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.
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