he thinks too +coarse for his Island, he would like still less for himself, and he is +therefore addressed by the title of, Isle of Muck. + +This little Island, however it be named, is of considerable value. It is +two English miles long, and three quarters of a mile broad, and +consequently contains only nine hundred and sixty English acres. It is +chiefly arable. Half of this little dominion the Laird retains in his +own hand, and on the other half, live one hundred and sixty persons, who +pay their rent by exported corn. What rent they pay, we were not told, +and could not decently inquire. The proportion of the people to the land +is such, as the most fertile countries do not commonly maintain. + +The Laird having all his people under his immediate view, seems to be +very attentive to their happiness. The devastation of the small-pox, +when it visits places where it comes seldom, is well known. He has +disarmed it of its terrour at Muack, by inoculating eighty of his people. +The expence was two shillings and sixpence a head. Many trades they +cannot have among them, but upon occasion, he fetches a smith from the +Isle of Egg, and has a tailor from the main land, six times a year. This +island well deserved to be seen, but the Laird's absence left us no +opportunity. + +Every inhabited island has its appendant and subordinate islets. Muck, +however small, has yet others smaller about it, one of which has only +ground sufficient to afford pasture for three wethers. + +At Dunvegan I had tasted lotus, and was in danger of forgetting that I +was ever to depart, till Mr. Boswell sagely reproached me with my +sluggishness and softness. I had no very forcible defence to make; and +we agreed to pursue our journey. Macleod accompanied us to Ulinish, +where we were entertained by the sheriff of the Island. + + + + +ULINISH + + +Mr. Macqueen travelled with us, and directed our attention to all that +was worthy of observation. With him we went to see an ancient building, +called a dun or borough. It was a circular inclosure, about forty-two +feet in diameter, walled round with loose stones, perhaps to the height +of nine feet. The walls were very thick, diminishing a little toward the +top, and though in these countries, stone is not brought far, must have +been raised with much labour. Within the great circle were several +smaller rounds of wall, which formed distinct apartments. Its date, and +its use are unknown. Some suppose it the original seat of the chiefs of +the Macleods. Mr. Macqueen thought it a Danish fort. + +The entrance is covered with flat stones, and is narrow, because it was +necessary that the stones which lie over it, should reach from one wall +to the other; yet, strait as the passage is, they seem heavier than could +have been placed where they now lie, by the naked strength of as many men +as might stand about them. They were probably raised by putting long +pieces of wood under them, to which the action of a long line of lifters +might be applied. Savages, in all countries, have patience proportionate +to their unskilfulness, and are content to attain their end by very +tedious methods. + +If it was ever roofed, it might once have been a dwelling, but as there +is no provision for water, it could not have been a fortress. In Sky, as +in every other place, there is an ambition of exalting whatever has +survived memory, to some important use, and referring it to very remote +ages. I am inclined to suspect, that in lawless times, when the +inhabitants of every mountain stole the cattle of their neighbour, these +inclosures were used to secure the herds and flocks in the night. When +they were driven within the wall, they might be easily watched, and +defended as long as could be needful; for the robbers durst not wait till +the injured clan should find them in the morning. + +The interior inclosures, if the whole building were once a house, were +the chambers of the chief inhabitants. If it was a place of security for +cattle, they were probably the shelters of the keepers. + +From the Dun we were conducted to another place of security, a cave +carried a great way under ground, which had been discovered by digging +after a fox. These caves, of which many have been found, and many +probably remain concealed, are formed, I believe, commonly by taking +advantage of a hollow, where banks or rocks rise on either side. If no +such place can be found, the ground must be cut away. The walls are made +by piling stones against the earth, on either side. It is then roofed by +larger stones laid across the cavern, which therefore cannot be wide. +Over the roof, turfs were placed, and grass was suffered to grow; and the +mouth was concealed by bushes, or some other cover. + +These caves were represented to us as the cabins of the first rude +inhabitants, of which, however, I am by no means persuaded. This was so +low, that no man could stand upright in it. By their construction they +are all so narrow, that two can never pass along them together, and being +subterraneous, they must be always damp. They are not the work of an age +much ruder than the present; for they are formed with as much art as the +construction of a common hut requires. I imagine them to have been +places only of occasional use, in which the Islander, upon a sudden +alarm, hid his utensils, or his cloaths, and perhaps sometimes his wife +and children. + +This cave we entered, but could not proceed the whole length, and went +away without knowing how far it was carried. For this omission we shall +be blamed, as we perhaps have blamed other travellers; but the day was +rainy, and the ground was damp. We had with us neither spades nor +pickaxes, and if love of ease surmounted our desire of knowledge, the +offence has not the invidiousness of singularity. + +Edifices, either standing or ruined, are the chief records of an +illiterate nation. In some part of this journey, at no great distance +from our way, stood a shattered fortress, of which the learned minister, +to whose communication we are much indebted, gave us an account. + +Those, said he, are the walls of a place of refuge, built in the time of +James the Sixth, by Hugh Macdonald, who was next heir to the dignity and +fortune of his chief. Hugh, being so near his wish, was impatient of +delay; and had art and influence sufficient to engage several gentlemen +in a plot against the Laird's life. Something must be stipulated on both +sides; for they would not dip their hands in blood merely for Hugh's +advancement. The compact was formerly written, signed by the +conspirators, and placed in the hands of one Macleod. + +It happened that Macleod had sold some cattle to a drover, who, not +having ready money, gave him a bond for payment. The debt was +discharged, and the bond re-demanded; which Macleod, who could not read, +intending to put into his hands, gave him the conspiracy. The drover, +when he had read the paper, delivered it privately to Macdonald; who, +being thus informed of his danger, called his friends together, and +provided for his safety. He made a public feast, and inviting Hugh +Macdonald and his confederates, placed each of them at the table between +two men of known fidelity. The compact of conspiracy was then shewn, and +every man confronted with his own name. Macdonald acted with great +moderation. He upbraided Hugh, both with disloyalty and ingratitude; but +told the rest, that he considered them as men deluded and misinformed. +Hugh was sworn to fidelity, and dismissed with his companions; but he was +not generous enough to be reclaimed by lenity; and finding no longer any +countenance among the gentlemen, endeavoured to execute the same design +by meaner hands. In this practice he was detected, taken to Macdonald's +castle, and imprisoned in the dungeon. When he was hungry, they let down +a plentiful meal of salted meat; and when, after his repast, he called +for drink, conveyed to him a covered cup, which, when he lifted the lid, +he found empty. From that time they visited him no more, but left him to +perish in solitude and darkness. + +We were then told of a cavern by the sea-side, remarkable for the +powerful reverberation of sounds. After dinner we took a boat, to +explore this curious cavity. The boatmen, who seemed to be of a rank +above that of common drudges, inquired who the strangers were, and being +told we came one from Scotland, and the other from England, asked if the +Englishman could recount a long genealogy. What answer was given them, +the conversation being in Erse, I was not much inclined to examine. + +They expected no good event of the voyage; for one of them declared that +he heard the cry of an English ghost. This omen I was not told till +after our return, and therefore cannot claim the dignity of despising it. + +The sea was smooth. We never left the shore, and came without any +disaster to the cavern, which we found rugged and misshapen, about one +hundred and eighty feet long, thirty wide in the broadest part, and in +the loftiest, as we guessed, about thirty high. It was now dry, but at +high water the sea rises in it near six feet. Here I saw what I had +never seen before, limpets and mussels in their natural state. But, as a +new testimony to the veracity of common fame, here was no echo to be +heard. + +We then walked through a natural arch in the rock, which might have +pleased us by its novelty, had the stones, which incumbered our feet, +given us leisure to consider it. We were shown the gummy seed of the +kelp, that fastens itself to a stone, from which it grows into a strong +stalk. + +In our return, we found a little boy upon the point of rock, catching +with his angle, a supper for the family. We rowed up to him, and +borrowed his rod, with which Mr. Boswell caught a cuddy. + +The cuddy is a fish of which I know not the philosophical name. It is +not much bigger than a gudgeon, but is of great use in these Islands, as +it affords the lower people both food, and oil for their lamps. Cuddies +are so abundant, at sometimes of the year, that they are caught like +whitebait in the Thames, only by dipping a basket and drawing it back. + +If it were always practicable to fish, these Islands could never be in +much danger from famine; but unhappily in the winter, when other +provision fails, the seas are commonly too rough for nets, or boats. + + + + +TALISKER IN SKY + + +From Ulinish, our next stage was to Talisker, the house of colonel +Macleod, an officer in the Dutch service, who, in this time of universal +peace, has for several years been permitted to be absent from his +regiment. Having been bred to physick, he is consequently a scholar, and +his lady, by accompanying him in his different places of residence, is +become skilful in several languages. Talisker is the place beyond all +that I have seen, from which the gay and the jovial seem utterly +excluded; and where the hermit might expect to grow old in meditation, +without possibility of disturbance or interruption. It is situated very +near the sea, but upon a coast where no vessel lands but when it is +driven by a tempest on the rocks. Towards the land are lofty hills +streaming with waterfalls. The garden is sheltered by firs or pines, +which grow there so prosperously, that some, which the present inhabitant +planted, are very high and thick. + +At this place we very happily met Mr. Donald Maclean, a young gentleman, +the eldest son of the Laird of Col, heir to a very great extent of land, +and so desirous of improving his inheritance, that he spent a +considerable time among the farmers of Hertfordshire, and Hampshire, to +learn their practice. He worked with his own hands at the principal +operations of agriculture, that he might not deceive himself by a false +opinion of skill, which, if he should find it deficient at home, he had +no means of completing. If the world has agreed to praise the travels +and manual labours of the Czar of Muscovy, let Col have his share of the +like applause, in the proportion of his dominions to the empire of +Russia. + +This young gentleman was sporting in the mountains of Sky, and when he +was weary with following his game, repaired for lodging to Talisker. At +night he missed one of his dogs, and when he went to seek him in the +morning, found two eagles feeding on his carcass. + +Col, for he must be named by his possessions, hearing that our intention +was to visit Jona, offered to conduct us to his chief, Sir Allan Maclean, +who lived in the isle of Inch Kenneth, and would readily find us a +convenient passage. From this time was formed an acquaintance, which +being begun by kindness, was accidentally continued by constraint; we +derived much pleasure from it, and I hope have given him no reason to +repent it. + +The weather was now almost one continued storm, and we were to snatch +some happy intermission to be conveyed to Mull, the third Island of the +Hebrides, lying about a degree south of Sky, whence we might easily find +our way to Inch Kenneth, where Sir Allan Maclean resided, and afterward +to Jona. + +For this purpose, the most commodious station that we could take was +Armidel, which Sir Alexander Macdonald had now left to a gentleman, who +lived there as his factor or steward. + +In our way to Armidel was Coriatachan, where we had already been, and to +which therefore we were very willing to return. We staid however so long +at Talisker, that a great part of our journey was performed in the gloom +of the evening. In travelling even thus almost without light thro' naked +solitude, when there is a guide whose conduct may be trusted, a mind not +naturally too much disposed to fear, may preserve some degree of +cheerfulness; but what must be the solicitude of him who should be +wandering, among the craggs and hollows, benighted, ignorant, and alone? + +The fictions of the Gothick romances were not so remote from credibility +as they are now thought. In the full prevalence of the feudal +institution, when violence desolated the world, and every baron lived in +a fortress, forests and castles were regularly succeeded by each other, +and the adventurer might very suddenly pass from the gloom of woods, or +the ruggedness of moors, to seats of plenty, gaiety, and magnificence. +Whatever is imaged in the wildest tale, if giants, dragons, and +enchantment be excepted, would be felt by him, who, wandering in the +mountains without a guide, or upon the sea without a pilot, should be +carried amidst his terror and uncertainty, to the hospitality and +elegance of Raasay or Dunvegan. + +To Coriatachan at last we came, and found ourselves welcomed as before. +Here we staid two days, and made such inquiries as curiosity suggested. +The house was filled with company, among whom Mr. Macpherson and his +sister distinguished themselves by their politeness and accomplishments. +By him we were invited to Ostig, a house not far from Armidel, where we +might easily hear of a boat, when the weather would suffer us to leave +the Island. + + + + +OSTIG IN SKY + + +At Ostig, of which Mr. Macpherson is minister, we were entertained for +some days, then removed to Armidel, where we finished our observations on +the island of Sky. + +As this Island lies in the fifty-seventh degree, the air cannot be +supposed to have much warmth. The long continuance of the sun above the +horizon, does indeed sometimes produce great heat in northern latitudes; +but this can only happen in sheltered places, where the atmosphere is to +a certain degree stagnant, and the same mass of air continues to receive +for many hours the rays of the sun, and the vapours of the earth. Sky +lies open on the west and north to a vast extent of ocean, and is cooled +in the summer by perpetual ventilation, but by the same blasts is kept +warm in winter. Their weather is not pleasing. Half the year is deluged +with rain. From the autumnal to the vernal equinox, a dry day is hardly +known, except when the showers are suspended by a tempest. Under such +skies can be expected no great exuberance of vegetation. Their winter +overtakes their summer, and their harvest lies upon the ground drenched +with rain. The autumn struggles hard to produce some of our early +fruits. I gathered gooseberries in September; but they were small, and +the husk was thick. + +Their winter is seldom such as puts a full stop to the growth of plants, +or reduces the cattle to live wholly on the surplusage of the summer. In +the year Seventy-one they had a severe season, remembered by the name of +the Black Spring, from which the island has not yet recovered. The snow +lay long upon the ground, a calamity hardly known before. Part of their +cattle died for want, part were unseasonably sold to buy sustenance for +the owners; and, what I have not read or heard of before, the kine that +survived were so emaciated and dispirited, that they did not require the +male at the usual time. Many of the roebucks perished. + +The soil, as in other countries, has its diversities. In some parts +there is only a thin layer of earth spread upon a rock, which bears +nothing but short brown heath, and perhaps is not generally capable of +any better product. There are many bogs or mosses of greater or less +extent, where the soil cannot be supposed to want depth, though it is too +wet for the plow. But we did not observe in these any aquatick plants. +The vallies and the mountains are alike darkened with heath. Some grass, +however, grows here and there, and some happier spots of earth are +capable of tillage. + +Their agriculture is laborious, and perhaps rather feeble than unskilful. +Their chief manure is seaweed, which, when they lay it to rot upon the +field, gives them a better crop than those of the Highlands. They heap +sea shells upon the dunghill, which in time moulder into a fertilising +substance. When they find a vein of earth where they cannot use it, they +dig it up, and add it to the mould of a more commodious place. + +Their corn grounds often lie in such intricacies among the craggs, that +there is no room for the action of a team and plow. The soil is then +turned up by manual labour, with an instrument called a crooked spade, of +a form and weight which to me appeared very incommodious, and would +perhaps be soon improved in a country where workmen could be easily found +and easily paid. It has a narrow blade of iron fixed to a long and heavy +piece of wood, which must have, about a foot and a half above the iron, a +knee or flexure with the angle downwards. When the farmer encounters a +stone which is the great impediment of his operations, he drives the +blade under it, and bringing the knee or angle to the ground, has in the +long handle a very forcible lever. + +According to the different mode of tillage, farms are distinguished into +long land and short land. Long land is that which affords room for a +plow, and short land is turned up by the spade. + +The grain which they commit to the furrows thus tediously formed, is +either oats or barley. They do not sow barley without very copious +manure, and then they expect from it ten for one, an increase equal to +that of better countries; but the culture is so operose that they content +themselves commonly with oats; and who can relate without compassion, +that after all their diligence they are to expect only a triple increase? +It is in vain to hope for plenty, when a third part of the harvest must +be reserved for seed. + +When their grain is arrived at the state which they must consider as +ripeness, they do not cut, but pull the barley: to the oats they apply +the sickle. Wheel carriages they have none, but make a frame of timber, +which is drawn by one horse with the two points behind pressing on the +ground. On this they sometimes drag home their sheaves, but often convey +them home in a kind of open panier, or frame of sticks upon the horse's +back. + +Of that which is obtained with so much difficulty, nothing surely ought +to be wasted; yet their method of clearing their oats from the husk is by +parching them in the straw. Thus with the genuine improvidence of +savages, they destroy that fodder for want of which their cattle may +perish. From this practice they have two petty conveniences. They dry +the grain so that it is easily reduced to meal, and they escape the theft +of the thresher. The taste contracted from the fire by the oats, as by +every other scorched substance, use must long ago have made grateful. The +oats that are not parched must be dried in a kiln. + +The barns of Sky I never saw. That which Macleod of Raasay had erected +near his house was so contrived, because the harvest is seldom brought +home dry, as by perpetual perflation to prevent the mow from heating. + +Of their gardens I can judge only from their tables. I did not observe +that the common greens were wanting, and suppose, that by choosing an +advantageous exposition, they can raise all the more hardy esculent +plants. Of vegetable fragrance or beauty they are not yet studious. Few +vows are made to Flora in the Hebrides. + +They gather a little hay, but the grass is mown late; and is so often +almost dry and again very wet, before it is housed, that it becomes a +collection of withered stalks without taste or fragrance; it must be +eaten by cattle that have nothing else, but by most English farmers would +be thrown away. + +In the Islands I have not heard that any subterraneous treasures have +been discovered, though where there are mountains, there are commonly +minerals. One of the rocks in Col has a black vein, imagined to consist +of the ore of lead; but it was never yet opened or essayed. In Sky a +black mass was accidentally picked up, and brought into the house of the +owner of the land, who found himself strongly inclined to think it a +coal, but unhappily it did not burn in the chimney. Common ores would be +here of no great value; for what requires to be separated by fire, must, +if it were found, be carried away in its mineral state, here being no +fewel for the smelting-house or forge. Perhaps by diligent search in +this world of stone, some valuable species of marble might be discovered. +But neither philosophical curiosity, nor commercial industry, have yet +fixed their abode here, where the importunity of immediate want supplied +but for the day, and craving on the morrow, has left little room for +excursive knowledge or the pleasing fancies of distant profit. + +They have lately found a manufacture considerably lucrative. Their rocks +abound with kelp, a sea-plant, of which the ashes are melted into glass. +They burn kelp in great quantities, and then send it away in ships, which +come regularly to purchase them. This new source of riches has raised +the rents of many maritime farms; but the tenants pay, like all other +tenants, the additional rent with great unwillingness; because they +consider the profits of the kelp as the mere product of personal labour, +to which the landlord contributes nothing. However, as any man may be +said to give, what he gives the power of gaining, he has certainly as +much right to profit from the price of kelp as of any thing else found or +raised upon his ground. + +This new trade has excited a long and eager litigation between Macdonald +and Macleod, for a ledge of rocks, which, till the value of kelp was +known, neither of them desired the reputation of possessing. + +The cattle of Sky are not so small as is commonly believed. Since they +have sent their beeves in great numbers to southern marts, they have +probably taken more care of their breed. At stated times the annual +growth of cattle is driven to a fair, by a general drover, and with the +money, which he returns to the farmer, the rents are paid. + +The price regularly expected, is from two to three pounds a head: there +was once one sold for five pounds. They go from the Islands very lean, +and are not offered to the butcher, till they have been long fatted in +English pastures. + +Of their black cattle, some are without horns, called by the Scots humble +cows, as we call a bee an humble bee, that wants a sting. Whether this +difference be specifick, or accidental, though we inquired with great +diligence, we could not be informed. We