used were never put to any meaner offices, but were wrapped

up by

the lady of the house, and at last, according to her desire, were round her in her grave. These are not whigs!

Taid

"On the 13th, travelling partly on horseback where we could not row, and partly on foot where we could not ride, we came to Dunvegan, which I have described already. Here, though poor Macleod had been left by his grandfather overwhelmed with debts, we had another exhibition of feudal hospitality. There were two stags in the house, and venison came to the table every day in its various forms. Macleod, besides his estate in Skie-larger I suppose than some English counties-is proprietor of nine inhabited isles; and of his islands uninhabited I doubt if he very exactly knows the number. I told him that he was a mighty monarch. Such dominions fill an Englishman with envious wonder; but when he surveys the naked mountain, and treads the quaking moor, and wanders over the wild regions of gloomy barrenness, his wonder may continue, but his envy ceases. The unprofitableness of these vast domains can be conceived only by the means of positive instances. The heir of Col, an island not far distant, has lately told me how wealthy he should be if he could let Rum, another of his islands, for twopence halfpenny an acre; and Macleod has an estate, which the surveyor reports to contain eighty thousand acres, rented at six hundred pounds a year. "While we were at Dunvegan, the wind was high and the rain violent, so that we were not able to put forth a boat to fish in the se or to visit the adjacent islands, which may be seen from the house but we filled up the time as we could, sometimes by talk, sometimes by reading. I have never wanted books in the isle of Skie.

༈

sea,

We were visited one day by the laird and lady of Muck, one of the western islands, two miles long, and three quarters of a mile high. He has half his island in his own culture, and upon the other half live one hundred and fifty dependents, who not only live upon the product, but export corn sufficient for the payment of their rent.

"Lady Macleod has a son and four daughters: they have lived long in England, and have the language and manners of English ladies. We lived with them very easily. The hospitality of this remote region is like that of the golden age. We have found ourselves treated at every house as if we came to confer a benefit.

We were eight days at Dunvegan, but we took the first oppor tunity which the weather afforded, after the first days, of going away, and on the 21st went to Ulinish, where we were well entertained, and wandered a little after curiosities. In the afternoon an interval of calm sunshine courted us out to see a cave on the shore famous for its echo. When we went into the boat, one of our asked in Earse, by boatmen, who they were that came with him? He gave us characters, I suppose, to our advantage, and was asked,

was

.210073117

OGG

in the spirit of the Highlands, whether I could recite a long series of ance 492 The said, as I perceived afterwards, that they heard the cry of an English ghost. This, Boswell says, disturbed him. We came to the cave, and clambering up the rocks came to an arch, open at one end, one hundred and eighty feet long, thirty broad in the broadest part, and about thirty high. There was no echo; such is the fidelity of report; but I saw what I had never seen before, muscles and whilks in their natural state. There was another arch in the rock, open at both ends.

315

sea,

Sept. 23d, we removed to Talisker, a house occupied by Mr. Macleod, a lieutenant-colonel in the Dutch service. Talisker has been long in the possession of gentlemen, and therefore has a garden well cultivated; and, what is here very rare, is shaded by trees: a place where the imagination is more amused cannot easily be found. The mountains about it are of great height, with waterfalls succeeding one another so fast, that as one ceases to be heard another begins. Between the mountains there is a small valley extending to the which is not far off, beating upon a coast very difficult of access. Two nights before our arrival, two boats were driven upon this coast by the tempest: one of them had a pilot that knew the passage, the second followed, but a third missed the true course, and was driven forward, with great danger of being forced into the vast ocean, but however gained at last some other island. The crews crept to Talisker, almost lifeless with wet, cold, fatigue, and terrour; but the lady took care of them. She is a woman of more than common qualifications: having travelled with her husband, she speaks four languages.

to

"You find that all the islanders, even in these recesses of life, are not barbarous. One of the ministers who has adhered to us almost all the time is an excellent scholar. We have now with us the young laird of Col, who is heir, perhaps, to two hundred square miles of land. He has first studied at Aberdeen, and afterwards gone to Hertfordshire to learn agriculture, being much impressed with desire of improvement: he likewise has the notions of a chief, and keeps a piper. At Macleod's the bagpipe always played while we were dining. Col has undertaken, by the he waves and wind, to carry us about several of the islands, with which he is acquainted enough to show us whatever curious is by nature or left by

976

hession of the n

antiquity; but we grew afraid of from our way home, lest deviating we should be shut up for months upon some little protuberance of rock, that just appears above the sea, and perhaps is scarcely marked

upon a map.

struck

You remember the Doge of Genoa, who, being asked what him most at the French court, answered, "Myself." I cannot think Bul SEJPE 7 )} Boot zoqque I erotinio ir 9762 9ll

..

many things here more likely to affect the fancy than to see Johnson ending his sixty-fourth year in the wilderness of the Hebrides, II 915 "Mr. Thrale probably wonders how I live all this time without sending to him for money. Travelling in Scotland is dear enough, dearer in proportion to what the country affords than in England; but residence in the isles is unexpensive. Company is, I think, considered as a supply of pleasure, and a relief of that tediousness of life which is felt in every place, elegant or rude. Of wine and punch they are very liberal, for they get them cheap; but as there is no custom-house on the island, they can hardly be considered as smug glers. Their punch is made without lemons or any substitute.

1

"Their tables are very plentiful; but a very nice man would not be pampered. As they have no meat but as they kill it, they are obliged to live while it lasts upon the same flesh. They kill a sheep, and set mutton boiled and roast on the table together. They have fish both of the sea and of the brooks; but they can hardly conceive that it requires any sauce. To sauce in general they are strangers; now and then butter is melted, but I dare not always take, lest T should offend by disliking it. Barley-broth is a constant dish, and is made well in every house. A stranger, if he is prudent, will secure his share, for it is not certain that he will be able to eat any thing else.

