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.