are not very sure that the bull +is ever without horns, though we have been told, that such bulls there +are. What is produced by putting a horned and unhorned male and female +together, no man has ever tried, that thought the result worthy of +observation. + +Their horses are, like their cows, of a moderate size. I had no +difficulty to mount myself commodiously by the favour of the gentlemen. I +heard of very little cows in Barra, and very little horses in Rum, where +perhaps no care is taken to prevent that diminution of size, which must +always happen, where the greater and the less copulate promiscuously, and +the young animal is restrained from growth by penury of sustenance. + +The goat is the general inhabitant of the earth, complying with every +difference of climate, and of soil. The goats of the Hebrides are like +others: nor did I hear any thing of their sheep, to be particularly +remarked. + +In the penury of these malignant regions, nothing is left that can be +converted to food. The goats and the sheep are milked like the cows. A +single meal of a goat is a quart, and of a sheep a pint. Such at least +was the account, which I could extract from those of whom I am not sure +that they ever had inquired. + +The milk of goats is much thinner than that of cows, and that of sheep is +much thicker. Sheeps milk is never eaten before it is boiled: as it is +thick, it must be very liberal of curd, and the people of St. Kilda form +it into small cheeses. + +The stags of the mountains are less than those of our parks, or forests, +perhaps not bigger than our fallow deer. Their flesh has no rankness, +nor is inferiour in flavour to our common venison. The roebuck I neither +saw nor tasted. These are not countries for a regular chase. The deer +are not driven with horns and hounds. A sportsman, with his gun in his +hand, watches the animal, and when he has wounded him, traces him by the +blood. + +They have a race of brinded greyhounds, larger and stronger than those +with which we course hares, and those are the only dogs used by them for +the chase. + +Man is by the use of fire-arms made so much an overmatch for other +animals, that in all countries, where they are in use, the wild part of +the creation sensibly diminishes. There will probably not be long, +either stags or roebucks in the Islands. All the beasts of chase would +have been lost long ago in countries well inhabited, had they not been +preserved by laws for the pleasure of the rich. + +There are in Sky neither rats nor mice, but the weasel is so frequent, +that he is heard in houses rattling behind chests or beds, as rats in +England. They probably owe to his predominance that they have no other +vermin; for since the great rat took possession of this part of the +world, scarce a ship can touch at any port, but some of his race are left +behind. They have within these few years began to infest the isle of +Col, where being left by some trading vessel, they have increased for +want of weasels to oppose them. + +The inhabitants of Sky, and of the other Islands, which I have seen, are +commonly of the middle stature, with fewer among them very tall or very +short, than are seen in England, or perhaps, as their numbers are small, +the chances of any deviation from the common measure are necessarily few. +The tallest men that I saw are among those of higher rank. In regions of +barrenness and scarcity, the human race is hindered in its growth by the +same causes as other animals. + +The ladies have as much beauty here as in other places, but bloom and +softness are not to be expected among the lower classes, whose faces are +exposed to the rudeness of the climate, and whose features are sometimes +contracted by want, and sometimes hardened by the blasts. Supreme beauty +is seldom found in cottages or work-shops, even where no real hardships +are suffered. To expand the human face to its full perfection, it seems +necessary that the mind should co-operate by placidness of content, or +consciousness of superiority. + +Their strength is proportionate to their size, but they are accustomed to +run upon rough ground, and therefore can with great agility skip over the +bog, or clamber the mountain. For a campaign in the wastes of America, +soldiers better qualified could not have been found. Having little work +to do, they are not willing, nor perhaps able to endure a long +continuance of manual labour, and are therefore considered as habitually +idle. + +Having never been supplied with those accommodations, which life +extensively diversified with trades affords, they supply their wants by +very insufficient shifts, and endure many inconveniences, which a little +attention would easily relieve. I have seen a horse carrying home the +harvest on a crate. Under his tail was a stick for a crupper, held at +the two ends by twists of straw. Hemp will grow in their islands, and +therefore ropes may be had. If they wanted hemp, they might make better +cordage of rushes, or perhaps of nettles, than of straw. + +Their method of life neither secures them perpetual health, nor exposes +them to any particular diseases. There are physicians in the Islands, +who, I believe, all practise chirurgery, and all compound their own +medicines. + +It is generally supposed, that life is longer in places where there are +few opportunities of luxury; but I found no instance here of +extraordinary longevity. A cottager grows old over his oaten cakes, like +a citizen at a turtle feast. He is indeed seldom incommoded by +corpulence. Poverty preserves him from sinking under the burden of +himself, but he escapes no other injury of time. Instances of long life +are often related, which those who hear them are more willing to credit +than examine. To be told that any man has attained a hundred years, +gives hope and comfort to him who stands trembling on the brink of his +own climacterick. + +Length of life is distributed impartially to very different modes of life +in very different climates; and the mountains have no greater examples of +age and health than the low lands, where I was introduced to two ladies +of high quality; one of whom, in her ninety-fourth year, presided at her +table with the full exercise of all her powers; and the other has +attained her eighty-fourth, without any diminution of her vivacity, and +with little reason to accuse time of depredations on her beauty. + +In the Islands, as in most other places, the inhabitants are of different +rank, and one does not encroach here upon another. Where there is no +commerce nor manufacture, he that is born poor can scarcely become rich; +and if none are able to buy estates, he that is born to land cannot +annihilate his family by selling it. This was once the state of these +countries. Perhaps there is no example, till within a century and half, +of any family whose estate was alienated otherwise than by violence or +forfeiture. Since money has been brought amongst them, they have found, +like others, the art of spending more than they receive; and I saw with +grief the chief of a very ancient clan, whose Island was condemned by law +to be sold for the satisfaction of his creditors. + +The name of highest dignity is Laird, of which there are in the extensive +Isle of Sky only three, Macdonald, Macleod, and Mackinnon. The Laird is +the original owner of the land, whose natural power must be very great, +where no man lives but by agriculture; and where the produce of the land +is not conveyed through the labyrinths of traffick, but passes directly +from the hand that gathers it to the mouth that eats it. The Laird has +all those in his power that live upon his farms. Kings can, for the most +part, only exalt or degrade. The Laird at pleasure can feed or starve, +can give bread, or withold it. This inherent power was yet strengthened +by the kindness of consanguinity, and the reverence of patriarchal +authority. The Laird was the father of the Clan, and his tenants +commonly bore his name. And to these principles of original command was +added, for many ages, an exclusive right of legal jurisdiction. + +This multifarious, and extensive obligation operated with force scarcely +credible. Every duty, moral or political, was absorbed in affection and +adherence to the Chief. Not many years have passed since the clans knew +no law but the Laird's will. He told them to whom they should be friends +or enemies, what King they should obey, and what religion they should +profess. + +When the Scots first rose in arms against the succession of the house of +Hanover, Lovat, the Chief of the Frasers, was in exile for a rape. The +Frasers were very numerous, and very zealous against the government. A +pardon was sent to Lovat. He came to the English camp, and the clan +immediately deserted to him. + +Next in dignity to the Laird is the Tacksman; a large taker or +lease-holder of land, of which he keeps part, as a domain, in his own +hand, and lets part to under tenants. The Tacksman is necessarily a man +capable of securing to the Laird the whole rent, and is commonly a +collateral relation. These tacks, or subordinate possessions, were long +considered as hereditary, and the occupant was distinguished by the name +of the place at which he resided. He held a middle station, by which the +highest and the lowest orders were connected. He paid rent and reverence +to the Laird, and received them from the tenants. This tenure still +subsists, with its original operation, but not with the primitive +stability. Since the islanders, no longer content to live, have learned +the desire of growing rich, an ancient dependent is in danger of giving +way to a higher bidder, at the expense of domestick dignity and +hereditary power. The stranger, whose money buys him preference, +considers himself as paying for all that he has, and is indifferent about +the Laird's honour or safety. The commodiousness of money is indeed +great; but there are some advantages which money cannot buy, and which +therefore no wise man will by the love of money be tempted to forego. + +I have found in the hither parts of Scotland, men not defective in +judgment or general experience, who consider the Tacksman as a useless +burden of the ground, as a drone who lives upon the product of an estate, +without the right of property, or the merit of labour, and who +impoverishes at once the landlord and the tenant. The land, say they, is +let to the Tacksman at sixpence an acre, and by him to the tenant at ten- +pence. Let the owner be the immediate landlord to all the tenants; if he +sets the ground at eight-pence, he will increase his revenue by a fourth +part, and the tenant's burthen will be diminished by a fifth. + +Those who pursue this train of reasoning, seem not sufficiently to +inquire whither it will lead them, nor to know that it will equally shew +the propriety of suppressing all wholesale trade, of shutting up the +shops of every man who sells what he does not make, and of extruding all +whose agency and profit intervene between the manufacturer and the +consumer. They may, by stretching their understandings a little wider, +comprehend, that all those who by undertaking large quantities of +manufacture, and affording employment to many labourers, make themselves +considered as benefactors to the publick, have only been robbing their +workmen with one hand, and their customers with the other. If Crowley +had sold only what he could make, and all his smiths had wrought their +own iron with their own hammers, he would have lived on less, and they +would have sold their work for more. The salaries of superintendents and +clerks would have been partly saved, and partly shared, and nails been +sometimes cheaper by a farthing in a hundred. But then if the smith +could not have found an immediate purchaser, he must have deserted his +anvil; if there had by accident at any time been more sellers than +buyers, the workmen must have reduced their profit to nothing, by +underselling one another; and as no great stock could have been in any +hand, no sudden demand of large quantities could have been answered and +the builder must have stood still till the nailer could supply him. + +According to these schemes, universal plenty is to begin and end in +universal misery. Hope and emulation will be utterly extinguished; and +as all must obey the call of immediate necessity, nothing that requires +extensive views, or provides for distant consequences will ever be +performed. + +To the southern inhabitants of Scotland, the state of the mountains and +the islands is equally unknown with that of Borneo or Sumatra: Of both +they have only heard a little, and guess the rest. They are strangers to +the language and the manners, to the advantages and wants of the people, +whose life they would model, and whose evils they would remedy. + +Nothing is less difficult than to procure one convenience by the +forfeiture of another. A soldier may expedite his march by throwing away +his arms. To banish the Tacksman is easy, to make a country plentiful by +diminishing the people, is an expeditious mode of husbandry; but little +abundance, which there is nobody to enjoy, contributes little to human +happiness. + +As the mind must govern the hands, so in every society the man of +intelligence must direct the man of labour. If the Tacksmen be taken +away, the Hebrides must in their present state be given up to grossness +and ignorance; the tenant, for want of instruction, will be unskilful, +and for want of admonition will be negligent. The Laird in these wide +estates, which often consist of islands remote from one another, cannot +extend his personal influence to all his tenants; and the steward having +no dignity annexed to his character, can have little authority among men +taught to pay reverence only to birth, and who regard the Tacksman as +their hereditary superior; nor can the steward have equal zeal for the +prosperity of an estate profitable only to the Laird, with the Tacksman, +who has the Laird's income involved in his own. + +The only gentlemen in the Islands are the Lairds, the Tacksmen, and the +Ministers, who frequently improve their livings by becoming farmers. If +the Tacksmen be banished, who will be left to impart knowledge, or +impress civility? The Laird must always be at a distance from the +greater part of his lands; and if he resides at all upon them, must drag +his days in solitude, having no longer either a friend or a companion; he +will therefore depart to some more comfortable residence, and leave the +tenants to the wisdom and mercy of a factor. + +Of tenants there are different orders, as they have greater or less +stock. Land is sometimes leased to a small fellowship, who live in a +cluster of huts, called a Tenants Town, and are bound jointly and +separately for the payment of their rent. These, I believe, employ in +the care of their cattle, and the labour of tillage, a kind of tenants +yet lower; who having a hut with grass for a certain number of cows and +sheep, pay their rent by a stipulated quantity of labour. + +The condition of domestick servants, or the price of occasional labour, I +do not know with certainty. I was told that the maids have sheep, and +are allowed to spin for their own clothing; perhaps they have no +pecuniary wages, or none but in very wealthy families. The state of +life, which has hitherto been purely pastoral, begins now to be a little +variegated with commerce; but novelties enter by degrees, and till one +mode has fully prevailed over the other, no settled notion can be formed. + +Such is the system of insular subordination, which, having little +variety, cannot afford much delight in the view, nor long detain the mind +in contemplation. The inhabitants were for a long time perhaps not +unhappy; but their content was a muddy mixture of pride and ignorance, an +indifference for pleasures which they did not know, a blind veneration +for their chiefs, and a strong conviction of their own importance. + +Their pride has been crushed by the heavy hand of a vindictive conqueror, +whose seventies have been followed by laws, which, though they cannot be +called cruel, have produced much discontent, because they operate upon +the surface of life, and make every eye bear witness to subjection. To +be compelled to a new dress has always been found painful. + +Their Chiefs being now deprived of their jurisdiction, have already lost +much of their influence; and as they gradually degenerate from +patriarchal rulers to rapacious landlords, they will divest themselves of +the little that remains. + +That dignity which they derived from an opinion of their military +importance, the law, which disarmed them, has abated. An old gentleman, +delighting himself with the recollection of better days, related, that +forty years ago, a Chieftain walked out attended by ten or twelve +followers, with their arms rattling. That animating rabble has now +ceased. The Chief has lost his formidable retinue; and the Highlander +walks his heath unarmed and defenceless, with the peaceable submission of +a French peasant or English cottager. + +Their ignorance grows every day less, but their knowledge is yet of +little other use than to shew them their wants. They are now in the +period of education, and feel the uneasiness of discipline, without yet +perceiving the benefit of instruction. + +The last law, by which the Highlanders are deprived of their arms, has +operated with efficacy beyond expectation. Of former statutes made with +the same design, the execution had been feeble, and the effect +inconsiderable. Concealment was undoubtedly practised, and perhaps often +with connivance. There was tenderness, or partiality, on one side, and +obstinacy on the other. But the law, which followed the victory of +Culloden, found the whole nation dejected and intimidated; informations +were given without danger, and without fear, and the arms were collected +with such rigour, that every house was despoiled of its defence. + +To disarm part of the Highlands, could give no reasonable occasion of +complaint. Every government must be allowed the power of taking away the +weapon that is lifted against it. But the loyal clans murmured, with +some appearance of justice, that after having defended the King, they +were forbidden for the future to defend themselves; and that the sword +should be forfeited, which had been legally employed. Their case is +undoubtedly hard, but in political regulations, good cannot be complete, +it can only be predominant. + +Whether by disarming a people thus broken into several tribes, and thus +remote from the seat of power, more good than evil has been produced, may +deserve inquiry. The supreme power in every community has the right of +debarring every individual, and every subordinate society from +self-defence, only because the supreme power is able to defend them; and +therefore where the governor cannot act, he must trust the subject to act +for himself. These Islands might be wasted with fire and sword before +their sovereign would know their distress. A gang of robbers, such as +has been lately found confederating themselves in the Highlands, might +lay a wide region under contribution. The crew of a petty privateer +might land on the largest and most wealthy of the Islands, and riot +without control in cruelty and waste. It was observed by one of the +Chiefs of Sky, that fifty armed men might, without resistance ravage the +country. Laws that place the subjects in such a state, contravene the +first principles of the compact of authority: they exact obedience, and +yield no protection. + +It affords a generous and manly pleasure to conceive a little nation +gathering its fruits and tending its herds with fearless confidence, +though it lies open on every side to invasion, where, in contempt of +walls and trenches, every man sleeps securely with his sword beside him; +where all on the first approach of hostility came together at the call to +battle, as at a summons to a festal show; and committing their cattle to +the care of those whom age or nature has disabled, engage the enemy with +that competition for hazard and for glory, which operate in men that +fight under the eye of those, whose dislike or kindness they have always +considered as the greatest evil or the greatest good. + +This was, in the beginning of the present century, the state of the +Highlands. Every man was a soldier, who partook of national confidence, +and interested himself in national honour. To lose this spirit, is to +lose what no small advantage will compensate. + +It may likewise deserve to be inquired, whether a great nation ought to +be totally commercial? whether amidst the uncertainty of human affairs, +too much attention to one mode of happiness may not endanger others? +whether the pride of riches must not sometimes have recourse to the +protection of courage? and whether, if it be necessary to preserve in +some part of the empire the military spirit, it can subsist more +commodiously in any place, than in remote and unprofitable provinces, +where it can commonly do little harm, and whence it may be called forth +at any sudden exigence? + +It must however be confessed, that a man, who places honour only in +successful violence, is a very troublesome and pernicious animal in time +of peace; and that the martial character cannot prevail in a whole +people, but by the diminution of all other virtues. He that is +accustomed to resolve all right into conquest, will have very little +tenderness or equity. All the friendship in such a life can be only a +confederacy of invasion, or alliance of defence. The strong must +flourish by force, and the weak subsist by stratagem. + +Till the Highlanders lost their ferocity, with their arms, they suffered +from each other all that malignity could dictate, or precipitance could +act. Every provocation was revenged with blood, and no man that ventured +into a numerous company, by whatever occasion brought together, was sure +of returning without a wound. If they are now exposed to foreign +hostilities, they may talk of the danger, but can seldom feel it. If +they are no longer martial, they are no longer quarrelsome. Misery is +caused for the most part, not by a heavy crush of disaster, but by the +corrosion of less visible evils, which canker enjoyment, and undermine +security. The visit of an invader is necessarily rare, but domestick +animosities allow no cessation. + +The abolition of the local jurisdictions, which had for so many ages been +exercised by the chiefs, has likewise its evil and its good. The feudal +constitution naturally diffused itself into long ramifications of +subordinate authority. To this general temper of the government was +added the peculiar form of the country, broken by mountains into many +subdivisions scarcely accessible but to the natives, and guarded by +passes, or perplexed with intricacies, through which national justice +could not find its way. + +The power of deciding controversies, and of punishing offences, as some +such power there must always be, was intrusted to the Lairds of the +country, to those whom the people considered as their natural judges. It +cannot be supposed that a rugged proprietor of the rocks, unprincipled +and unenlightened, was a nice resolver of entangled claims, or very exact +in proportioning punishment to offences. But the more he indulged his +own will, the more he held his vassals in dependence. Prudence and +innocence, without the favour of the Chief, conferred no security; and +crimes involved no danger, when the judge was resolute to acquit. + +When the chiefs were men of knowledge and virtue, the convenience of a +domestick judicature was great. No long journies were necessary, nor +artificial delays could be practised; the character, the alliances, and +interests of the litigants were known to the court, and all false +pretences were easily detected. The sentence, when it was past, could +not be evaded; the power of the Laird superseded formalities, and justice +could not be defeated by interest or stratagem. + +I doubt not but that since the regular judges have made their circuits +through the whole country, right has been