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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.

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.

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 At Nairn we may fix the verge of the Highwhich was doubtless issued after the reforma-lands; for here I first saw peat fires, and first tion, directing that the lead, which covers the heard the Erse language. We had no motive two cathedrals of Elgin and Aberdeen, shall be to stay longer than to breakfast, and went fortaken away, and converted into money for the ward to the house of Mr. Macaulay, the minis support of the army. A Scotch army was in ter, who published an account of St. Kilda, those times very cheaply kept; yet the lead of and by his direction visited Calder Castle, from two churches must have borne so small a pro- which Macbeth drew his second title. It has portion to any military expense, that it is hard been formerly a place of strength. The drawnot to believe the reason alleged to be merely bridge is still to be seen, but the moat is now dry. popular, and the money intended for some pri- The tower is very ancient. Its walls are of great vate purse. The order, however, was obeyed; thickness, arched on the top with stone, and surthe two churches were stripped, and the lead was rounded with battlements. The rest of the house shipped to be sold in Holland. I hope every is later, though far from modern. 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 Scotch 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 to the old city.

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 Governor, 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 vallies 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 regu lar 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 We had now a prelude to the Highlands. Wel long considered as peculiarly elegant.

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.

Here is a castle, called the castle of Macbeth, I could have hired no horses beyond Inverness, the walls of which are yet standing. It was no and we were not so sparing of ourselves as to very capacious edifice, but stands upon a rocklead them, merely that we might have one day so high and steep, that I think it was once not longer the indulgence of a carriage. 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.

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 Yet what the Romans did to other nations, is not to be imagined without experience, how in was in a great degree done by Cromwell to the climbing crags, and treading bogs, and winding Scots; he civilized them by conquest, and in- through narrow and obstructed passages, a littroduced by useful violence the arts of peace. Itle bulk will hinder, and a little weight will burwas 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 show that shoes may be spared; they are not yet considered as necessaries of life; for tall boys, not otherwise neanly 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 elegances, 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 Delicia 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 domestic life unformed; their tables were coarse as the feasts of Eskimeaux, and their houses filthy as the cottages of Hottentots.

den; 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 show 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 com panion said, that he would tire any horse in Inverness. Both of them were civil and readyhanded. 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 laid through the whole clan. But they are not commonly dexterous: their narrowness of life con fines them to a few operations, and they are accustomed to endure little wants more than to remove them.

We mounted our steeds on the twenty-eighth of August, and directed our guides to conduct us to Fort Augustus. It is built at the head of Longh 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 Since they have known that their condition little care to hold the bridle, and were therefore was capable of improvement, their progress in at full leisure for contemplation. On the left useful knowledge has been rapid and uniform. were high and steep rocks shaded with birch, What remains to be done they will quickly do, the hardy native of the north, and covered with and then wonder, like me, why that which was fern or heath. On the right the limpid waters of so necessary and so easy was so long delayed. Lough Ness were beating their bank, and waving But they must be for ever content to owe to the their surface by a gentle agitation. Peyond English that elegance and culture, which, if they them were rocks sometimes covered with verhad been vigilant and active, perhaps the Eng-dure, and sometimes towering in horrid nakedlish might have owed to them.

ness. Now and then we espied a little corn. field, which served to impress more strongly the general barrenness.

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 Lough Ness is about twenty-four miles long, common. There is, I think, a kirk in which and from one mile to two miles broad. It is reonly the Erse language is used. There is like-markable that Boethius, in his description of wis an English chapel, but meanly built, where on Sunday we saw a very decent congregation.

Scotland, gives it twelve miles of breadth. When historians or geographers exhibit false accounts of places far distant, they may be forgiven, be We were now to bid farewell to the luxury of cause they can tell but what they are told; and travelling, and to enter a country upon which that their accounts exceed the truth, may be justperhaps no wheel has ever rolled. We couldly supposed, because most men exaggerate to indeed have and our postchais" one day longer, others, if not along the military road to Fort Augustus, but wel at no gre

yes: but Boetbins lived never saw the lake,

626

he must have been very incurious, and if he had
seen it, his veracity yielded to very slight temp-for the most part with some tendency to ciren
A hut is constructed with loose stones, ranged

tations.

Lough Ness, though not twelve miles broad, not act upon it with violence, because it has no larity. It must be placed where the wind canis a very remarkable diffusion of water without cement; and where the water will run easily islands. It fills a large hollow between two away, because it has no floor but the naked ridges of high rocks, being supplied partly by ground. The wall, which is commonly about the torrents which fall into it on either side, and six feet high, declines from the perpendicula a partly, as is supposed, by springs at the bottom.little inward. Such rafters as can be procured Its water is remarkably clear and pleasant, and are then raised for a roof, and covered with 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.

heath, which makes a strong and warm thatch, kept from flying off by ropes of twisted heath, of which the ends, reaching from the centre of the thatch to the top of the wall, are held firm by the weight of a large stone. in the thatch, which gives vent to the smoke.mitted but at the entrance, and through a hole No light is adThis 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 that palaces; and this which we were inspecting was very far from one of the meanest, for it was divided into several apartments; and its inhabi tants possessed such property as a pastoral port might exalt into riches.

