Macleod has offered me an ifland; if it were not too far off I should hardly refuse it: my ifland would be pleasanter than Brighthelmftone, if you and mafter could come to

my

it; but I cannot think it pleasant to live quite alone.

Oblitufque meorum, oblivifcendus et illis.

That I should be elated by the dominion of an ifland to forgetfulness of my friends at Streatham I cannot believe, and I hope never to deserve that they should be willing to forget me.

It has happened that I have been often recognised in my journey where I did not expect it. At Aberdeen I found one of my acquaintance profeffor of phyfick; turning afide to dine with a country gentleman, I was. owned at table by one who had feen me at a philosophical lecture; at Macdonald's I was claimed by a naturalift, who wanders about the islands to pick up curiofities; and I had once in London attracted the notice of Lady Macleod. I will now go on with my ac

count.

The Highland girl made tea, and looked and talked not inelegantly; her father was by no means an ignorant or a weak man; there VOL. I.

K

were

were books in the cottage, among which were fome volumes of Prideaux's Connection : this man's converfation we were glad of while we ftaid. He had been out, as they call it, in forty-five, and still retained his old opinions. He was going to America, because his rent was raised beyond what he thought himself able to pay.

At night our beds were made, but we had some difficulty in perfuading ourselves to lie down in them, though we had put on our own fheets; at last we ventured, and I flept very foundly in the vale of Glenmorrifon, amidft the rocks and mountains. Next morning our landlord liked us fo well, that he walked some miles with us for our company, through a country fo wild and barren that the proprietor does not, with all his preffure upon his tenants, raife more than four hundred pounds a-year for near one hundred fquare miles, or fixty thousand acres. He let us know that he had forty head of black cattle, an hundred goats, and an hundred sheep, upon a farm that he remembered let at five pounds a-year, but for which he now paid twenty. He told us fome ftories of their march into England. At laft he left us, and

and we went forward, winding among mountains, fometimes green and fometimes naked, commonly so steep as not easily to be climbed by the greatest vigour and activity: our way was often croffed by little rivulets, and we were entertained with small streams trickling from the rocks, which after heavy rains must be tremendous torrents.

About noon we came to a small glen, fo they call a valley, which compared with other places appeared rich and fertile; here our guides defired us to stop, that the horses might graze, for the journey was very laborious, and no more grafs would be found. We made no difficulty of compliance, and I fat down to take notes on a green bank, with a fmall ftream running at my feet, in the midft of favage folitude, with mountains before me, and on either hand covered with heath. I looked around me, and wondered that I was not more affected, but the mind is not at all times equally ready to be put in motion; if my mistress and mafter and Queeney had been there we fhould have produced fome reflections among us, either poetical or philosophical, for though Jolitude be the nurfe of woe, converfation is often the parent of remarks and discoveries.

In about an hour we remounted, and purfued our journey. The lake by which we had travelled for fome time ended in a river, which we paffed by a bridge, and came to another glen, with a collection of huts, called Auknafhealds; the huts were generally built of clods of earth, held together by the intertexture of vegetable fibres, of which earth there are great levels in Scotland which they call moffes. Mofs in Scotland is bog in Ireland, and mofs-trooper is bog-trotter: there was, however, one hut built of loose stones, piled up with great thickness into a strong though not folid wall. From this house we obtained fome great pails of milk, and having brought bread with us, were very liberally regaled. The inhabitants, a very coarse tribe, ignorant of any language but Earfe, gathered so fast about us, that if we had not had Highlanders with us, they might have caused more, alarm than pleasure; they are called the Clan of Macrae.

We had been told that nothing gratified the Highlanders fo much as fnuff and tobacco, and had accordingly ftored ourselves with both at Fort Auguftus. Bofwell opened his treafure, and gave them each a piece of tobacco

roll.

roll. We had more bread than we could eat for the prefent, and were more liberal than provident. Bofwell cut it in flices, and gave them an opportunity of tafting wheaten bread for the first time. I then got fome halfpence for a fhilling, and made up the deficiencies of Bofwell's diftribution, who had given fome money among the children. We then directed that the mistress of the ftone houfe fhould be asked what we must pay her: fhe, who perhaps had never before fold any thing but cattle, knew not, I believe, well what to afk, and referred herself to us we obliged her to make fome demand, and one of the Highlanders fettled the account with her at a fhilling. One of the men advised her, with the cunning that clowns

never can be without, to ask more; but fhe faid that a fhilling was enough. We gave her half a crown, and the offered part of it again. The Macraes were fo well pleased with our behaviour, that they declared it the best day they had seen since the time of the old Laird of Macleod, who, I fuppofe, like us, ftopped in their valley, as he was travelling to Skie.

We were mentioning this view of the High, lander's life at Macdonald's, and mentioning K 3

the