every where more wisely, and +more equally distributed; the complaint is, that litigation is grown +troublesome, and that the magistrates are too few, and therefore often +too remote for general convenience. + +Many of the smaller Islands have no legal officer within them. I once +asked, If a crime should be committed, by what authority the offender +could be seized? and was told, that the Laird would exert his right; a +right which he must now usurp, but which surely necessity must vindicate, +and which is therefore yet exercised in lower degrees, by some of the +proprietors, when legal processes cannot be obtained. + +In all greater questions, however, there is now happily an end to all +fear or hope from malice or from favour. The roads are secure in those +places through which, forty years ago, no traveller could pass without a +convoy. All trials of right by the sword are forgotten, and the mean are +in as little danger from the powerful as in other places. No scheme of +policy has, in any country, yet brought the rich and poor on equal terms +into courts of judicature. Perhaps experience, improving on experience, +may in time effect it. + +Those who have long enjoyed dignity and power, ought not to lose it +without some equivalent. There was paid to the Chiefs by the publick, in +exchange for their privileges, perhaps a sum greater than most of them +had ever possessed, which excited a thirst for riches, of which it shewed +them the use. When the power of birth and station ceases, no hope +remains but from the prevalence of money. Power and wealth supply the +place of each other. Power confers the ability of gratifying our desire +without the consent of others. Wealth enables us to obtain the consent +of others to our gratification. Power, simply considered, whatever it +confers on one, must take from another. Wealth enables its owner to give +to others, by taking only from himself. Power pleases the violent and +proud: wealth delights the placid and the timorous. Youth therefore +flies at power, and age grovels after riches. + +The Chiefs, divested of their prerogatives, necessarily turned their +thoughts to the improvement of their revenues, and expect more rent, as +they have less homage. The tenant, who is far from perceiving that his +condition is made better in the same proportion, as that of his landlord +is made worse, does not immediately see why his industry is to be taxed +more heavily than before. He refuses to pay the demand, and is ejected; +the ground is then let to a stranger, who perhaps brings a larger stock, +but who, taking the land at its full price, treats with the Laird upon +equal terms, and considers him not as a Chief, but as a trafficker in +land. Thus the estate perhaps is improved, but the clan is broken. + +It seems to be the general opinion, that the rents have been raised with +too much eagerness. Some regard must be paid to prejudice. Those who +have hitherto paid but little, will not suddenly be persuaded to pay +much, though they can afford it. As ground is gradually improved, and +the value of money decreases, the rent may be raised without any +diminution of the farmer's profits: yet it is necessary in these +countries, where the ejection of a tenant is a greater evil, than in more +populous places, to consider not merely what the land will produce, but +with what ability the inhabitant can cultivate it. A certain stock can +allow but a certain payment; for if the land be doubled, and the stock +remains the same, the tenant becomes no richer. The proprietors of the +Highlands might perhaps often increase their income, by subdividing the +farms, and allotting to every occupier only so many acres as he can +profitably employ, but that they want people. + +There seems now, whatever be the cause, to be through a great part of the +Highlands a general discontent. That adherence, which was lately +professed by every man to the chief of his name, has now little +prevalence; and he that cannot live as he desires at home, listens to the +tale of fortunate islands, and happy regions, where every man may have +land of his own, and eat the product of his labour without a superior. + +Those who have obtained grants of American lands, have, as is well known, +invited settlers from all quarters of the globe; and among other places, +where oppression might produce a wish for new habitations, their +emissaries would not fail to try their persuasions in the Isles of +Scotland, where at the time when the clans were newly disunited from +their Chiefs, and exasperated by unprecedented exactions, it is no wonder +that they prevailed. + +Whether the mischiefs of emigration were immediately perceived, may be +justly questioned. They who went first, were probably such as could best +be spared; but the accounts sent by the earliest adventurers, whether +true or false, inclined many to follow them; and whole neighbourhoods +formed parties for removal; so that departure from their native country +is no longer exile. He that goes thus accompanied, carries with him all +that makes life pleasant. He sits down in a better climate, surrounded +by his kindred and his friends: they carry with them their language, +their opinions, their popular songs, and hereditary merriment: they +change nothing but the place of their abode; and of that change they +perceive the benefit. + +This is the real effect of emigration, if those that go away together +settle on the same spot, and preserve their ancient union. But some +relate that these adventurous visitants of unknown regions, after a +voyage passed in dreams of plenty and felicity, are dispersed at last +upon a Sylvan wilderness, where their first years must be spent in toil, +to clear the ground which is afterwards to be tilled, and that the whole +effect of their undertakings is only more fatigue and equal scarcity. + +Both accounts may be suspected. Those who are gone will endeavour by +every art to draw others after them; for as their numbers are greater, +they will provide better for themselves. When Nova Scotia was first +peopled, I remember a letter, published under the character of a New +Planter, who related how much the climate put him in mind of Italy. Such +intelligence the Hebridians probably receive from their transmarine +correspondents. But with equal temptations of interest, and perhaps with +no greater niceness of veracity, the owners of the Islands spread stories +of American hardships to keep their people content at home. + +Some method to stop this epidemick desire of wandering, which spreads its +contagion from valley to valley, deserves to be sought with great +diligence. In more fruitful countries, the removal of one only makes +room for the succession of another: but in the Hebrides, the loss of an +inhabitant leaves a lasting vacuity; for nobody born in any other parts +of the world will choose this country for his residence, and an Island +once depopulated will remain a desert, as long as the present facility of +travel gives every one, who is discontented and unsettled, the choice of +his abode. + +Let it be inquired, whether the first intention of those who are +fluttering on the wing, and collecting a flock that they may take their +flight, be to attain good, or to avoid evil. If they are dissatisfied +with that part of the globe, which their birth has allotted them, and +resolve not to live without the pleasures of happier climates; if they +long for bright suns, and calm skies, and flowery fields, and fragrant +gardens, I know not by what eloquence they can be persuaded, or by what +offers they can be hired to stay. + +But if they are driven from their native country by positive evils, and +disgusted by ill-treatment, real or imaginary, it were fit to remove +their grievances, and quiet their resentment; since, if they have been +hitherto undutiful subjects, they will not much mend their principles by +American conversation. + +To allure them into the army, it was thought proper to indulge them in +the continuance of their national dress. If this concession could have +any effect, it might easily be made. That dissimilitude of appearance, +which was supposed to keep them distinct from the rest of the nation, +might disincline them from coalescing with the Pensylvanians, or people +of Connecticut. If the restitution of their arms will reconcile them to +their country, let them have again those weapons, which will not be more +mischievous at home than in the Colonies. That they may not fly from the +increase of rent, I know not whether the general good does not require +that the landlords be, for a time, restrained in their demands, and kept +quiet by pensions proportionate to their loss. + +To hinder insurrection, by driving away the people, and to govern +peaceably, by having no subjects, is an expedient that argues no great +profundity of politicks. To soften the obdurate, to convince the +mistaken, to mollify the resentful, are worthy of a statesman; but it +affords a legislator little self-applause to consider, that where there +was formerly an insurrection, there is now a wilderness. + +It has been a question often agitated without solution, why those +northern regions are now so thinly peopled, which formerly overwhelmed +with their armies the Roman empire. The question supposes what I believe +is not true, that they had once more inhabitants than they could +maintain, and overflowed only because they were full. + +This is to estimate the manners of all countries and ages by our own. +Migration, while the state of life was unsettled, and there was little +communication of intelligence between distant places, was among the +wilder nations of Europe, capricious and casual. An adventurous +projector heard of a fertile coast unoccupied, and led out a colony; a +chief of renown for bravery, called the young men together, and led them +out to try what fortune would present. When Caesar was in Gaul, he found +the Helvetians preparing to go they knew not whither, and put a stop to +their motions. They settled again in their own country, where they were +so far from wanting room, that they had accumulated three years provision +for their march. + +The religion of the North was military; if they could not find enemies, +it was their duty to make them: they travelled in quest of danger, and +willingly took the chance of Empire or Death. If their troops were +numerous, the countries from which they were collected are of vast +extent, and without much exuberance of people great armies may be raised +where every man is a soldier. But their true numbers were never known. +Those who were conquered by them are their historians, and shame may have +excited them to say, that they were overwhelmed with multitudes. To +count is a modern practice, the ancient method was to guess; and when +numbers are guessed they are always magnified. + +Thus England has for several years been filled with the atchievements of +seventy thousand Highlanders employed in America. I have heard from an +English officer, not much inclined to favour them, that their behaviour +deserved a very high degree of military praise; but their number has been +much exaggerated. One of the ministers told me, that seventy thousand +men could not have been found in all the Highlands, and that more than +twelve thousand never took the field. Those that went to the American +war, went to destruction. Of the old Highland regiment, consisting of +twelve hundred, only seventy-six survived to see their country again. + +The Gothick swarms have at least been multiplied with equal liberality. +That they bore no great proportion to the inhabitants, in whose countries +they settled, is plain from the paucity of northern words now found in +the provincial languages. Their country was not deserted for want of +room, because it was covered with forests of vast extent; and the first +effect of plenitude of inhabitants is the destruction of wood. As the +Europeans spread over America the lands are gradually laid naked. + +I would not be understood to say, that necessity had never any part in +their expeditions. A nation, whose agriculture is scanty or unskilful, +may be driven out by famine. A nation of hunters may have exhausted +their game. I only affirm that the northern regions were not, when their +irruptions subdued the Romans, overpeopled with regard to their real +extent of territory, and power of fertility. In a country fully +inhabited, however afterward laid waste, evident marks will remain of its +former populousness. But of Scandinavia and Germany, nothing is known +but that as we trace their state upwards into antiquity, their woods were +greater, and their cultivated ground was less. + +That causes were different from want of room may produce a general +disposition to seek another country is apparent from the present conduct +of the Highlanders, who are in some places ready to threaten a total +secession. The numbers which have already gone, though like other +numbers they may be magnified, are very great, and such as if they had +gone together and agreed upon any certain settlement, might have founded +an independent government in the depths of the western continent. Nor +are they only the lowest and most indigent; many men of considerable +wealth have taken with them their train of labourers and dependants; and +if they continue the feudal scheme of polity, may establish new clans in +the other hemisphere. + +That the immediate motives of their desertion must be imputed to their +landlords, may be reasonably concluded, because some Lairds of more +prudence and less rapacity have kept their vassals undiminished. From +Raasa only one man had been seduced, and at Col there was no wish to go +away. + +The traveller who comes hither from more opulent countries, to speculate +upon the remains of pastoral life, will not much wonder that a common +Highlander has no strong adherence to his native soil; for of animal +enjoyments, or of physical good, he leaves nothing that he may not find +again wheresoever he may be thrown. + +The habitations of men in the Hebrides may be distinguished into huts and +houses. By a house, I mean a building with one story over another; by a +hut, a dwelling with only one floor. The Laird, who formerly lived in a +castle, now lives in a house; sometimes sufficiently neat, but seldom +very spacious or splendid. The Tacksmen and the Ministers have commonly +houses. Wherever there is a house, the stranger finds a welcome, and to +the other evils of exterminating Tacksmen may be added the unavoidable +cessation of hospitality, or the devolution of too heavy a burden on the +Ministers. + +Of the houses little can be said. They are small, and by the necessity +of accumulating stores, where there are so few opportunities of purchase, +the rooms are very heterogeneously filled. With want of cleanliness it +were ingratitude to reproach them. The servants having been bred upon +the naked earth, think every floor clean, and the quick succession of +guests, perhaps not always over-elegant, does not allow much time for +adjusting their apartments. + +Huts are of many gradations; from murky dens, to commodious dwellings. + +The wall of a common hut is always built without mortar, by a skilful +adaptation of loose stones. Sometimes perhaps a double wall of stones is +raised, and the intermediate space filled with earth. The air is thus +completely excluded. Some walls are, I think, formed of turfs, held +together by a wattle, or texture of twigs. Of the meanest huts, the +first room is lighted by the entrance, and the second by the smoke hole. +The fire is usually made in the middle. But there are huts, or dwellings +of only one story, inhabited by gentlemen, which have walls cemented with +mortar, glass windows, and boarded floors. Of these all have chimneys, +and some chimneys have grates. + +The house and the furniture are not always nicely suited. We were driven +once, by missing a passage, to the hut of a gentleman, where, after a +very liberal supper, when I was conducted to my chamber, I found an +elegant bed of Indian cotton, spread with fine sheets. The accommodation +was flattering; I undressed myself, and felt my feet in the mire. The +bed stood upon the bare earth, which a long course of rain had softened +to a puddle. + +In pastoral countries the condition of the lowest rank of people is +sufficiently wretched. Among manufacturers, men that have no property +may have art and industry, which make them necessary, and therefore +valuable. But where flocks and corn are the only wealth, there are +always more hands than work, and of that work there is little in which +skill and dexterity can be much distinguished. He therefore who is born +poor never can be rich. The son merely occupies the place of the father, +and life knows nothing of progression or advancement. + +The petty tenants, and labouring peasants, live in miserable cabins, +which afford them little more than shelter from the storms. The Boor of +Norway is said to make all his own utensils. In the Hebrides, whatever +might be their ingenuity, the want of wood leaves them no materials. They +are probably content with such accommodations as stones of different +forms and sizes can afford them. + +Their food is not better than their lodging. They seldom taste the flesh +of land animals; for here are no markets. What each man eats is from his +own stock. The great effect of money is to break property into small +parts. In towns, he that has a shilling may have a piece of meat; but +where there is no commerce, no man can eat mutton but by killing a sheep. + +Fish in fair weather they need not want; but, I believe, man never lives +long on fish, but by constraint; he will rather feed upon roots and +berries. + +The only fewel of the Islands is peat. Their wood is all consumed, and +coal they have not yet found. Peat is dug out of the marshes, from the +depth of one foot to that of six. That is accounted the best which is +nearest the surface. It appears to be a mass of black earth held +together by vegetable fibres. I know not whether the earth be +bituminous, or whether the fibres be not the only combustible part; +which, by heating the interposed earth red hot, make a burning mass. The +heat is not very strong nor lasting. The ashes are yellowish, and in a +large quantity. When they dig peat, they cut it into square pieces, and +pile it up to dry beside the house. In some places it has an offensive +smell. It is like wood charked for the smith. The common method of +making peat fires, is by heaping it on the hearth; but it burns well in +grates, and in the best houses is so used. + +The common opinion is, that peat grows again where it has been cut; +which, as it seems to be chiefly a vegetable substance, is not unlikely +to be true, whether known or not to those who relate it. + +There are water mills in Sky and Raasa; but where they are too far +distant, the house-wives grind their oats with a quern, or hand-mill, +which consists of two stones, about a foot and a half in diameter; the +lower is a little convex, to which the concavity of the upper must be +fitted. In the middle of the upper stone is a round hole, and on one +side is a long handle. The grinder sheds the corn gradually into the +hole with one hand, and works the handle round with the other. The corn +slides down the convexity of the lower stone, and by the motion of the +upper is ground in its passage. These stones are found in Lochabar. + +The Islands afford few pleasures, except to the hardy sportsman, who can +tread the moor and climb the mountain. The distance of one family from +another, in a country where travelling has so much difficulty, makes +frequent intercourse impracticable. Visits last several days, and are +commonly paid by water; yet I never saw a boat furnished with benches, or +made commodious by any addition to the first fabric. Conveniences are +not missed where they never were enjoyed. + +The solace which the bagpipe can give, they have long enjoyed; but among +other changes, which the last Revolution introduced, the use of the +bagpipe begins to be forgotten. Some of the chief families still +entertain a piper, whose office was anciently hereditary. Macrimmon was +piper to Macleod, and Rankin to Maclean of Col. + +The tunes of the bagpipe are traditional. There has been in Sky, beyond +all time of memory, a college of pipers, under the direction of +Macrimmon, which is not quite extinct. There was another in Mull, +superintended by Rankin, which expired about sixteen years ago. To these +colleges, while the pipe retained its honour, the students of musick +repaired for education. I have had my dinner exhilarated by the bagpipe, +at Armidale, at Dunvegan, and in Col. + +The general conversation of the Islanders has nothing particular. I did +not meet with the inquisitiveness of which I have read, and suspect the +judgment to have been rashly made. A stranger of curiosity comes into a +place where a stranger is seldom seen: he importunes the people with +questions, of which they cannot guess the motive, and gazes with surprise +on things which they, having had them always before their eyes, do not +suspect of any thing wonderful. He appears to them like some being of +another world, and then thinks it peculiar that they take their turn to +inquire whence he comes, and whither he is going. + +The Islands were long unfurnished with instruction for youth, and none +but the sons of gentlemen could have any literature. There are now +parochial schools, to which the lord of every manor pays a certain +stipend. Here the children are taught to read; but by the rule of their +institution, they teach only English, so that the natives read a language +which they may never use or understand. If a parish, which often +happens, contains several Islands, the school being but in one, cannot +assist the rest. This is the state of Col, which, however, is more +enlightened than some other places; for the deficiency is supplied by a +young gentleman, who, for his own improvement, travels every year on foot +over the Highlands to the session at Aberdeen; and at his return, during +the vacation, teaches to read and write in his native Island. + +In Sky there are two grammar schools, where boarders are taken to be +regularly educated. The price of board is from three pounds, to four +pounds ten shillings a year, and that of instruction is half a crown a +quarter. But the scholars are birds of passage, who live at school only +in the summer; for in winter provisions cannot be made for any +considerable number in one place. This periodical dispersion impresses +strongly the scarcity of these countries. + +Having heard of no boarding-school for ladies nearer than Inverness, I +suppose their education is generally domestick. The elder daughters of +the higher families are sent into the world, and may contribute by their +acquisitions to the improvement of the rest. + +Women must here study to be either pleasing or useful. Their +deficiencies are seldom supplied by very liberal fortunes. A hundred +pounds is a portion beyond the hope of any but the Laird's daughter. They +do not indeed often give money with their daughters; the question is, How +many cows a young lady will bring her husband. A rich maiden has from +ten to forty; but two cows are a decent fortune for one who pretends to +no distinction. + +The religion of the Islands is that of the Kirk of Scotland. The +gentlemen with whom I conversed are all inclined to the English liturgy; +but they are obliged to maintain the established Minister, and the +country is too poor to afford payment to another, who must live wholly on +the contribution of his audience. + +They therefore all attend the worship of the Kirk, as often as a visit +from their Minister, or the practicability of travelling gives them +opportunity; nor have they any reason to complain of insufficient +pastors; for I saw not one in the Islands, whom I had reason to think +either deficient in learning, or irregular in life: but found several +with whom I could not converse without wishing, as my respect increased, +that they had not been Presbyterians. + +The ancient rigour of puritanism is