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 so few 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 agilate than congeal, or it is kept in perpetual boiling goat's flesh in a kettle. She spoke little When we entered, we found an old woman motion by the rush of streams from the rocks English, but we had interpreters at hand, and that enclose it. Its profundity, though it should she was willing enough to display her whole be such as is represented, can have little part in system of economy. She has five children, of this exemption; for though deep wells are not which none are yet gone from her. The eldest, frozen, because their water is secluded from the a boy of thirteen, and her husband, who is eighty external air, yet, where a wide surface is exposed years old, were at work in the wood. Her two to the full influence of a freezing atmosphere, I next sons were gone to Inverness to buy meal, know not why the depth should keep it open.-by which oatmeal is always meant. Natural philosophy is now one of the favourite considered as expensive food, and told us, that studies of the Scottish nation, and Lough Ness in spring, when the goats gave milk, the children Meal she well deserves to be diligently examined. goats, and I saw many kids in an enclosure at could live without it. She is mistress of sixty the end of her house. She had also some poul try. By the lake we saw a potato-garden, and a small spot of ground on which stood four shocks, 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.

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 Eng-us to sit down and drink whisky. She is relilish lane, except that an English lane is almost gious, and though the kirk is four miles off, proWith the true pastoral hospitality, she asked always dirty. It has been made with great la-bably eight English miles, she goes thither every bour, but has this advantage, that it cannot, Sunday. We gave her a shilling, and she begwithout equal labour, be broken up. cottage. ged snuff; for snuff is the luxury of a Highland

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 so called because it was the temporary abode ci Soon afterwards we came to the General's Hut, of their vigilance and subtilty be true, they have Wade while he superintended the works upon some claim to that palm of wisdom, which the the road. It is now a house of entertainment for eastern philosopher, whom Alexander interro-passengers, and we found it not ill stocked with gated, gave to those beasts which live farthest provisions.

from men.

Near the way, by the water-side, we espied a cottage. This was the first Highland hut that

FALL OF FIERS.

Towards evening we crossed, by a bridge, the

I had seen; and as our business was with life river which makes the celebrated Fall of Fiers. and manners, we were willing to visit it. To enter The country at the bridge strikes the imaginaa habitation without leave, seems to be not cousi-tion with all the gloom and grandeur of Siberian dered here as rudeness or intrusion. The old laws | solitude. The way makes a flexture, and the of hospitality still give this license to a stranger mountains, covered with trees, rise at ones on

We did not perceive that this tract was pos sessed by human beings, except that once w saw a corn-field, in which a lady was walking with some gentlemen. Their house was cer tainly at no great distance, but so situated that we could not descry it.

the left hand and in front. We desired our guides to show 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 Passing on through the dreariness of solitude, black piles of stone, by which the stream is ob- we found a party of soldiers from the fort, workstructed and broken, till it comes to a very steeping on the road under the superintendence of a 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 tons, is supplied from Inverness with great convenience.

We were now to cross the Highlands towards the western coast, and to content ourselves with such accommodation, 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 farther 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, show 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.

sergeant. 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 show 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 conduc:ed 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 pecu liar. Those Highlanders that can speak Eng lish, 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 pronun ciation. 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 a 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 den or dress, who asked us whether

We found that she was Most, and desired her to

make it. Her conversation, like her appear-monly bog, through which the way must be ance, was gentle and pleasing. We knew that picked with caution. Where there are hills, the girls of the Highlands are all gentlewomen, there is much rain, and the torrents pouring and treated her with great respect, which she down into the intermediate spaces, seld im find received as customary and due, and was neither so ready an outlet, as not to stagnate, till they elated by it, nor confused, but repaid my civili- have broken the texture of the ground. ties without embarrassment, and told me how much I honoured her country by coming to sur-view on either side, we did not take the height, vey it.

She had been at Inverness to gain the common female qualifications, and had, like her father, the English pronunciation. 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 Ittle 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 burn, 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 whiskey.

Of the hills, which our journey offered to the 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 con sidered, is properly computed from the surface of the next sea; but as it affects the eye or ima gination 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 appear ance than that of a plane gently inclined, and if a hill placed upon such raised ground be de scribed as having its altitude equal to the whole space above the sea, the representation will be fallacious.

These mountains may be properly enough We had gained so much the favour of our measured from the inland base; for it is not host, that, when we left his house in the morn- much above the se. As we advanced at evening, he walked by us a great way, and entering towards the western coast, I did not observe tained us with conversation both on his own the declivity to be greater than is necessary for

condition, and that of the country. His life the discharge of the inland waters. seemel to be merely pastoral, except that he dif- We passed many rivers and rivulets, which fered from some of the ancient Nomades in hav-commonly ran with a clear shallow stream over ing a settled dwelling. His wealth consists of one hundred sheep, as many goats, twelve milkcows, 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 weli 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 a used 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 Lecause that which is not mountain is com

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 lit the 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

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