"Their meat being often newly killed is very tough, and, as nothing is sufficiently subdued by the fire, is not easily to be eaten. Carving is here a very laborious employment, for the knives are never whetted. Table-knives are not of long subsistence in the Highlands: every man, while arms were a regular part of dress, had his knife and fork" appendant to his dirk. Knives they now lay upon the table, but the handles are apt to show that they have been in other hands, and the® blades have neither brightness nor edge.

15 Of silver there is no want; and it will last long, for it is never di cleaned. They are a nation just rising from barbarity; long cons) tented with necessaries, now somewhat studious of convenience, butЛ not yet arrived at delicate discriminations. Their linen is however both clean and fine. Bread, such as we mean by that name, I have never seen in the isle of Skie. They have ovens, for they bake their pies; but they never ferment their meal, nor mould a loaf. Cakes of oats and barley are brought to the table, but I believe wheat is reall served for strangers. They are commonly too hard for me, and there`) fore I take potatoes to my meat, and am sure to find them on almost every table.

They retain so much of the pastoral life, that some preparation of milk is commonly one of the dishes both at dinner and supper. Tea is always drank at the usual times; but in the morning the table is ortogor board 19792oil

polluted with a plate of slices of strong cheese orThis is peculiar to the Highlands: at Edinburgh there are always honey ands weetmeats on the morning tea-table. !

teborgslaufT .714 " Every man, perhaps woman, punch is made both at dinner i- d. mi sonsbist tud

ff Strong liquors they seem to love. begins the day with a dram; and the and supper. I sff They have neither wood nor coal for fuel, but burn peat or turf in their chimneys. It is dug out of the moors or mosses, and makes a strong and lasting fire--not always very sweet, and somewhat apt to smoke the pot,

;

"The houses of inferior gentlemen are very small, and every room serves many purposes. In the bed-rooms, perhaps, are laid up stores of different kinds; and the parlour of the day is a bed-room at night. In the room which I inhabited last, about fourteen feet square, there were three chests of drawers, a long chest for larger clothes, two closet cupboards, and the bed, Their rooms are commonly dirty, of which they seem to have little sensibility; and if they had more, clean: flpors would be difficultly kept where the first step from the door is into the dirt. They are very much inclined to carpets, and seldom fail to lay down something under their feet-better or worse, as they happen to be furnished.

"The Highland dress being forbidden by law is very little used:> sometimes it may be seen; but the English traveller is struck with nothing so much as the nudité, des pieds of the common people.zi

"Skie is the greatest island, or the greatest but one, among the Hebrides. Of the soil I have already given some account: it is gene-l rally barren, but some spots are not wholly unfruitful. The gardens have apples and pears, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, currants, and gooseberries; but all the fruit that I have seen is small. They! attempt to sow nothing but oats and barley. Oats constitute the bread corn of the place. Their harvest is about the beginning of October; and being so late, is very much subject to disappointments from the rains that follow the equinox. This year has been particu-) larly disastrous. Their rainy season lasts from autumn to spring.... They have seldom very hard frosts; nor was it ever known that ad lake was covered with ice strong enough to bear a skater. The sea round them is always open, The snow falls, but soon melts; only in 1771 they had a cold spring, in which the island was so long covered with it, that many beasts, both wild and domestick, perished, and the whole country was reduced to distress, from which I know i not if it is even yet recovered. 5 det 16, 193

"The animals here are not remarkably small; perhaps they recruit their breed from the main land. The cows are sometimes without horns. The horned and unhorned cattle are not accidental variations, but different species: they will, however, breed together.

"October 3d. The wind is now changed, and if we snatch the moment of opportunity, an escape from this island is become practicable. I have no reason to complain of my reception, yet I long to be again at home.

"You and my master may perhaps expect, after this description of Skie, some account of myself. My eye is, I am afraid, not fully recovered; my ears are not mended; my nerves seem to grow weaker, and I have been otherwise not as well as I sometimes am, but think " myself lately better. This climate, perhaps, is not within my degree of healthy latitude.”

"Mull, 15th October, 1773.

"October 3d. After having been detained by storms many days at Skie, we left it, as we thought, with a fair wind; but a violent. gust, which Bos. had a great mind to call a tempest, forced us into Coll, an obscure island, on which

— nulla campis

Arbor æstivâ recreatur aurâ.

There is literally no tree upon the island: part of it is a sandy waste;s: over which it would be really dangerous to travel in dry weather and with a high wind. It seems to be little more than one continued") rock, covered from space to space with a thin layer of earth. It is,however, according to the Highland notion, very populous, and life// is improved beyond the manners of Skie; for the huts are collected into little villages, and every one has a small garden of roots and cab bage. The laird has a new house built by his uncle, and an old castle inhabited by his ancestors. The young laird entertained us very liberally: he is heir, perhaps, to three hundred square miles of land, which, at ten shillings an acre, would bring him ninety-six thousand pounds a year. He is desirous of improving the agriculture of his country; and, in imitation of the czar, travelled for improvement, and worked with his own hands upon a farm in Hertfordshire, in the neighbourhood of your uncle, Sir Thomas Salusbury. He talks of doing useful things, and has introduced turnips for winter fodder. He has made a small essay towards a road.

"Coll is but a barren place. Description has here few opportunities of spreading her colours. The difference of day and night is the only vicissitude. The succession of sunshine to rain, or of calms to tempests, we have not known: wind and rain have been our only weather.

"At last, after about nine days, we hired a sloop; and having lain in it all night, with such accommodations as these miserable vessels can afford, were landed yesterday on the isle of Mull, from which we expect an easy passage into Scotland. I am sick in a ship, but recover by lying down.