now very much relaxed, though all are +not yet equally enlightened. I sometimes met with prejudices +sufficiently malignant, but they were prejudices of ignorance. The +Ministers in the Islands had attained such knowledge as may justly be +admired in men, who have no motive to study, but generous curiosity, or, +what is still better, desire of usefulness; with such politeness as so +narrow a circle of converse could not have supplied, but to minds +naturally disposed to elegance. + +Reason and truth will prevail at last. The most learned of the Scottish +Doctors would now gladly admit a form of prayer, if the people would +endure it. The zeal or rage of congregations has its different degrees. +In some parishes the Lord's Prayer is suffered: in others it is still +rejected as a form; and he that should make it part of his supplication +would be suspected of heretical pravity. + +The principle upon which extemporary prayer was originally introduced, is +no longer admitted. The Minister formerly, in the effusion of his +prayer, expected immediate, and perhaps perceptible inspiration, and +therefore thought it his duty not to think before what he should say. It +is now universally confessed, that men pray as they speak on other +occasions, according to the general measure of their abilities and +attainments. Whatever each may think of a form prescribed by another, he +cannot but believe that he can himself compose by study and meditation a +better prayer than will rise in his mind at a sudden call; and if he has +any hope of supernatural help, why may he not as well receive it when he +writes as when he speaks? + +In the variety of mental powers, some must perform extemporary prayer +with much imperfection; and in the eagerness and rashness of +contradictory opinions, if publick liturgy be left to the private +judgment of every Minister, the congregation may often be offended or +misled. + +There is in Scotland, as among ourselves, a restless suspicion of popish +machinations, and a clamour of numerous converts to the Romish religion. +The report is, I believe, in both parts of the Island equally false. The +Romish religion is professed only in Egg and Canna, two small islands, +into which the Reformation never made its way. If any missionaries are +busy in the Highlands, their zeal entitles them to respect, even from +those who cannot think favourably of their doctrine. + +The political tenets of the Islanders I was not curious to investigate, +and they were not eager to obtrude. Their conversation is decent and +inoffensive. They disdain to drink for their principles, and there is no +disaffection at their tables. I never heard a health offered by a +Highlander that might not have circulated with propriety within the +precincts of the King's palace. + +Legal government has yet something of novelty to which they cannot +perfectly conform. The ancient spirit, that appealed only to the sword, +is yet among them. The tenant of Scalpa, an island belonging to +Macdonald, took no care to bring his rent; when the landlord talked of +exacting payment, he declared his resolution to keep his ground, and +drive all intruders from the Island, and continued to feed his cattle as +on his own land, till it became necessary for the Sheriff to dislodge him +by violence. + +The various kinds of superstition which prevailed here, as in all other +regions of ignorance, are by the diligence of the Ministers almost +extirpated. + +Of Browny, mentioned by Martin, nothing has been heard for many years. +Browny was a sturdy Fairy; who, if he was fed, and kindly treated, would, +as they said, do a great deal of work. They now pay him no wages, and +are content to labour for themselves. + +In Troda, within these three-and-thirty years, milk was put every +Saturday for Greogach, or 'the Old Man with the Long Beard.' Whether +Greogach was courted as kind, or dreaded as terrible, whether they meant, +by giving him the milk, to obtain good, or avert evil, I was not +informed. The Minister is now living by whom the practice was abolished. + +They have still among them a great number of charms for the cure of +different diseases; they are all invocations, perhaps transmitted to them +from the times of popery, which increasing knowledge will bring into +disuse. + +They have opinions, which cannot be ranked with superstition, because +they regard only natural effects. They expect better crops of grain, by +sowing their seed in the moon's increase. The moon has great influence +in vulgar philosophy. In my memory it was a precept annually given in +one of the English Almanacks, 'to kill hogs when the moon was increasing, +and the bacon would prove the better in boiling.' + +We should have had little claim to the praise of curiosity, if we had not +endeavoured with particular attention to examine the question of the +Second Sight. Of an opinion received for centuries by a whole nation, +and supposed to be confirmed through its whole descent, by a series of +successive facts, it is desirable that the truth should be established, +or the fallacy detected. + +The Second Sight is an impression made either by the mind upon the eye, +or by the eye upon the mind, by which things distant or future are +perceived, and seen as if they were present. A man on a journey far from +home falls from his horse, another, who is perhaps at work about the +house, sees him bleeding on the ground, commonly with a landscape of the +place where the accident befalls him. Another seer, driving home his +cattle, or wandering in idleness, or musing in the sunshine, is suddenly +surprised by the appearance of a bridal ceremony, or funeral procession, +and counts the mourners or attendants, of whom, if he knows them, he +relates the names, if he knows them not, he can describe the dresses. +Things distant are seen at the instant when they happen. Of things +future I know not that there is any rule for determining the time between +the Sight and the event. + +This receptive faculty, for power it cannot be called, is neither +voluntary nor constant. The appearances have no dependence upon choice: +they cannot be summoned, detained, or recalled. The impression is +sudden, and the effect often painful. + +By the term Second Sight, seems to be meant a mode of seeing, superadded +to that which Nature generally bestows. In the Earse it is called +Taisch; which signifies likewise a spectre, or a vision. I know not, nor +is it likely that the Highlanders ever examined, whether by Taisch, used +for Second Sight, they mean the power of seeing, or the thing seen. + +I do not find it to be true, as it is reported, that to the Second Sight +nothing is presented but phantoms of evil. Good seems to have the same +proportions in those visionary scenes, as it obtains in real life: almost +all remarkable events have evil for their basis; and are either miseries +incurred, or miseries escaped. Our sense is so much stronger of what we +suffer, than of what we enjoy, that the ideas of pain predominate in +almost every mind. What is recollection but a revival of vexations, or +history but a record of wars, treasons, and calamities? Death, which is +considered as the greatest evil, happens to all. The greatest good, be +it what it will, is the lot but of a part. + +That they should often see death is to be expected; because death is an +event frequent and important. But they see likewise more pleasing +incidents. A gentleman told me, that when he had once gone far from his +own Island, one of his labouring servants predicted his return, and +described the livery of his attendant, which he had never worn at home; +and which had been, without any previous design, occasionally given him. + +Our desire of information was keen, and our inquiry frequent. Mr. +Boswell's frankness and gaiety made every body communicative; and we +heard many tales of these airy shows, with more or less evidence and +distinctness. + +It is the common talk of the Lowland Scots, that the notion of the Second +Sight is wearing away with other superstitions; and that its reality is +no longer supposed, but by the grossest people. How far its prevalence +ever extended, or what ground it has lost, I know not. The Islanders of +all degrees, whether of rank or understanding, universally admit it, +except the Ministers, who universally deny it, and are suspected to deny +it, in consequence of a system, against conviction. One of them honestly +told me, that he came to Sky with a resolution not to believe it. + +Strong reasons for incredulity will readily occur. This faculty of +seeing things out of sight is local, and commonly useless. It is a +breach of the common order of things, without any visible reason or +perceptible benefit. It is ascribed only to a people very little +enlightened; and among them, for the most part, to the mean and the +ignorant. + +To the confidence of these objections it may be replied, that by +presuming to determine what is fit, and what is beneficial, they +presuppose more knowledge of the universal system than man has attained; +and therefore depend upon principles too complicated and extensive for +our comprehension; and that there can be no security in the consequence, +when the premises are not understood; that the Second Sight is only +wonderful because it is rare, for, considered in itself, it involves no +more difficulty than dreams, or perhaps than the regular exercise of the +cogitative faculty; that a general opinion of communicative impulses, or +visionary representations, has prevailed in all ages and all nations; +that particular instances have been given, with such evidence, as neither +Bacon nor Bayle has been able to resist; that sudden impressions, which +the event has verified, have been felt by more than own or publish them; +that the Second Sight of the Hebrides implies only the local frequency of +a power, which is nowhere totally unknown; and that where we are unable +to decide by antecedent reason, we must be content to yield to the force +of testimony. + +By pretension to Second Sight, no profit was ever sought or gained. It +is an involuntary affection, in which neither hope nor fear are known to +have any part. Those who profess to feel it, do not boast of it as a +privilege, nor are considered by others as advantageously distinguished. +They have no temptation to feign; and their hearers have no motive to +encourage the imposture. + +To talk with any of these seers is not easy. There is one living in Sky, +with whom we would have gladly conversed; but he was very gross and +ignorant, and knew no English. The proportion in these countries of the +poor to the rich is such, that if we suppose the quality to be +accidental, it can very rarely happen to a man of education; and yet on +such men it has sometimes fallen. There is now a Second Sighted +gentleman in the Highlands, who complains of the terrors to which he is +exposed. + +The foresight of the Seers is not always prescience; they are impressed +with images, of which the event only shews them the meaning. They tell +what they have seen to others, who are at that time not more knowing than +themselves, but may become at last very adequate witnesses, by comparing +the narrative with its verification. + +To collect sufficient testimonies for the satisfaction of the publick, or +of ourselves, would have required more time than we could bestow. There +is, against it, the seeming analogy of things confusedly seen, and little +understood, and for it, the indistinct cry of national persuasion, which +may be perhaps resolved at last into prejudice and tradition. I never +could advance my curiosity to conviction; but came away at last only +willing to believe. + +As there subsists no longer in the Islands much of that peculiar and +discriminative form of life, of which the idea had delighted our +imagination, we were willing to listen to such accounts of past times as +would be given us. But we soon found what memorials were to be expected +from an illiterate people, whose whole time is a series of distress; +where every morning is labouring with expedients for the evening; and +where all mental pains or pleasure arose from the dread of winter, the +expectation of spring, the caprices of their Chiefs, and the motions of +the neighbouring clans; where there was neither shame from ignorance, nor +pride in knowledge; neither curiosity to inquire, nor vanity to +communicate. + +The Chiefs indeed were exempt from urgent penury, and daily difficulties; +and in their houses were preserved what accounts remained of past ages. +But the Chiefs were sometimes ignorant and careless, and sometimes kept +busy by turbulence and contention; and one generation of ignorance +effaces the whole series of unwritten history. Books are faithful +repositories, which may be a while neglected or forgotten; but when they +are opened again, will again impart their instruction: memory, once +interrupted, is not to be recalled. Written learning is a fixed +luminary, which, after the cloud that had hidden it has past away, is +again bright in its proper station. Tradition is but a meteor, which, if +once it falls, cannot be rekindled. + +It seems to be universally supposed, that much of the local history was +preserved by the Bards, of whom one is said to have been retained by +every great family. After these Bards were some of my first inquiries; +and I received such answers as, for a while, made me please myself with +my increase of knowledge; for I had not then learned how to estimate the +narration of a Highlander. + +They said that a great family had a Bard and a Senachi, who were the poet +and historian of the house; and an old gentleman told me that he +remembered one of each. Here was a dawn of intelligence. Of men that +had lived within memory, some certain knowledge might be attained. Though +the office had ceased, its effects might continue; the poems might be +found, though there was no poet. + +Another conversation indeed informed me, that the same man was both Bard +and Senachi. This variation discouraged me; but as the practice might be +different in different times, or at the same time in different families, +there was yet no reason for supposing that I must necessarily sit down in +total ignorance. + +Soon after I was told by a gentleman, who is generally acknowledged the +greatest master of Hebridian antiquities, that there had indeed once been +both Bards and Senachies; and that Senachi signified 'the man of talk,' +or of conversation; but that neither Bard nor Senachi had existed for +some centuries. I have no reason to suppose it exactly known at what +time the custom ceased, nor did it probably cease in all houses at once. +But whenever the practice of recitation was disused, the works, whether +poetical or historical, perished with the authors; for in those times +nothing had been written in the Earse language. + +Whether the 'Man of talk' was a historian, whose office was to tell +truth, or a story-teller, like those which were in the last century, and +perhaps are now among the Irish, whose trade was only to amuse, it now +would be vain to inquire. + +Most of the domestick offices were, I believe, hereditary; and probably +the laureat of a clan was always the son of the last laureat. The +history of the race could no otherwise be communicated, or retained; but +what genius could be expected in a poet by inheritance? + +The nation was wholly illiterate. Neither bards nor Senachies could +write or read; but if they were ignorant, there was no danger of +detection; they were believed by those whose vanity they flattered. + +The recital of genealogies, which has been considered as very efficacious +to the preservation of a true series of ancestry, was anciently made, +when the heir of the family came to manly age. This practice has never +subsisted within time of memory, nor was much credit due to such +rehearsers, who might obtrude fictitious pedigrees, either to please +their masters, or to hide the deficiency of their own memories. + +Where the Chiefs of the Highlands have found the histories of their +descent is difficult to tell; for no Earse genealogy was ever written. In +general this only is evident, that the principal house of a clan must be +very ancient, and that those must have lived long in a place, of whom it +is not known when they came thither. + +Thus hopeless are all attempts to find any traces of Highland learning. +Nor are their primitive customs and ancient manner of life otherwise than +very faintly and uncertainly remembered by the present race. + +The peculiarities which strike the native of a commercial country, +proceeded in a great measure from the want of money. To the servants and +dependents that were not domesticks, and if an estimate be made from the +capacity of any of their old houses which I have seen, their domesticks +could have been but few, were appropriated certain portions of land for +their support. Macdonald has a piece of ground yet, called the Bards or +Senachies field. When a beef was killed for the house, particular parts +were claimed as fees by the several officers, or workmen. What was the +right of each I have not learned. The head belonged to the smith, and +the udder of a cow to the piper: the weaver had likewise his particular +part; and so many pieces followed these prescriptive claims, that the +Laird's was at last but little. + +The payment of rent in kind has been so long disused in England, that it +is totally forgotten. It was practised very lately in the Hebrides, and +probably still continues, not only in St. Kilda, where money is not yet +known, but in others of the smaller and remoter Islands. It were perhaps +to be desired, that no change in this particular should have been made. +When the Laird could only eat the produce of his lands, he was under the +necessity of residing upon them; and when the tenant could not convert +his stock into more portable riches, he could never be tempted away from +his farm, from the only place where he could be wealthy. Money confounds +subordination, by overpowering the distinctions of rank and birth, and +weakens authority by supplying power of resistance, or expedients for +escape. The feudal system is formed for a nation employed in +agriculture, and has never long kept its hold where gold and silver have +become common. + +Their arms were anciently the Glaymore, or great two-handed sword, and +afterwards the two-edged sword and target, or buckler, which was +sustained on the left arm. In the midst of the target, which was made of +wood, covered with leather, and studded with nails, a slender lance, +about two feet long, was sometimes fixed; it was heavy and cumberous, and +accordingly has for some time past been gradually laid aside. Very few +targets were at Culloden. The dirk, or broad dagger, I am afraid, was of +more use in private quarrels than in battles. The Lochaber-ax is only a +slight alteration of the old English bill. + +After all that has been said of the force and terrour of the Highland +sword, I could not find that the art of defence was any part of common +education. The gentlemen were perhaps sometimes skilful gladiators, but +the common men had no other powers than those of violence and courage. +Yet it is well known, that the onset of the Highlanders was very +formidable. As an army cannot consist of philosophers, a panick is +easily excited by any unwonted mode of annoyance. New dangers are +naturally magnified; and men accustomed only to exchange bullets at a +distance, and rather to hear their enemies than see them, are discouraged +and amazed when they find themselves encountered hand to hand, and catch +the gleam of steel flashing in their faces. + +The Highland weapons gave opportunity for many exertions of personal +courage, and sometimes for single combats in the field; like those which +occur so frequently in fabulous wars. At Falkirk, a gentleman now +living, was, I suppose after the retreat of the King's troops, engaged at +a distance from the rest with an Irish dragoon. They were both skilful +swordsmen, and the contest was not easily decided: the dragoon at last +had the advantage, and the Highlander called for quarter; but quarter was +refused him, and the fight continued till he was reduced to defend +himself upon his knee. At that instant one of the Macleods came to his +rescue; who, as it is said, offered quarter to the dragoon, but he +thought himself obliged to reject what he had before refused, and, as +battle gives little time to deliberate, was immediately killed. + +Funerals were formerly solemnized by calling multitudes together, and +entertaining them at great expence. This emulation of useless cost has +been for some time discouraged, and at last in the Isle of Sky is almost +suppressed. + +Of the Earse language, as I understand nothing, I cannot say more than I +have been told. It is the rude speech of a barbarous people, who had few +thoughts to express, and were content, as they conceived grossly, to be +grossly understood. After what has been lately talked of Highland Bards, +and Highland genius, many will startle when they are told, that the Earse +never was a written language; that there is not in the world an Earse +manuscript a hundred years old; and that the sounds of the Highlanders +were never expressed by letters, till some little books of piety were +translated, and a metrical version of the Psalms was made by the Synod of +Argyle. Whoever therefore now writes in this language, spells according +to his own perception of the sound, and his own idea of the power of the +letters. The Welsh and the Irish are cultivated tongues. The Welsh, two +hundred years ago, insulted their English neighbours for the instability +of their Orthography; while the Earse merely floated in the breath of the +people, and could therefore receive little improvement. + +When a language begins to teem with books, it is tending to refinement; +as those who undertake to teach others must have undergone some labour in +improving themselves, they set a proportionate value on their own +thoughts, and wish to enforce them by efficacious expressions; speech +becomes embodied and permanent; different modes and phrases are compared, +and the best obtains an establishment. By degrees one age improves upon +another. Exactness is first obtained, and afterwards elegance. But +diction, merely vocal, is always in its childhood. As no man leaves his +eloquence behind him, the new generations have all to learn. There may +possibly be books without a polished language, but there can be no +polished language without books. + +That the Bards could not read more than the rest of their countrymen, it +is reasonable to suppose; because, if they had read, they could probably +have written; and how high their compositions may reasonably be rated, an +inquirer may best judge by considering what stores of imagery, what +principles of ratiocination, what comprehension of knowledge, and what +delicacy of elocution he has known any man attain who cannot read. The +state of the Bards was yet more hopeless. He that cannot read, may now +converse with those that can; but the Bard was a barbarian among +barbarians, who, knowing nothing himself, lived with others that knew no +more. + +There has lately been in the Islands one of these illiterate poets, who +hearing the Bible read at church, is said to have turned the sacred +history into verse. I heard part of a dialogue, composed by him, +translated by a young lady in Mull, and thought it had more meaning than +I expected from a man totally uneducated; but he had some opportunities +of knowledge; he lived among a learned people. After all that has been +done for the instruction of the Highlanders, the antipathy between their +language and literature still continues; and no man that has learned only +Earse is, at this time, able to read. + +The Earse has many dialects, and the words used in some Islands are not +always known in others. In literate nations, though the pronunciation, +and sometimes the words of common speech may differ, as now in England, +compared with the South of Scotland, yet there is a written diction, +which pervades all dialects, and is understood in every province. But +where the whole language is colloquial, he that has only one part, never +gets the rest, as he cannot get it but by change of residence. + +In an unwritten speech, nothing that is not very short is transmitted +from one generation to another. Few have opportunities of hearing a long +composition often enough to learn it, or have inclination to repeat it so +often as is necessary to retain it; and what is once forgotten is lost +for ever. I believe there cannot be recovered, in the whole Earse +language, five hundred lines of which there is any evidence to prove them +a hundred years old. Yet I hear that the father of Ossian boasts of two +chests more of ancient poetry, which he suppresses, because they are too +good for the English. + +He that goes into the Highlands with a mind naturally acquiescent, and a +credulity eager for wonders, may come back with an opinion very different +from mine; for the inhabitants knowing the ignorance of all strangers in +their language and antiquities, perhaps are not very scrupulous adherents +to truth; yet I do not say that they deliberately speak studied +falsehood, or have a settled purpose to deceive. They have inquired and +considered little, and do not always feel their own ignorance. They are +not much accustomed to be interrogated by others; and seem never to have +thought upon interrogating themselves; so that if they do not know what +they tell to be true, they likewise do not distinctly perceive it to be +false. + +Mr. Boswell was very diligent in his inquiries; and the result of his +investigations was, that the answer to the second question was commonly +such as nullified the answer to the first. + +We were a while told, that they had an old translation of the scriptures; +and told it till it would appear obstinacy to inquire again. Yet by +continued accumulation of questions we found, that the translation meant, +if any meaning there were, was nothing else than the Irish Bible. + +We heard of manuscripts that were, or that had been in the hands of +somebody's father, or grandfather; but at last we had no reason to +believe they were other than Irish. Martin mentions Irish, but never any +Earse manuscripts, to be found in the Islands in his time. + +I suppose my opinion of the poems of Ossian is already discovered. I +believe they never existed in any other form than that which we have +seen. The editor, or author, never could shew the original; nor can it +be shewn by any other; to revenge reasonable incredulity, by refusing +evidence, is a degree of insolence, with which the world is not yet +acquainted; and stubborn audacity is the last refuge of guilt. It would +be easy to shew it if he had it; but whence could it be had? It is too +long to be remembered, and the language formerly had nothing written. He +has doubtless inserted names that circulate in popular stories, and may +have translated some wandering ballads, if any can be found; and the +names, and some of the images being recollected, make an inaccurate +auditor imagine, by the help of Caledonian bigotry, that he has formerly +heard the whole. + +I asked a very learned Minister in Sky, who had used all arts to make me +believe the genuineness of the book, whether at last he believed it +himself? but he would not answer. He wished me to be deceived, for the +honour of his country; but would not directly and formally deceive me. +Yet has this man's testimony been publickly produced, as of one that held +Fingal to be the work of Ossian. + +It is said, that some men of integrity profess to have heard parts of it, +but they all heard them when they were boys; and it was never said that +any of them could recite six lines. They remember names, and perhaps +some proverbial sentiments; and, having no distinct ideas, coin a +resemblance without an original. The persuasion of the Scots, however, +is far from universal; and in a question so capable of proof, why should +doubt be suffered to continue? The editor has been heard to say, that +part of the poem was received by him, in the Saxon character. He has +then found, by some peculiar fortune, an unwritten language, written in a +character which the natives probably never beheld. + +I have yet supposed no imposture but in the publisher, yet I am far from +certainty, that some translations have not been lately made, that may now +be obtruded as parts of the original work. Credulity on one part is a +strong temptation to deceit on the other, especially to deceit of which +no personal injury is the consequence, and which flatters the author with +his own ingenuity. The Scots have something to plead for their easy +reception of an improbable fiction; they are seduced by their fondness +for their supposed ancestors. A Scotchman must be a very sturdy +moralist, who does not love Scotland better than truth: he will always +love it better than inquiry; and if falsehood flatters his vanity, will +not be very diligent to detect it. Neither ought the English to be much +influenced by Scotch authority; for of the past and present state of the +whole Earse nation, the Lowlanders are at least as ignorant as ourselves. +To be ignorant is painful; but it is dangerous to quiet our uneasiness by +the delusive opiate of hasty persuasion. + +But this is the age, in which those who could not read, have been +supposed to write; in which the giants of antiquated romance have been +exhibited as realities. If we know little of the ancient Highlanders, +let us not fill the vacuity with Ossian. If we had not searched the +Magellanick regions, let us however forbear to people them with Patagons. + +Having waited some days at Armidel, we were flattered at last with a wind +that promised to convey us to Mull. We went on board a boat that was +taking in kelp, and left the Isle of Sky behind us. We were doomed to +experience, like others, the danger of trusting to the wind, which blew +against us, in a short time, with such violence, that we, being no +seasoned sailors, were willing to call it a tempest. I was sea-sick and +lay down. Mr. Boswell kept the deck. The master knew not well whither +to go; and our difficulties might perhaps have filled a very pathetick +page, had not Mr. Maclean of Col, who, with every other qualification +which insular life requires, is a very active and skilful mariner, +piloted us safe into his own harbour. + + + + +COL + + +In the morning we found ourselves under the Isle of Col, where we landed; +and passed the first day and night with Captain Maclean, a gentleman who +has lived some time in the East Indies; but having dethroned no Nabob, is +not too rich to settle in own country. + +Next day the wind was fair, and we might have had an easy passage to +Mull; but having, contrarily to our own intention, landed upon a new +Island, we would not leave it wholly unexamined. We therefore suffered +the vessel to depart without us, and trusted the skies for another wind. + +Mr. Maclean of Col, having a very numerous family, has, for some time +past, resided at Aberdeen, that he may superintend their education, and +leaves the young gentleman, our friend, to govern his dominions, with the +full power of a Highland Chief. By the absence of the Laird's family, +our entertainment was made more difficult, because the house was in a +great degree disfurnished; but young Col's kindness and activity supplied +all defects, and procured us more than sufficient accommodation. + +Here I first mounted a little Highland steed; and if there had been many +spectators, should have been somewhat ashamed of my figure in the march. +The horses of the Islands, as of other barren countries, are very low: +they are indeed musculous and strong, beyond what their size gives reason +for expecting; but a bulky man upon one of their backs makes a very +disproportionate appearance. + +From the habitation of Captain Maclean, we went to Grissipol, but called +by the way on Mr. Hector Maclean, the Minister of Col, whom we found in a +hut, that is, a house of only one floor, but with windows and chimney, +and not inelegantly furnished. Mr. Maclean has the reputation of great +learning: he is seventy-seven years old, but not infirm, with a look of +venerable dignity, excelling what I remember in any other man. + +His conversation was not unsuitable to his appearance. I lost some of +his good-will, by treating a heretical writer with more regard than, in +his opinion, a heretick could deserve. I honoured his orthodoxy, and did +not much censure his asperity. A man who has settled his opinions, does +not love to have the tranquillity of his conviction disturbed; and at +seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest. + +Mention was made of the Earse translation of the New Testament, which has +been lately published, and of which the learned Mr. Macqueen of Sky spoke +with commendation; but Mr. Maclean said he did not use it, because he +could make the text more intelligible to his auditors by an extemporary +version. From this I inferred, that the language of the translation was +not the language of the Isle of Col. + +He has no publick edifice for the exercise of his ministry; and can +officiate to no greater number, than a room can contain; and the room of +a hut is not very large. This is all the opportunity of worship that is +now granted to the inhabitants of the Island, some of whom must travel +thither perhaps ten miles. Two chapels were erected by their ancestors, +of which I saw the skeletons, which now stand faithful witnesses of the +triumph of the Reformation. + +The want of churches is not the only impediment to piety: there is +likewise a want of Ministers. A parish often contains more Islands than +one; and each Island can have the Minister only in its own turn. At +Raasa they had, I think, a right to service only every third Sunday. All +the provision made by the present ecclesiastical constitution, for the +inhabitants of about a hundred square miles, is a prayer and sermon in a +little room, once in three weeks: and even this parsimonious distribution +is at the mercy of the weather; and in those Islands where the Minister +does not reside, it is impossible to tell how many weeks or months may +pass without any publick exercise of religion. + + + + +GRISSIPOL IN COL + + +After a short conversation with Mr. Maclean, we went on to Grissipol, a +house and farm tenanted by Mr. Macsweyn, where I saw more of the ancient +life of a Highlander, than I had yet found. Mrs. Macsweyn could speak no +English, and had never seen any other places than the Islands of Sky, +Mull, and Col: but she was hospitable and good-humoured, and spread her +table with sufficient liberality. We found tea here, as in every other +place, but our spoons were of horn. + +The house of Grissipol stands by a brook very clear and quick; which is, +I suppose, one of the most copious streams in the Island. This place was +the scene of an action, much celebrated in the traditional history of +Col, but which probably no two relaters will tell alike. + +Some time, in the obscure ages, Macneil of Barra married the Lady +Maclean, who had the Isle of Col for her jointure. Whether Macneil +detained Col, when the widow was dead, or whether she lived so long as to +make her heirs impatient, is perhaps not now known. The younger son, +called John Gerves, or John the Giant, a man of great strength who was +then in Ireland, either for safety, or for education, dreamed of +recovering his inheritance; and getting some adventurers together, which, +in those unsettled times, was not hard to do, invaded Col. He was driven +away, but was not discouraged, and collecting new followers, in three +years came again with fifty men. In his way he stopped at Artorinish in +Morvern, where his uncle was prisoner to Macleod, and was then with his +enemies in a tent. Maclean took with him only one servant, whom he +ordered to stay at the outside; and where he should see the tent pressed +outwards, to strike with his dirk, it being the intention of Maclean, as +any man provoked him, to lay hands upon him, and push him back. He +entered the tent alone, with his Lochabar-axe in his hand, and struck +such terror into the whole assembly, that they dismissed his uncle. + +When he landed at Col, he saw the sentinel, who kept watch towards the +sea, running off to Grissipol, to give Macneil, who was there with a +hundred and twenty men, an account of the invasion. He told Macgill, one +of his followers, that if he intercepted that dangerous intelligence, by +catching the courier, he would give him certain lands in Mull. Upon this +promise, Macgill pursued the messenger, and either killed, or stopped +him; and his posterity, till very lately, held the lands in Mull. + +The alarm being thus prevented, he came unexpectedly upon Macneil. Chiefs +were in those days never wholly unprovided for an enemy. A fight ensued, +in which one of their followers is said to have given an extraordinary +proof of activity, by bounding backwards over the brook of Grissipol. +Macneil being killed, and many of his clan destroyed, Maclean took +possession of the Island, which the Macneils attempted to conquer by +another invasion, but were defeated and repulsed. + +Maclean, in his turn, invaded the estate of the Macneils, took the castle +of Brecacig, and conquered the Isle of Barra, which he held for seven +years, and then restored it to the heirs. + + + + +CASTLE OF COL + + +From Grissipol, Mr. Maclean conducted us to his father's seat; a neat new +house, erected near the old castle, I think, by the last proprietor. Here +we were allowed to take our station, and lived very commodiously, while +we waited for moderate weather and a fair wind, which we did not so soon +obtain, but we had time to get some information of the present state of +Col, partly by inquiry, and partly by occasional excursions. + +Col is computed to be thirteen miles in length, and three in breadth. +Both the ends are the property of the Duke of Argyle, but the middle +belongs to Maclean, who is called Col, as the only Laird. + +Col is not properly rocky; it is rather one continued rock, of a surface +much diversified with protuberances, and covered with a thin layer of +earth, which is often broken, and discovers the stone. Such a soil is +not for plants that strike deep roots; and perhaps in the whole Island +nothing has ever yet grown to the height of a table. The uncultivated +parts are clothed with heath, among which industry has interspersed spots +of grass and corn; but no attempt has yet been made to raise a tree. +Young Col, who has a very laudable desire of improving his patrimony, +purposes some time to plant an orchard; which, if it be sheltered by a +wall, may perhaps succeed. He has introduced the culture of turnips, of +which he has a field, where the whole work was performed by his own hand. +His intention is to provide food for his cattle in the winter. This +innovation was considered by Mr. Macsweyn as the idle project of a young +head, heated with English fancies; but he has now found that turnips will +really grow, and that hungry sheep and cows will really eat them. + +By such acquisitions as these, the Hebrides may in time rise above their +annual distress. Wherever heath will grow, there is reason to think +something better may draw nourishment; and by trying the production of +other places, plants will be found suitable to every soil. + +Col has many lochs, some of which have trouts and eels, and others have +never yet been stocked; another proof of the negligence of the Islanders, +who might take fish in the inland waters, when they cannot go to sea. + +Their quadrupeds are horses, cows, sheep, and goats. They have neither +deer, hares, nor rabbits. They have no vermin, except rats, which have +been lately brought thither by sea, as to other places; and are free from +serpents, frogs, and toads. + +The harvest in Col, and in Lewis, is ripe sooner than in Sky; and the +winter in Col is never cold, but very tempestuous. I know not that I +ever heard the wind so loud in any other place; and Mr. Boswell observed, +that its noise was all its own, for there were no trees to increase it. + +Noise is not the worst effect of the tempests; for they have thrown the +sand from the shore over a considerable part of the land; and it is said +still to encroach and destroy more and more pasture; but I am not of +opinion, that by any surveys or landmarks, its limits have been ever +fixed, or its progression ascertained. If one man has confidence enough +to say, that it advances, nobody can bring any proof to support him in +denying it. The reason why it is not spread to a greater extent, seems +to be, that the wind and rain come almost together, and that it is made +close and heavy by the wet before the storms can put it in motion. So +thick is the bed, and so small the particles, that if a traveller should +be caught by a sudden gust in dry weather, he would find it very +difficult to escape with life. + +For natural curiosities, I was shown only two great masses of stone, +which lie loose upon the ground; one on the top of a hill, and the other +at a small distance from the bottom. They certainly were never put into +their present places by human strength or skill; and though an earthquake +might have broken off the lower stone, and rolled it into the valley, no +account can be given of the other, which lies on the hill, unless, which +I forgot to examine, there be still near it some higher rock, from which +it might be torn. All nations have a tradition, that their earliest +ancestors were giants, and these stones are said to have been thrown up +and down by a giant and his mistress. There are so many more important +things, of which human knowledge can give no account, that it may be +forgiven us, if we speculate no longer on two stones in Col. + +This Island is very populous. About nine-and-twenty years ago, the +fencible men of Col were reckoned one hundred and forty, which is the +sixth of eight hundred and forty; and probably some contrived to be left +out of the list. The Minister told us, that a few years ago the +inhabitants were eight hundred, between the ages of seven and of seventy. +Round numbers are seldom exact. But in this case the authority is good, +and the errour likely to be little. If to the eight hundred be added +what the laws of computation require, they will be increased to at least +a thousand; and if the dimensions of the country have been accurately +related, every mile maintains more than twenty-five. + +This proportion of habitation is greater than the appearance of the +country seems to admit; for wherever the eye wanders, it sees much waste +and little cultivation. I am more inclined to extend the land, of which +no measure has ever been taken, than to diminish the people, who have +been really numbered. Let it be supposed, that a computed mile contains +a mile and a half, as was commonly found true in the mensuration of the +English roads, and we shall then allot nearly twelve to a mile, which +agrees much better with ocular observation. + +Here, as in Sky, and other Islands, are the Laird, the Tacksmen, and the +under tenants. + +Mr. Maclean, the Laird, has very extensive possessions, being proprietor, +not only of far the greater part of Col, but of the extensive Island of +Rum, and a very considerable territory in Mull. + +Rum is one of the larger Islands, almost square, and therefore of great +capacity in proportion to its sides. By the usual method of estimating +computed extent, it may contain more than a hundred and twenty square +miles. + +It originally belonged to Clanronald, and was purchased by Col; who, in +some dispute about the bargain, made Clanronald prisoner, and kept him +nine months in confinement. Its owner represents it as mountainous, +rugged, and barren. In the hills there are red deer. The horses are +very small, but of a breed eminent for beauty. Col, not long ago, bought +one of them from a tenant; who told him, that as he was of a shape +uncommonly elegant, he could not sell him but at a high price; and that +whoever had him should pay a guinea and a half. + +There are said to be in Barra a race of horses yet smaller, of which the +highest is not above thirty-six inches. + +The rent of Rum is not great. Mr. Maclean declared, that he should be +very rich, if he could set his land at two-pence halfpenny an acre. The +inhabitants are fifty-eight families, who continued Papists for some time +after the Laird became a Protestant. Their adherence to their old +religion was strengthened by the countenance of the Laird's sister, a +zealous Romanist, till one Sunday, as they were going to mass under the +conduct of their patroness, Maclean met them on the way, gave one of them +a blow on the head with a yellow stick, I suppose a cane, for which the +Earse had no name, and drove them to the kirk, from which they have never +since departed. Since the use of this method of conversion, the +inhabitants of Egg and Canna, who continue Papists, call the +Protestantism of Rum, the religion of the Yellow Stick. + +The only Popish Islands are Egg and Canna. Egg is the principal Island +of a parish, in which, though he has no congregation, the Protestant +Minister resides. I have heard of nothing curious in it, but the cave in +which a former generation of the Islanders were smothered by Macleod. + +If we had travelled with more leisure, it had not been fit to have +neglected the Popish Islands. Popery is favourable to ceremony; and +among ignorant nations, ceremony is the only preservative of tradition. +Since protestantism was extended to the savage parts of Scotland, it has +perhaps been one of the chief labours of the Ministers to abolish stated +observances, because they continued the remembrance of the former +religion. We therefore who came to hear old traditions, and see +antiquated manners, should probably have found them amongst the Papists. + +Canna, the other Popish Island, belongs to Clanronald. It is said not to +comprise more than twelve miles of land, and yet maintains as many +inhabitants as Rum. + +We were at Col under the protection of the young Laird, without any of +the distresses, which Mr. Pennant, in a fit of simple credulity, seems to +think almost worthy of an elegy by Ossian. Wherever we roved, we were +pleased to see the reverence with which his subjects regarded him. He +did not endeavour to dazzle them by any magnificence of dress: his only +distinction was a feather in his bonnet; but as soon as he appeared, they +forsook their work and clustered about him: he took them by the hand, and +they seemed mutually delighted. He has the proper disposition of a +Chieftain, and seems desirous to continue the customs of his house. The +bagpiper played regularly, when dinner was served, whose person and dress +made a good appearance; and he brought no disgrace upon the family of +Rankin, which has long supplied the Lairds of Col with hereditary musick. + +The Tacksmen of Col seem to live with less dignity and convenience than +those of Sky; where they had good houses, and tables not only plentiful, +but delicate. In Col only two houses pay the window tax; for only two +have six windows, which, I suppose, are the Laird's and Mr. Macsweyn's. + +The rents have, till within seven years, been paid in kind, but the +tenants finding that cattle and corn varied in their price, desired for +the future to give their landlord money; which, not having yet arrived at +the philosophy of commerce, they consider as being every year of the same +value. + +We were told of a particular mode of under-tenure. The Tacksman admits +some of his inferior neighbours to the cultivation of his grounds, on +condition that performing all the work, and giving a third part of the +seed, they shall keep a certain number of cows, sheep, and goats, and +reap a third part of the harvest. Thus by less than the tillage of two +acres they pay the rent of one. + +There are tenants below the rank of Tacksmen, that have got smaller +tenants under them; for in every place, where money is not the general +equivalent, there must be some whose labour is immediately paid by daily +food. + +A country that has no money, is by no means convenient for beggars, both +because such countries are commonly poor, and because charity requires +some trouble and some thought. A penny is easily given upon the first +impulse of compassion, or impatience of importunity; but few will +deliberately search their cupboards or their granaries to find out +something to give. A penny is likewise easily spent, but victuals, if +they are unprepared, require houseroom, and fire, and utensils, which the +beggar knows not where to find. + +Yet beggars there sometimes are, who wander from Island to Island. We +had, in our passage to Mull, the company of a woman and her child, who +had exhausted the charity of Col. The arrival of a beggar on an Island +is accounted a sinistrous event. Every body considers that he shall have +the less for what he gives away. Their alms, I believe, is generally +oatmeal. + +Near to Col is another Island called Tireye, eminent for its fertility. +Though it has but half the extent of Rum, it is so well peopled, that +there have appeared, not long ago, nine hundred and fourteen at a +funeral. The plenty of this Island enticed beggars to it, who seemed so +burdensome to the inhabitants, that a formal compact was drawn up, by +which they obliged themselves to grant no more relief to casual +wanderers, because they had among them an indigent woman of high birth, +whom they considered as entitled to all that they could spare. I have +read the stipulation, which was indited with juridical formality, but was +never made valid by regular subscription. + +If the inhabitants of Col have nothing to give, it is not that they are +oppressed by their landlord: their leases seem to be very profitable. One +farmer, who pays only seven pounds a year, has maintained seven daughters +and three sons, of whom the eldest is educated at Aberdeen for the +ministry; and now, at every vacation, opens a school in Col. + +Life is here, in some respects, improved beyond the condition of some +other Islands. In Sky what is wanted can only be bought, as the arrival +of some wandering pedlar may afford an opportunity; but in Col there is a +standing shop, and in Mull there are two. A shop in the Islands, as in +other places of little frequentation, is a repository of every thing +requisite for common use. Mr. Boswell's journal was filled, and he +bought some paper in Col. To a man that ranges the streets of London, +where he is tempted to contrive wants, for the pleasure of supplying +them, a shop affords no image worthy of attention; but in an Island, it +turns the balance of existence between good and evil. To live in +perpetual want of little things, is a state not indeed of torture, but of +constant vexation. I have in Sky had some difficulty to find ink for a +letter; and if a woman breaks her needle, the work is at a stop. + +As it is, the Islanders are obliged to content themselves with +succedaneous means for many common purposes. I have seen the chief man +of a very wide district riding with a halter for a bridle, and governing +his hobby with a wooden curb. + +The people of Col, however, do not want dexterity to supply some of their +necessities. Several arts which make trades, and demand apprenticeships +in great cities, are here the practices of daily economy. In every house +candles are made, both moulded and dipped. Their wicks are small shreds +of linen cloth. They all know how to extract from the Cuddy, oil for +their lamps. They all tan skins, and make brogues. + +As we travelled through Sky, we saw many cottages, but they very +frequently stood single on the naked ground. In Col, where the hills +opened a place convenient for habitation, we found a petty village, of +which every hut had a little garden adjoining; thus they made an +appearance of social commerce and mutual offices, and of some attention +to convenience and future supply. There is not in the Western Islands +any collection of buildings that can make pretensions to be called a +town, except in the Isle of Lewis, which I have not seen. + +If Lewis is distinguished by a town, Col has also something peculiar. The +young Laird has attempted what no Islander perhaps ever thought on. He +has begun a road capable of a wheel-carriage. He has carried it about a +mile, and will continue it by annual elongation from his house to the +harbour. + +Of taxes here is no reason for complaining; they are paid by a very easy +composition. The malt-tax for Col is twenty shillings. Whisky is very +plentiful: there are several stills in the Island, and more is made than +the inhabitants consume. + +The great business of insular policy is now to keep the people in their +own country. As the world has been let in upon them, they have heard of +happier climates, and less arbitrary government; and if they are +disgusted, have emissaries among them ready to offer them land and +houses, as a reward for deserting their Chief and clan. Many have +departed both from the main of Scotland, and from the Islands; and all +that go may be considered as subjects lost to the British crown; for a +nation scattered in the boundless regions of America resembles rays +diverging from a focus. All the rays remain, but the heat is gone. Their +power consisted in their concentration: when they are dispersed, they +have no effect. + +It may be thought that they are happier by the change; but they are not +happy as a nation, for they are a nation no longer. As they contribute +not to the prosperity of any community, they must want that security, +that dignity, that happiness, whatever it be, which a prosperous +community throws back upon individuals. + +The inhabitants of Col have not yet learned to be weary of their heath +and rocks, but attend their agriculture and their dairies, without +listening to American seducements. + +There are some however who think that this emigration has raised terrour +disproportionate to its real evil; and that it is only a new mode of +doing what was always done. The Highlands, they say, never maintained +their natural inhabitants; but the people, when they found themselves too +numerous, instead of extending cultivation, provided for themselves by a +more compendious method, and sought better fortune in other countries. +They did not indeed go away in collective bodies, but withdrew invisibly, +a few at a time; but the whole number of fugitives was not less, and the +difference between other times and this, is only the same as between +evaporation and effusion. + +This is plausible, but I am afraid it is not true. Those who went +before, if they were not sensibly missed, as the argument supposes, must +have gone either in less number, or in a manner less detrimental, than at +present; because formerly there was no complaint. Those who then left +the country were generally the idle dependants on overburdened families, +or men who had no property; and therefore carried away only themselves. +In the present eagerness of emigration, families, and almost communities, +go away together. Those who were considered as prosperous and wealthy +sell their stock and carry away the money. Once none went away but the +useless and poor; in some parts there is now reason to fear, that none +will stay but those who are too poor to remove themselves, and too +useless to be removed at the cost of others. + +Of antiquity there is not more knowledge in Col than in other places; but +every where something may be gleaned. + +How ladies were portioned, when there was no money, it would be difficult +for an Englishman to guess. In 1649, Maclean of Dronart in Mull married +his sister Fingala to Maclean of Coll, with a hundred and eighty kine; +and stipulated, that if she became a widow, her jointure should be three +hundred and sixty. I suppose some proportionate tract of land was +appropriated to their pasturage. + +The disposition to pompous and expensive funerals, which has at one time +or other prevailed in most parts of the civilized world, is not yet +suppressed in the Islands, though some of the ancient solemnities are +worn away, and singers are no longer hired to attend the procession. +Nineteen years ago, at the burial of the Laird of Col, were killed thirty +cows, and about fifty sheep. The number of the cows is positively told, +and we must suppose other victuals in like proportion. + +Mr. Maclean informed us of an odd game, of which he did not tell the +original, but which may perhaps be used in other places, where the reason +of it is not yet forgot. At New-year's eve, in the hall or castle of the +Laird, where, at festal seasons, there may be supposed a very numerous +company, one man dresses himself in a cow's hide, upon which other men +beat with sticks. He runs with all this noise round the house, which all +the company quits in a counterfeited fright: the door is then shut. At +New-year's eve there is no great pleasure to be had out of doors in the +Hebrides. They are sure soon to recover from their terrour enough to +solicit for re-admission; which, for the honour of poetry, is not to be +obtained but by repeating a verse, with which those that are knowing and +provident take care to be furnished. + +Very near the house of Maclean stands the castle of Col, which was the +mansion of the Laird, till the house was built. It is built upon a rock, +as Mr. Boswell remarked, that it might not be mined. It is very strong, +and having been not long uninhabited, is yet in repair. On the wall was, +not long ago, a stone with an inscription, importing, that 'if any man of +the clan of Maclonich shall appear before this castle, though he come at +midnight, with a man's head in his hand, he shall there find safety and +protection against all but the King.' + +This is an old Highland treaty made upon a very memorable occasion. +Maclean, the son of John Gerves, who recovered Col, and conquered Barra, +had obtained, it is said, from James the Second, a grant of the lands of +Lochiel, forfeited, I suppose, by some offence against the state. + +Forfeited estates were not in those days quietly resigned; Maclean, +therefore, went with an armed force to seize his new possessions, and, I +know not for what reason, took his wife with him. The Camerons rose in +defence of their Chief, and a battle was fought at the head of Loch Ness, +near the place where Fort Augustus now stands, in which Lochiel obtained +the victory, and Maclean, with his followers, was defeated and destroyed. + +The lady fell into the hands of the conquerours, and being found pregnant +was placed in the custody of Maclonich, one of a tribe or family branched +from Cameron, with orders, if she brought a boy, to destroy him, if a +girl, to spare her. + +Maclonich's wife, who was with child likewise, had a girl about the same +time at which lady Maclean brought a boy, and Maclonich with more +generosity to his captive, than fidelity to his trust, contrived that the +children should be changed. + +Maclean being thus preserved from death, in time recovered his original +patrimony; and in gratitude to his friend, made his castle a place of +refuge to any of the clan that should think himself in danger; and, as a +proof of reciprocal confidence, Maclean took upon himself and his +posterity the care of educating the heir of Maclonich. + +This story, like all other traditions of the Highlands, is variously +related, but though some circumstances are uncertain, the principal fact +is true. Maclean undoubtedly owed his preservation to Maclonich; for the +treaty between the two families has been strictly observed: it did not +sink into disuse and oblivion, but continued in its full force while the +chieftains retained their power. I have read a demand of protection, +made not more than thirty-seven years ago, for one of the Maclonichs, +named Ewen Cameron, who had been accessory to the death of Macmartin, and +had been banished by Lochiel, his lord, for a certain term; at the +expiration of which he returned married from France, but the Macmartins, +not satisfied with the punishment, when he attempted to settle, still +threatened him with vengeance. He therefore asked, and obtained shelter +in the Isle of Col. + +The power of protection subsists no longer, but what the law permits is +yet continued, and Maclean of Col now educates the heir of Maclonich. + +There still remains in the Islands, though it is passing fast away, the +custom of fosterage. A Laird, a man of wealth and eminence, sends his +child, either male or female, to a tacksman, or tenant, to be fostered. +It is not always his own tenant, but some distant friend that obtains +this honour; for an honour such a trust is very reasonably thought. The +terms of fosterage seem to vary in different islands. In Mull, the +father sends with his child a certain number of cows, to which the same +number is added by the fosterer. The father appropriates a +proportionable extent of ground, without rent, for their pasturage. If +every cow brings a calf, half belongs to the fosterer, and half to the +child; but if there be only one calf between two cows, it is the child's, +and when the child returns to the parent, it is accompanied by all the +cows given, both by the father and by the fosterer, with half of the +increase of the stock by propagation. These beasts are considered as a +portion, and called Macalive cattle, of which the father has the produce, +but is supposed not to have the full property, but to owe the same number +to the child, as a portion to the daughter, or a stock for the son. + +Children continue with the fosterer perhaps six years, and cannot, where +this is the practice, be considered as burdensome. The fosterer, if he +gives four cows, receives likewise four, and has, while the child +continues with him, grass for eight without rent, with half the calves, +and all the milk, for which he pays only four cows when he dismisses his +Dalt, for that is the name for a foster child. + +Fosterage is, I believe, sometimes performed upon more liberal terms. Our +friend, the young Laird of Col, was fostered by Macsweyn of Grissipol. +Macsweyn then lived a tenant to Sir James Macdonald in the Isle of Sky; +and therefore Col, whether he sent him cattle or not, could grant him no +land. The Dalt, however, at his return, brought back a considerable +number of Macalive cattle, and of the friendship so formed there have +been good effects. When Macdonald raised his rents, Macsweyn was, like +other tenants, discontented, and, resigning his farm, removed from Sky to +Col, and was established at Grissipol. + +These observations we made by favour of the contrary wind that drove us +to Col, an Island not often visited; for there is not much to amuse +curiosity, or to attract avarice. + +The ground has been hitherto, I believe, used chiefly for pasturage. In +a district, such as the eye can command, there is a general herdsman, who +knows all the cattle of the neighbourhood, and whose station is upon a +hill, from which he surveys the lower grounds; and if one man's cattle +invade another's grass, drives them back to their own borders. But other +means of profit begin to be found; kelp is gathered and burnt, and sloops +are loaded with the concreted ashes. Cultivation is likely to be +improved by the skill and encouragement of the present heir, and the +inhabitants of those obscure vallies will partake of the general progress +of life. + +The rents of the parts which belong to the Duke of Argyle, have been +raised from fifty-five to one hundred and five pounds, whether from the +land or the sea I cannot tell. The bounties of the sea have lately been +so great, that a farm in Southuist has risen in ten years from a rent of +thirty pounds to one hundred and eighty. + +He who lives in Col, and finds himself condemned to solitary meals, and +incommunicable reflection, will find the usefulness of that middle order +of Tacksmen, which some who applaud their own wisdom are wishing to +destroy. Without intelligence man is not social, he is only gregarious; +and little intelligence will there be, where all are constrained to daily +labour, and every mind must wait upon the hand. + +After having listened for some days to the tempest, and wandered about +the Island till our curiosity was satisfied, we began to think about our +departure. To leave Col in October was not very easy. We however found +a sloop which lay on the coast to carry kelp; and for a price which we +thought levied upon our necessities, the master agreed to carry us to +Mull, whence we might readily pass back to Scotland. + + + + +MULL + + +As we were to catch the first favourable breath, we spent the night not +very elegantly nor pleasantly in the vessel, and were landed next day at +Tobor Morar, a port in Mull, which appears to an unexperienced eye formed +for the security of ships; for its mouth is closed by a small island, +which admits them through narrow channels into a bason sufficiently +capacious. They are indeed safe from the sea, but there is a hollow +between the mountains, through which the wind issues from the land with +very mischievous violence. + +There was no danger while we were there, and we found several other +vessels at anchor; so that the port had a very commercial appearance. + +The young Laird of Col, who had determined not to let us lose his +company, while there was any difficulty remaining, came over with us. His +influence soon appeared; for he procured us horses, and conducted us to +the house of Doctor Maclean, where we found very kind entertainment, and +very pleasing conversation. Miss Maclean, who was born, and had been +bred at Glasgow, having removed with her father to Mull, added to other +qualifications, a great knowledge of the Earse language, which she had +not learned in her childhood, but gained by study, and was the only +interpreter of Earse poetry that I could ever find. + +The Isle of Mull is perhaps in extent the third of the Hebrides. It is +not broken by waters, nor shot into promontories, but is a solid and +compact mass, of breadth nearly equal to its length. Of the dimensions +of the larger Islands, there is no knowledge approaching to exactness. I +am willing to estimate it as containing about three hundred square miles. + +Mull had suffered like Sky by the black winter of seventy-one, in which, +contrary to all experience, a continued frost detained the snow eight +weeks upon the ground. Against a calamity never known, no provision had +been made, and the people could only pine in helpless misery. One tenant +was mentioned, whose cattle perished to the value of three hundred +pounds; a loss which probably more than the life of man is necessary to +repair. In countries like these, the descriptions of famine become +intelligible. Where by vigorous and artful cultivation of a soil +naturally fertile, there is commonly a superfluous growth both of grain +and grass; where the fields are crowded with cattle; and where every hand +is able to attract wealth from a distance, by making something that +promotes ease, or gratifies vanity, a dear year produces only a +comparative want, which is rather seen than felt, and which terminates +commonly in no worse effect, than that of condemning the lower orders of +the community to sacrifice a little luxury to convenience, or at most a +little convenience to necessity. + +But where the climate is unkind, and the ground penurious, so that the +most fruitful years will produce only enough to maintain themselves; +where life unimproved, and unadorned, fades into something little more +than naked existence, and every one is busy for himself, without any arts +by which the pleasure of others may be increased; if to the daily burden +of distress any additional weight be added, nothing remains but to +despair and die. In Mull the disappointment of a harvest, or a murrain +among the cattle, cuts off the regular provision; and they who have no +manufactures can purchase no part of the superfluities of other +countries. The consequence of a bad season is here not scarcity, but +emptiness; and they whose plenty, was barely a supply of natural and +present need, when that slender stock fails, must perish with hunger. + +All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, +he may learn to improve his own, and if fortune carries him to worse, he +may learn to enjoy it. + +Mr. Boswell's curiosity strongly impelled him to survey Iona, or +Icolmkil, which was to the early ages the great school of Theology, and +is supposed to have been the place of sepulture for the ancient kings. I, +though less eager, did not oppose him. + +That we might perform this expedition, it was necessary to traverse a +great part of Mull. We passed a day at Dr. Maclean's, and could have +been well contented to stay longer. But Col provided us horses, and we +pursued our journey. This was a day of inconvenience, for the country is +very rough, and my horse was but little. We travelled many hours through +a tract, black and barren, in which, however, there were the reliques of +humanity; for we found a ruined chapel in our way. + +It is natural, in traversing this gloom of desolation, to inquire, +whether something may not be done to give nature a more cheerful face, +and whether those hills and moors that afford heath cannot with a little +care and labour bear something better? The first thought that occurs is +to cover them with trees, for that in many of these naked regions trees +will grow, is evident, because stumps and roots are yet remaining; and +the speculatist hastily proceeds to censure that negligence and laziness +that has omitted for so long a time so easy an improvement. + +To drop seeds into the ground, and attend their growth, requires little +labour and no skill. He who remembers that all the woods, by which the +wants of man have been supplied from the Deluge till now, were self-sown, +will not easily be persuaded to think all the art and preparation +necessary, which the Georgick writers prescribe to planters. Trees +certainly have covered the earth with very little culture. They wave +their tops among the rocks of Norway, and might thrive as well in the +Highlands and Hebrides. + +But there is a frightful interval between the seed and timber. He that +calculates the growth of trees, has the unwelcome remembrance of the +shortness of life driven hard upon him. He knows that he is doing what +will never benefit himself; and when he rejoices to see the stem rise, is +disposed to repine that another shall cut it down. + +Plantation is naturally the employment of a mind unburdened with care, +and vacant to futurity, saturated with present good, and at leisure to +derive gratification from the prospect of posterity. He that pines with +hunger, is in little care how others shall be fed. The poor man is +seldom studious to make his grandson rich. It may be soon discovered, +why in a place, which hardly supplies the cravings of necessity, there +has been little attention to the delights of fancy, and why distant +convenience is unregarded, where the thoughts are turned with incessant +solicitude upon every possibility of immediate advantage. + +Neither is it quite so easy to raise large woods, as may be conceived. +Trees intended to produce timber must be sown where they are to grow; and +ground sown with trees must be kept useless for a long time, inclosed at +an expence from which many will be discouraged by the remoteness of the +profit, and watched with that attention, which, in places where it is +most needed, will neither be given nor bought. That it cannot be plowed +is evident; and if cattle be suffered to graze upon it, they will devour +the plants as fast as they rise. Even in coarser countries, where herds +and flocks are not fed, not only the deer and the wild goats will browse +upon them, but the hare and rabbit will nibble them. It is therefore +reasonable to believe, what I do not remember any naturalist to have +remarked, that there was a time when the world was very thinly inhabited +by beasts, as well as men, and that the woods had leisure to rise high +before animals had bred numbers sufficient to intercept them. + +Sir James Macdonald, in part of the wastes of his territory, set or sowed +trees, to the number, as I have been told, of several millions, +expecting, doubtless, that they would grow up into future navies and +cities; but for want of inclosure, and of that care which is always +necessary, and will hardly ever be taken, all his cost and labour have +been lost, and the ground is likely to continue an useless heath. + +Having not any experience of a journey in Mull, we had no doubt of +reaching the sea by day-light, and therefore had not left Dr. Maclean's +very early. We travelled diligently enough, but found the country, for +road there was none, very difficult to pass. We were always struggling +with some obstruction or other, and our vexation was not balanced by any +gratification of the eye or mind. We were now long enough acquainted +with hills and heath to have lost the emotion that they once raised, +whether pleasing or painful, and had our mind employed only on our own +fatigue. We were however sure, under Col's protection, of escaping all +real evils. There was no house in Mull to which he could not introduce +us. He had intended to lodge us, for that night, with a gentleman that +lived upon the coast, but discovered on the way, that he then lay in bed +without hope of life. + +We resolved not to embarrass a family, in a time of so much sorrow, if +any other expedient could he found; and as the Island of Ulva was over- +against us, it was determined that we should pass the strait and have +recourse to the Laird, who, like the other gentlemen of the Islands, was +known to Col. We expected to find a ferry-boat, but when at last we came +to the water, the boat was gone. + +We were now again at a stop. It was the sixteenth of October, a time +when it is not convenient to sleep in the Hebrides without a cover, and +there was no house within our reach, but that which we had already +declined. + + + + +ULVA + + +While we stood deliberating, we were happily espied from an Irish ship, +that lay at anchor in the strait. The master saw that we wanted a +passage, and with great civility sent us his boat, which quickly conveyed +us to Ulva, where we were very liberally entertained by Mr. Macquarry. + +To Ulva we came in the dark, and left it before noon the next day. A +very exact description therefore will not be expected. We were told, +that it is an Island of no great extent, rough and barren, inhabited by +the Macquarrys; a clan not powerful nor numerous, but of antiquity, which +most other families are content to reverence. The name is supposed to be +a depravation of some other; for the Earse language does not afford it +any etymology. Macquarry is proprietor both of Ulva and some adjacent +Islands, among which is Staffa, so lately raised to renown by Mr. Banks. + +When the Islanders were reproached with their ignorance, or insensibility +of the wonders of Staffa, they had not much to reply. They had indeed +considered it little, because they had always seen it; and none but +philosophers, nor they always, are struck with wonder, otherwise than by +novelty. How would it surprise an unenlightened ploughman, to hear a +company of sober men, inquiring by what power the hand tosses a stone, or +why the stone, when it is tossed, falls to the ground! + +Of the ancestors of Macquarry, who thus lies hid in his unfrequented +Island, I have found memorials in all places where they could be +expected. + +Inquiring after the reliques of former manners, I found that in Ulva, +and, I think, no where else, is continued the payment of the Mercheta +Mulierum; a fine in old times due to the Laird at the marriage of a +virgin. The original of this claim, as of our tenure of Borough English, +is variously delivered. It is pleasant to find ancient customs in old +families. This payment, like others, was, for want of money, made +anciently in the produce of the land. Macquarry was used to demand a +sheep, for which he now takes a crown, by that inattention to the +uncertain proportion between the value and the denomination of money, +which has brought much disorder into Europe. A sheep has always the same +power of supplying human wants, but a crown will bring at one time more, +at another less. + +Ulva was not neglected by the piety of ardent times: it has still to show +what was once a church. + + + + +INCH KENNETH + + +In the morning we went again into the boat, and were landed on Inch +Kenneth, an Island about a mile long, and perhaps half a mile broad, +remarkable for pleasantness and fertility. It is verdant and grassy, and +fit both for pasture and tillage; but it has no trees. Its only +inhabitants were Sir Allan Maclean and two young ladies, his daughters, +with their servants. + +Romance does not often exhibit a scene that strikes the imagination more +than this little desert in these depths of Western obscurity, occupied +not by a gross herdsman, or amphibious fisherman, but by a gentleman and +two ladies, of high birth, polished manners and elegant conversation, +who, in a habitation raised not very far above the ground, but furnished +with unexpected neatness and convenience, practised all the kindness of +hospitality, and refinement of courtesy. + +Sir Allan is the Chieftain of the great clan of Maclean, which is said to +claim the second place among the Highland families, yielding only to +Macdonald. Though by the misconduct of his ancestors, most of the +extensive territory, which would have descended to him, has been +alienated, he still retains much of the dignity and authority of his +birth. When soldiers were lately wanting for the American war, +application was made to Sir Allan, and he nominated a hundred men for the +service, who obeyed the summons, and bore arms under his command. + +He had then, for some time, resided with the young ladies in Inch +Kenneth, where he lives not only with plenty, but with elegance, having +conveyed to his cottage a collection of books, and what else is necessary +to make his hours pleasant. + +When we landed, we were met by Sir Allan and the Ladies, accompanied by +Miss Macquarry, who had passed some time with them, and now returned to +Ulva with her father. + +We all walked together to the mansion, where we found one cottage for Sir +Allan, and I think two more for the domesticks and the offices. We +entered, and wanted little that palaces afford. Our room was neatly +floored, and well lighted; and our dinner, which was dressed in one of +the other huts, was plentiful and delicate. + +In the afternoon Sir Allan reminded us, that the day was Sunday, which he +never suffered to pass without some religious distinction, and invited us +to partake in his acts of domestick worship; which I hope neither Mr. +Boswell nor myself will be suspected of a disposition to refuse. The +elder of the Ladies read the English service. + +Inch Kenneth was once a seminary of ecclesiasticks, subordinate, I +suppose, to Icolmkill. Sir Allan had a mind to trace the foundations of +the college, but neither I nor Mr. Boswell, who bends a keener eye on +vacancy, were able to perceive them. + +Our attention, however, was sufficiently engaged by a venerable chapel, +which stands yet entire, except that the roof is gone. It is about sixty +feet in length, and thirty in breadth. On one side of the altar is a bas +relief of the blessed Virgin, and by it lies a little bell; which, though +cracked, and without a clapper, has remained there for ages, guarded only +by the venerableness of the place. The ground round the chapel is +covered with gravestones of Chiefs and ladies; and still continues to be +a place of sepulture. + +Inch Kenneth is a proper prelude to Icolmkill. It was not without some +mournful emotion that we contemplated the ruins of religious structures +and the monuments of the dead. + +On the next day we took a more distinct view of the place, and went with +the boat to see oysters in the bed, out of which the boatmen forced up as +many as were wanted. Even Inch Kenneth has a subordinate Island, named +Sandiland, I suppose in contempt, where we landed, and found a rock, with +a surface of perhaps four acres, of which one is naked stone, another +spread with sand and shells, some of which I picked up for their glossy +beauty, and two covered with a little earth and grass, on which Sir Allan +has a few sheep. I doubt not but when there was a college at Inch +Kenneth, there was a hermitage upon Sandiland. + +Having wandered over those extensive plains, we committed ourselves again +to the winds and waters; and after a voyage of about ten minutes, in +which we met with nothing very observable, were again safe upon dry +ground. + +We told Sir Allan our desire of visiting Icolmkill, and entreated him to +give us his protection, and his company. He thought proper to hesitate a +little, but the Ladies hinted, that as they knew he would not finally +refuse, he would do better if he preserved the grace of ready compliance. +He took their advice, and promised to carry us on the morrow in his boat. + +We passed the remaining part of the day in such amusements as were in our +power. Sir Allan related the American campaign, and at evening one of +the Ladies played on her harpsichord, while Col and Mr. Boswell danced a +Scottish reel with the other. + +We could have been easily persuaded to a longer stay upon Inch Kenneth, +but life will not be all passed in delight. The session at Edinburgh was +approaching, from which Mr. Boswell could not be absent. + +In the morning our boat was ready: it was high and strong. Sir Allan +victualled it for the day, and provided able rowers. We now parted from +the young Laird of Col, who had treated us with so much kindness, and +concluded his favours by consigning us to Sir Allan. Here we had the +last embrace of this amiable man, who, while these pages were preparing +to attest his virtues, perished in the passage between Ulva and Inch +Kenneth. + +Sir Allan, to whom the whole region was well known, told us of a very +remarkable cave, to which he would show us the way. We had been +disappointed already by one cave, and were not much elevated by the +expectation of another. + +It was yet better to see it, and we stopped at some rocks on the coast of +Mull. The mouth is fortified by vast fragments of stone, over which we +made our way, neither very nimbly, nor very securely. The place, +however, well repaid our trouble. The bottom, as far as the flood rushes +in, was encumbered with large pebbles, but as we advanced was spread over +with smooth sand. The breadth is about forty-five feet: the roof rises +in an arch, almost regular, to a height which we could not measure; but I +think it about thirty feet. + +This part of our curiosity was nearly frustrated; for though we went to +see a cave, and knew that caves are dark, we forgot to carry tapers, and +did not discover our omission till we were wakened by our wants. Sir +Allan then sent one of the boatmen into the country, who soon returned +with one little candle. We were thus enabled to go forward, but could +not venture far. Having passed inward from the sea to a great depth, we +found on the right hand a narrow passage, perhaps not more than six feet +wide, obstructed by great stones, over which we climbed and came into a +second cave, in breadth twenty-five feet. The air in this apartment was +very warm, but not oppressive, nor loaded with vapours. Our light showed +no tokens of a feculent or corrupted atmosphere. Here was a square +stone, called, as we are told, Fingal's Table. + +If we had been provided with torches, we should have proceeded in our +search, though we had already gone as far as any former adventurer, +except some who are reported never to have returned; and, measuring our +way back, we found it more than a hundred and sixty yards, the eleventh +part of a mile. + +Our measures were not critically exact, having been made with a walking +pole, such as it is convenient to carry in these rocky countries, of +which I guessed the length by standing against it. In this there could +be no great errour, nor do I much doubt but the Highlander, whom we +employed, reported the number right. More nicety however is better, and +no man should travel unprovided with instruments for taking heights and +distances. + +There is yet another cause of errour not always easily surmounted, though +more dangerous to the veracity of itinerary narratives, than imperfect +mensuration. An observer deeply impressed by any remarkable spectacle, +does not suppose, that the traces will soon vanish from his mind, and +having commonly no great convenience for writing, defers the description +to a time of more leisure, and better accommodation. + +He who has not made the experiment, or who is not accustomed to require +rigorous accuracy from himself, will scarcely believe how much a few +hours take from certainty of knowledge, and distinctness of imagery; how +the succession of objects will be broken, how separate parts will be +confused, and how many particular features and discriminations will be +compressed and conglobated into one gross and general idea. + +To this dilatory notation must be imputed the false relations of +travellers, where there is no imaginable motive to deceive. They trusted +to memory, what cannot be trusted safely but to the eye, and told by +guess what a few hours before they had known with certainty. Thus it was +that Wheeler and Spon described with irreconcilable contrariety things +which they surveyed together, and which both undoubtedly designed to show +as they saw them. + +When we had satisfied our curiosity in the cave, so far as our penury of +light permitted us, we clambered again to our boat, and proceeded along +the coast of Mull to a headland, called Atun, remarkable for the columnar +form of the rocks, which rise in a series of pilasters, with a degree of +regularity, which Sir Allan thinks not less worthy of curiosity than the +shore of Staffa. + +Not long after we came to another range of black rocks, which had the +appearance of broken pilasters, set one behind another to a great depth. +This place was chosen by Sir Allan for our dinner. We were easily +accommodated with seats, for the stones were of all heights, and +refreshed ourselves and our boatmen, who could have no other rest till we +were at Icolmkill. + +The evening was now approaching, and we were yet at a considerable +distance from the end of our expedition. We could therefore stop no more +to make remarks in the way, but set forward with some degree of +eagerness. The day soon failed us, and the moon presented a very solemn +and pleasing scene. The sky was clear, so that the eye commanded a wide +circle: the sea was neither still nor turbulent: the wind neither silent +nor loud. We were never far from one coast or another, on which, if the +weather had become violent, we could have found shelter, and therefore +contemplated at ease the region through which we glided in the +tranquillity of the night, and saw now a rock and now an island grow +gradually conspicuous and gradually obscure. I committed the fault which +I have just been censuring, in neglecting, as we passed, to note the +series of this placid navigation. + +We were very near an Island, called Nun's Island, perhaps from an ancient +convent. Here is said to have been dug the stone that was used in the +buildings of Icolmkill. Whether it is now inhabited we could not stay to +inquire. + +At last we came to Icolmkill, but found no convenience for landing. Our +boat could not be forced very near the dry ground, and our Highlanders +carried us over the water. + +We were now treading that illustrious Island, which was once the luminary +of the Caledonian regions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians +derived the benefits of knowledge, and the blessings of religion. To +abstract the mind from all local emotion would be impossible, if it were +endeavoured, and would be foolish, if it were possible. Whatever +withdraws us from the power of our senses; whatever makes the past, the +distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the +dignity of thinking beings. Far from me and from my friends, be such +frigid philosophy as may conduct us indifferent and unmoved over any +ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue. That man +is little to be envied, whose patriotism would not gain force upon the +plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins +of Iona! + +We came too late to visit monuments: some care was necessary for +ourselves. Whatever was in the Island, Sir Allan could command, for the +inhabitants were Macleans; but having little they could not give us much. +He went to the headman of the Island, whom Fame, but Fame delights in +amplifying, represents as worth no less than fifty pounds. He was +perhaps proud enough of his guests, but ill prepared for our +entertainment; however, he soon produced more provision than men not +luxurious require. Our lodging was next to be provided. We found a barn +well stocked with hay, and made our beds as soft as we could. + +In the morning we rose and surveyed the place. The churches of the two +convents are both standing, though unroofed. They were built of unhewn +stone, but solid, and not inelegant. I brought away rude measures of the +buildings, such as I cannot much trust myself, inaccurately taken, and +obscurely noted. Mr. Pennant's delineations, which are doubtless exact, +have made my unskilful description less necessary. + +The episcopal church consists of two parts, separated by the belfry, and +built at different times. The original church had, like others, the +altar at one end, and tower at the other: but as it grew too small, +another building of equal dimension was added, and the tower then was +necessarily in the middle. + +That these edifices are of different ages seems evident. The arch of the +first church is Roman, being part of a circle; that of the additional +building is pointed, and therefore Gothick, or Saracenical; the tower is +firm, and wants only to be floored and covered. + +Of the chambers or cells belonging to the monks, there are some walls +remaining, but nothing approaching to a complete apartment. + +The bottom of the church is so incumbered with mud and rubbish, that we +could make no discoveries of curious inscriptions, and what there are +have been already published. The place is said to be known where the +black stones lie concealed, on which the old Highland Chiefs, when they +made contracts and alliances, used to take the oath, which was considered +as more sacred than any other obligation, and which could not be violated +without the blackest infamy. In those days of violence and rapine, it +was of great importance to impress upon savage minds the sanctity of an +oath, by some particular and extraordinary circumstances. They would not +have recourse to the black stones, upon small or common occasions, and +when they had established their faith by this tremendous sanction, +inconstancy and treachery were no longer feared. + +The chapel of the nunnery is now used by the inhabitants as a kind of +general cow-house, and the bottom is consequently too miry for +examination. Some of the stones which covered the later abbesses have +inscriptions, which might yet be read, if the chapel were cleansed. The +roof of this, as of all the other buildings, is totally destroyed, not +only because timber quickly decays when it is neglected, but because in +an island utterly destitute of wood, it was wanted for use, and was +consequently the first plunder of needy rapacity. + +The chancel of the nuns' chapel is covered with an arch of stone, to +which time has done no injury; and a small apartment communicating with +the choir, on the north side, like the chapter-house in cathedrals, +roofed with stone in the same manner, is likewise entire. + +In one of the churches was a marble altar, which the superstition of the +inhabitants has destroyed. Their opinion was, that a fragment of this +stone was a defence against shipwrecks, fire, and miscarriages. In one +corner of the church the bason for holy water is yet unbroken. + +The cemetery of the nunnery was, till very lately, regarded with such +reverence, that only women were buried in it. These reliques of +veneration always produce some mournful pleasure. I could have forgiven +a great injury more easily than the violation of this imaginary sanctity. + +South of the chapel stand the walls of a large room, which was probably +the hall, or refectory of the nunnery. This apartment is capable of +repair. Of the rest of the convent there are only fragments. + +Besides the two principal churches, there are, I think, five chapels yet +standing, and three more remembered. There are also crosses, of which +two bear the names of St. John and St. Matthew. + +A large space of ground about these consecrated edifices is covered with +gravestones, few of which have any inscription. He that surveys it, +attended by an insular antiquary, may be told where the Kings of many +nations are buried, and if he loves to sooth his imagination with the +thoughts that naturally rise in places where the great and the powerful +lie mingled with the dust, let him listen in submissive silence; for if +he asks any questions, his delight is at an end. + +Iona has long enjoyed, without any very credible attestation, the honour +of being reputed the cemetery of the Scottish Kings. It is not unlikely, +that, when the opinion of local sanctity was prevalent, the Chieftains of +the Isles, and perhaps some of the Norwegian or Irish princes were +reposited in this venerable enclosure. But by whom the subterraneous +vaults are peopled is now utterly unknown. The graves are very numerous, +and some of them undoubtedly contain the remains of men, who did not +expect to be so soon forgotten. + +Not far from this awful ground, may be traced the garden of the +monastery: the fishponds are yet discernible, and the aqueduct, which +supplied them, is still in use. + +There remains a broken building, which is called the Bishop's house, I +know not by what authority. It was once the residence of some man above +the common rank, for it has two stories and a chimney. We were shewn a +chimney at the other end, which was only a nich, without perforation, but +so much does antiquarian credulity, or patriotick vanity prevail, that it +was not much more safe to trust the eye of our instructor than the +memory. + +There is in the Island one house more, and only one, that has a chimney: +we entered it, and found it neither wanting repair nor inhabitants; but +to the farmers, who now possess it, the chimney is of no great value; for +their fire was made on the floor, in the middle of the room, and +notwithstanding the dignity of their mansion, they rejoiced, like their +neighbours, in the comforts of smoke. + +It is observed, that ecclesiastical colleges are always in the most +pleasant and fruitful places. While the world allowed the monks their +choice, it is surely no dishonour that they chose well. This Island is +remarkably fruitful. The village near the churches is said to contain +seventy families, which, at five in a family, is more than a hundred +inhabitants to a mile. There are perhaps other villages: yet both corn +and cattle are annually exported. + +But the fruitfulness of Iona is now its whole prosperity. The +inhabitants are remarkably gross, and remarkably neglected: I know not if +they are visited by any Minister. The Island, which was once the +metropolis of learning and piety, has now no school for education, nor +temple for worship, only two inhabitants that can speak English, and not +one that can write or read. + +The people are of the clan of Maclean; and though Sir Allan had not been +in the place for many years, he was received with all the reverence due +to their Chieftain. One of them being sharply reprehended by him, for +not sending him some rum, declared after his departure, in Mr. Boswell's +presence, that he had no design of disappointing him, 'for,' said he, 'I +would cut my bones for him; and if he had sent his dog for it, he should +have had it.' + +When we were to depart, our boat was left by the ebb at a great distance +from the water, but no sooner did we wish it afloat, than the islanders +gathered round it, and, by the union of many hands, pushed it down the +beach; every man who could contribute his help seemed to think himself +happy in the opportunity of being, for a moment, useful to his Chief. + +We now left those illustrious ruins, by which Mr. Boswell was much +affected, nor would I willingly be thought to have looked upon them +without some emotion. Perhaps, in the revolutions of the world, Iona may +be sometime again the instructress of the Western Regions. + +It was no long voyage to Mull, where, under Sir Allan's protection, we +landed in the evening, and were entertained for the night by Mr. Maclean, +a Minister that lives upon the coast, whose elegance of conversation, and +strength of judgment, would make him conspicuous in places of greater +celebrity. Next day we dined with Dr. Maclean, another physician, and +then travelled on to the house of a very powerful Laird, Maclean of +Lochbuy; for in this country every man's name is Maclean. + +Where races are thus numerous, and thus combined, none but the Chief of a +clan is addressed by his name. The Laird of Dunvegan is called Macleod, +but other gentlemen of the same family are denominated by the places +where they reside, as Raasa, or Talisker. The distinction of the meaner +people is made by their Christian names. In consequence of this +practice, the late Laird of Macfarlane, an eminent genealogist, +considered himself as disrespectfully treated, if the common addition was +applied to him. Mr. Macfarlane, said he, may with equal propriety be +said to many; but I, and I only, am Macfarlane. + +Our afternoon journey was through a country of such gloomy desolation, +that Mr. Boswell thought no part of the Highlands equally terrifick, yet +we came without any difficulty, at evening, to Lochbuy, where we found a +true Highland Laird, rough and haughty, and tenacious of his dignity; +who, hearing my name, inquired whether I was of the Johnstons of +Glencroe, or of Ardnamurchan. + +Lochbuy has, like the other insular Chieftains, quitted the castle that +sheltered his ancestors, and lives near it, in a mansion not very +spacious or splendid. I have seen no houses in the Islands much to be +envied for convenience or magnificence, yet they bare testimony to the +progress of arts and civility, as they shew that rapine and surprise are +no longer dreaded, and are much more commodious than the ancient +fortresses. + +The castles of the Hebrides, many of which are standing, and many ruined, +were always built upon points of land, on the margin of the sea. For the +choice of this situation there must have been some general reason, which +the change of manners has left in obscurity. They were of no use in the +days of piracy, as defences of the coast; for it was equally accessible +in other places. Had they been sea-marks or light-houses, they would +have been of more use to the invader than the natives, who could want no +such directions of their own waters: for a watch-tower, a cottage on a +hill would have been better, as it would have commanded a wider view. + +If they be considered merely as places of retreat, the situation seems +not well chosen; for the Laird of an Island is safest from foreign +enemies in the center; on the coast he might be more suddenly surprised +than in the inland parts; and the invaders, if their enterprise +miscarried, might more easily retreat. Some convenience, however, +whatever it was, their position on the shore afforded; for uniformity of +practice seldom continues long without good reason. + +A castle in the Islands is only a single tower of three or four stories, +of which the walls are sometimes eight or nine feet thick, with narrow +windows, and close winding stairs of stone. The top rises in a cone, or +pyramid of stone, encompassed by battlements. The intermediate floors +are sometimes frames of timber, as in common houses, and sometimes arches +of stone, or alternately stone and timber; so that there was very little +danger from fire. In the center of every floor, from top to bottom, is +the chief room, of no great extent, round which there are narrow +cavities, or recesses, formed by small vacuities, or by a double wall. I +know not whether there be ever more than one fire-place. They had not +capacity to contain many people, or much provision; but their enemies +could seldom stay to blockade them; for if they failed in the first +attack, their next care was to escape. + +The walls were always too strong to be shaken by such desultory +hostilities; the windows were too narrow to be entered, and the +battlements too high to be scaled. The only danger was at the gates, +over which the wall was built with a square cavity, not unlike a chimney, +continued to the top. Through this hollow the defendants let fall stones +upon those who attempted to break the gate, and poured down water, +perhaps scalding water, if the attack was made with fire. The castle of +Lochbuy was secured by double doors, of which the outer was an iron +grate. + +In every castle is a well and a dungeon. The use of the well is evident. +The dungeon is a deep subterraneous cavity, walled on the sides, and +arched on the top, into which the descent is through a narrow door, by a +ladder or a rope, so that it seems impossible to escape, when the rope or +ladder is drawn up. The dungeon was, I suppose, in war, a prison for +such captives as were treated with severity, and, in peace, for such +delinquents as had committed crimes within the Laird's jurisdiction; for +the mansions of many Lairds were, till the late privation of their +privileges, the halls of justice to their own tenants. + +As these fortifications were the productions of mere necessity, they are +built only for safety, with little regard to convenience, and with none +to elegance or pleasure. It was sufficient for a Laird of the Hebrides, +if he had a strong house, in which he could hide his wife and children +from the next clan. That they are not large nor splendid is no wonder. +It is not easy to find how they were raised, such as they are, by men who +had no money, in countries where the labourers and artificers could +scarcely be fed. The buildings in different parts of the Island shew +their degrees of wealth and power. I believe that for all the castles +which I have seen beyond the Tweed, the ruins yet remaining of some one +of those which the English built in Wales, would supply materials. + +These castles afford another evidence that the fictions of romantick +chivalry had for their basis the real manners of the feudal times, when +every Lord of a seignory lived in his hold lawless and unaccountable, +with all the licentiousness and insolence of uncontested superiority and +unprincipled power. The traveller, whoever he might be, coming to the +fortified habitation of a Chieftain, would, probably, have been +interrogated from the battlements, admitted with caution at the gate, +introduced to a petty Monarch, fierce with habitual hostility, and +vigilant with ignorant suspicion; who, according to his general temper, +or accidental humour, would have seated a stranger as his guest at the +table, or as a spy confined him in the dungeon. + +Lochbuy means the Yellow Lake, which is the name given to an inlet of the +sea, upon which the castle of Mr. Maclean stands. The reason of the +appellation we did not learn. + +We were now to leave the Hebrides, where we had spent some weeks with +sufficient amusement, and where we had amplified our thoughts with new +scenes of nature, and new modes of life. More time would have given us a +more distinct view, but it was necessary that Mr. Boswell should return +before the courts of justice were opened; and it was not proper to live +too long upon hospitality, however liberally imparted. + +Of these Islands it must be confessed, that they have not many +allurements, but to the mere lover of naked nature. The inhabitants are +thin, provisions are scarce, and desolation and penury give little +pleasure. + +The people collectively considered are not few, though their numbers are +small in proportion to the space which they occupy. Mull is said to +contain six thousand, and Sky fifteen thousand. Of the computation +respecting Mull, I can give no account; but when I doubted the truth of +the numbers attributed to Sky, one of the Ministers exhibited such facts +as conquered my incredulity. + +Of the proportion, which the product of any region bears to the people, +an estimate is commonly made according to the pecuniary price of the +necessaries of life; a principle of judgment which is never certain, +because it supposes what is far from truth, that the value of money is +always the same, and so measures an unknown quantity by an uncertain +standard. It is competent enough when the markets of the same country, +at different times, and those times not too distant, are to be compared; +but of very little use for the purpose of making one nation acquainted +with the state of another. Provisions, though plentiful, are sold in +places of great pecuniary opulence for nominal prices, to which, however +scarce, where gold and silver are yet scarcer, they can never be raised. + +In the Western Islands there is so little internal commerce, that hardly +any thing has a known or settled rate. The price of things brought in, +or carried out, is to be considered as that of a foreign market; and even +this there is some difficulty in discovering, because their denominations +of quantity are different from ours; and when there is ignorance on both +sides, no appeal can be made to a common measure. + +This, however, is not the only impediment. The Scots, with a vigilance +of jealousy which never goes to sleep, always suspect that an Englishman +despises them for their poverty, and to convince him that they are not +less rich than their neighbours, are sure to tell him a price higher than +the true. When Lesley, two hundred years ago, related so punctiliously, +that a hundred hen eggs, new laid, were sold in the Islands for a peny, +he supposed that no inference could possibly follow, but that eggs were +in great abundance. Posterity has since grown wiser; and having learned, +that nominal and real value may differ, they now tell no such stories, +lest the foreigner should happen to collect, not that eggs are many, but +that pence are few. + +Money and wealth have by the use of commercial language been so long +confounded, that they are commonly supposed to be the same; and this +prejudice has spread so widely in Scotland, that I know not whether I +found man or woman, whom I interrogated concerning payments of money, +that could surmount the illiberal desire of deceiving me, by representing +every thing as dearer than it is. + +From Lochbuy we rode a very few miles to the side of Mull, which faces +Scotland, where, having taken leave of our kind protector, Sir Allan, we +embarked in a boat, in which the seat provided for our accommodation was +a heap of rough brushwood; and on the twenty-second of October reposed at +a tolerable inn on the main land. + +On the next day we began our journey southwards. The weather was +tempestuous. For half the day the ground was rough, and our horses were +still small. Had they required much restraint, we might have been +reduced to difficulties; for I think we had amongst us but one bridle. We +fed the poor animals liberally, and they performed their journey well. In +the latter part of the day, we came to a firm and smooth road, made by +the soldiers, on which we travelled with great security, busied with +contemplating the scene about us. The night came on while we had yet a +great part of the way to go, though not so dark, but that we could +discern the cataracts which poured down the hills, on one side, and fell +into one general channel that ran with great violence on the other. The +wind was loud, the rain was heavy, and the whistling of the blast, the +fall of the shower, the rush of the cataracts, and the roar of the +torrent, made a nobler chorus of the rough musick of nature than it had +ever been my chance to hear before. The streams, which ran cross the way +from the hills to the main current, were so frequent, that after a while +I began to count them; and, in ten miles, reckoned fifty-five, probably +missing some, and having let some pass before they forced themselves upon +my notice. At last we came to Inverary, where we found an inn, not only +commodious, but magnificent. + +The difficulties of peregrination were now at an end. Mr. Boswell had +the honour of being known to the Duke of Argyle, by whom we were very +kindly entertained at his splendid seat, and supplied with conveniences +for surveying his spacious park and rising forests. + +After two days stay at Inverary we proceeded Southward over Glencroe, a +black and dreary region, now made easily passable by a military road, +which rises from either end of the glen by an acclivity not dangerously +steep, but sufficiently laborious. In the middle, at the top of the +hill, is a seat with this inscription, 'Rest, and be thankful.' Stones +were placed to mark the distances, which the inhabitants have taken away, +resolved, they said, 'to have no new miles.' + +In this rainy season the hills streamed with waterfalls, which, crossing +the way, formed currents on the other side, that ran in contrary +directions as they fell to the north or south of the summit. Being, by +the favour of the Duke, well mounted, I went up and down the hill with +great convenience. + +From Glencroe we passed through a pleasant country to the banks of Loch +Lomond, and were received at the house of Sir James Colquhoun, who is +owner of almost all the thirty islands of the Loch, which we went in a +boat next morning to survey. The heaviness of the rain shortened our +voyage, but we landed on one island planted with yew, and stocked with +deer, and on another containing perhaps not more than half an acre, +remarkable for the ruins of an old castle, on which the osprey builds her +annual nest. Had Loch Lomond been in a happier climate, it would have +been the boast of wealth and vanity to own one of the little spots which +it incloses, and to have employed upon it all the arts of embellishment. +But as it is, the islets, which court the gazer at a distance, disgust +him at his approach, when he finds, instead of soft lawns; and shady +thickets, nothing more than uncultivated ruggedness. + +Where the Loch discharges itself into a river, called the Leven, we +passed a night with Mr. Smollet, a relation of Doctor Smollet, to whose +memory he has raised an obelisk on the bank near the house in which he +was born. The civility and respect which we found at every place, it is +ungrateful to omit, and tedious to repeat. Here we were met by a post- +chaise, that conveyed us to Glasgow. + +To describe a city so much frequented as Glasgow, is unnecessary. The +prosperity of its commerce appears by the greatness of many private +houses, and a general appearance of wealth. It is the only episcopal +city whose cathedral was left standing in the rage of Reformation. It is +now divided into many separate places of worship, which, taken all +together, compose a great pile, that had been some centuries in building, +but was never finished; for the change of religion intercepted its +progress, before the cross isle was added, which seems essential to a +Gothick cathedral. + +The college has not had a sufficient share of the increasing magnificence +of the place. The session was begun; for it commences on the tenth of +October and continues to the tenth of June, but the students appeared not +numerous, being, I suppose, not yet returned from their several homes. +The division of the academical year into one session, and one recess, +seems to me better accommodated to the present state of life, than that +variegation of time by terms and vacations derived from distant +centuries, in which it was probably convenient, and still continued in +the English universities. So many solid months as the Scotch scheme of +education joins together, allow and encourage a plan for each part of the +year; but with us, he that has settled himself to study in the college is +soon tempted into the country, and he that has adjusted his life in the +country, is summoned back to his college. + +Yet when I have allowed to the universities of Scotland a more rational +distribution of time, I have given them, so far as my inquiries have +informed me, all that they can claim. The students, for the most part, +go thither boys, and depart before they are men; they carry with them +little fundamental knowledge, and therefore the superstructure cannot be +lofty. The grammar schools are not generally well supplied; for the +character of a school-master being there less honourable than in England, +is seldom accepted by men who are capable to adorn it, and where the +school has been deficient, the college can effect little. + +Men bred in the universities of Scotland cannot be expected to be often +decorated with the splendours of ornamental erudition, but they obtain a +mediocrity of knowledge, between learning and ignorance, not inadequate +to the purposes of common life, which is, I believe, very widely diffused +among them, and which countenanced in general by a national combination +so invidious, that their friends cannot defend it, and actuated in +particulars by a spirit of enterprise, so vigorous, that their enemies +are constrained to praise it, enables them to find, or to make their way +to employment, riches, and distinction. + +From Glasgow we directed our course to Auchinleck, an estate devolved, +through a long series of ancestors, to Mr. Boswell's father, the present +possessor. In our way we found several places remarkable enough in +themselves, but already described by those who viewed them at more +leisure, or with much more skill; and stopped two days at Mr. Campbell's, +a gentleman married to Mr. Boswell's sister. + +Auchinleck, which signifies a stony field, seems not now to have any +particular claim to its denomination. It is a district generally level, +and sufficiently fertile, but like all the Western side of Scotland, +incommoded by very frequent rain. It was, with the rest of the country, +generally naked, till the present possessor finding, by the growth of +some stately trees near his old castle, that the ground was favourable +enough to timber, adorned it very diligently with annual plantations. + +Lord Auchinleck, who is one of the Judges of Scotland, and therefore not +wholly at leisure for domestick business or pleasure, has yet found time +to make improvements in his patrimony. He has built a house of hewn +stone, very stately, and durable, and has advanced the value of his lands +with great tenderness to his tenants. + +I was, however, less delighted with the elegance of the modern mansion, +than with the sullen dignity of the old castle. I clambered with Mr. +Boswell among the ruins, which afford striking images of ancient life. It +is, like other castles, built upon a point of rock, and was, I believe, +anciently surrounded with a moat. There is another rock near it, to +which the drawbridge, when it was let down, is said to have reached. +Here, in the ages of tumult and rapine, the Laird was surprised and +killed by the neighbouring Chief, who perhaps might have extinguished the +family, had he not in a few days been seized and hanged, together with +his sons, by Douglas, who came with his forces to the relief of +Auchinleck. + +At no great distance from the house runs a pleasing brook, by a red rock, +out of which has been hewn a very agreeable and commodious summer-house, +at less expence, as Lord Auchinleck told me, than would have been +required to build a room of the same dimensions. The rock seems to have +no more dampness than any other wall. Such opportunities of variety it +is judicious not to neglect. + +We now returned to Edinburgh, where I passed some days with men of +learning, whose names want no advancement from my commemoration, or with +women of elegance, which perhaps disclaims a pedant's praise. + +The conversation of the Scots grows every day less unpleasing to the +English; their peculiarities wear fast away; their dialect is likely to +become in half a century provincial and rustick, even to themselves. The +great, the learned, the ambitious, and the vain, all cultivate the +English phrase, and the English pronunciation, and in splendid companies +Scotch is not much heard, except now and then from an old Lady. + +There is one subject of philosophical curiosity to be found in Edinburgh, +which no other city has to shew; a college of the deaf and dumb, who are +taught to speak, to read, to write, and to practice arithmetick, by a +gentleman, whose name is Braidwood. The number which attends him is, I +think, about twelve, which he brings together into a little school, and +instructs according to their several degrees of proficiency. + +I do not mean to mention the instruction of the deaf as new. Having been +first practised upon the son of a constable of Spain, it was afterwards +cultivated with much emulation in England, by Wallis and Holder, and was +lately professed by Mr. Baker, who once flattered me with hopes of seeing +his method published. How far any former teachers have succeeded, it is +not easy to know; the improvement of Mr. Braidwood's pupils is wonderful. +They not only speak, write, and understand what is written, but if he +that speaks looks towards them, and modifies his organs by distinct and +full utterance, they know so well what is spoken, that it is an +expression scarcely figurative to say, they hear with the eye. That any +have attained to the power mentioned by Burnet, of feeling sounds, by +laying a hand on the speaker's mouth, I know not; but I have seen so +much, that I can believe more; a single word, or a short sentence, I +think, may possibly be so distinguished. + +It will readily be supposed by those that consider this subject, that Mr. +Braidwood's scholars spell accurately. Orthography is vitiated among +such as learn first to speak, and then to write, by imperfect notions of +the relation between letters and vocal utterance; but to those students +every character is of equal importance; for letters are to them not +symbols of names, but of things; when they write they do not represent a +sound, but delineate a form. + +This school I visited, and found some of the scholars waiting for their +master, whom they are said to receive at his entrance with smiling +countenances and sparkling eyes, delighted with the hope of new ideas. +One of the young Ladies had her slate before her, on which I wrote a +question consisting of three figures, to be multiplied by two figures. +She looked upon it, and quivering her fingers in a manner which I thought +very pretty, but of which I know not whether it was art or play, +multiplied the sum regularly in two lines, observing the decimal place; +but did not add the two lines together, probably disdaining so easy an +operation. I pointed at the place where the sum total should stand, and +she noted it with such expedition as seemed to shew that she had it only +to write. + +It was pleasing to see one of the most desperate of human calamities +capable of so much help; whatever enlarges hope, will exalt courage; +after having seen the deaf taught arithmetick, who would be afraid to +cultivate the Hebrides? + +Such are the things which this journey has given me an opportunity of +seeing, and such are the reflections which that sight has raised. Having +passed my time almost wholly in cities, I may have been surprised by +modes of life and appearances of nature, that are familiar to men of +wider survey and more varied conversation. Novelty and ignorance must +always be reciprocal, and I cannot but be conscious that my thoughts on +national manners, are the thoughts of one who has seen but little. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A JOURNEY TO THE WESTERN ISLES OF +SCOTLAND*** + + +******* This file should be named 2064.txt or 2064.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/6/2064 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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