Other Circumstances Of No Elegant
Recital Concurred To Disgust Us.
We had been frighted by a lady at
Edinburgh, with discouraging representations of Highland lodgings.
Sleep, however, was necessary.
Our Highlanders had at last found
some hay, with which the inn could not supply them. I directed
them to bring a bundle into the room, and slept upon it in my
riding coat. Mr. Boswell being more delicate, laid himself sheets
with hay over and under him, and lay in linen like a gentleman.
SKY. ARMIDEL
In the morning, September the second, we found ourselves on the
edge of the sea. Having procured a boat, we dismissed our
Highlanders, whom I would recommend to the service of any future
travellers, and were ferried over to the Isle of Sky. We landed at
Armidel, where we were met on the sands by Sir Alexander Macdonald,
who was at that time there with his lady, preparing to leave the
island and reside at Edinburgh.
Armidel is a neat house, built where the Macdonalds had once a
seat, which was burnt in the commotions that followed the
Revolution. The walled orchard, which belonged to the former
house, still remains. It is well shaded by tall ash trees, of a
species, as Mr. Janes the fossilist informed me, uncommonly
valuable. This plantation is very properly mentioned by Dr.
Campbell, in his new account of the state of Britain, and deserves
attention; because it proves that the present nakedness of the
Hebrides is not wholly the fault of Nature.
As we sat at Sir Alexander's table, we were entertained, according
to the ancient usage of the North, with the melody of the bagpipe.
Everything in those countries has its history. As the bagpiper was
playing, an elderly Gentleman informed us, that in some remote
time, the Macdonalds of Glengary having been injured, or offended
by the inhabitants of Culloden, and resolving to have justice or
vengeance, came to Culloden on a Sunday, where finding their
enemies at worship, they shut them up in the church, which they set
on fire; and this, said he, is the tune that the piper played while
they were burning.
Narrations like this, however uncertain, deserve the notice of the
traveller, because they are the only records of a nation that has
no historians, and afford the most genuine representation of the
life and character of the ancient Highlanders.
Under the denomination of Highlander are comprehended in Scotland
all that now speak the Erse language, or retain the primitive
manners, whether they live among the mountains or in the islands;
and in that sense I use the name, when there is not some apparent
reason for making a distinction.
In Sky I first observed the use of Brogues, a kind of artless
shoes, stitched with thongs so loosely, that though they defend the
foot from stones, they do not exclude water. Brogues were formerly
made of raw hides, with the hair inwards, and such are perhaps
still used in rude and remote parts; but they are said not to last
above two days. Where life is somewhat improved, they are now made
of leather tanned with oak bark, as in other places, or with the
bark of birch, or roots of tormentil, a substance recommended in
defect of bark, about forty years ago, to the Irish tanners, by one
to whom the parliament of that kingdom voted a reward. The leather
of Sky is not completely penetrated by vegetable matter, and
therefore cannot be very durable.
My inquiries about brogues, gave me an early specimen of Highland
information. One day I was told, that to make brogues was a
domestick art, which every man practised for himself, and that a
pair of brogues was the work of an hour. I supposed that the
husband made brogues as the wife made an apron, till next day it
was told me, that a brogue-maker was a trade, and that a pair would
cost half a crown. It will easily occur that these representations
may both be true, and that, in some places, men may buy them, and
in others, make them for themselves; but I had both the accounts in
the same house within two days.
Many of my subsequent inquiries upon more interesting topicks ended
in the like uncertainty. He that travels in the Highlands may
easily saturate his soul with intelligence, if he will acquiesce in
the first account. The Highlander gives to every question an
answer so prompt and peremptory, that skepticism itself is dared
into silence, and the mind sinks before the bold reporter in
unresisting credulity; but, if a second question be ventured, it
breaks the enchantment; for it is immediately discovered, that what
was told so confidently was told at hazard, and that such
fearlessness of assertion was either the sport of negligence, or
the refuge of ignorance.
If individuals are thus at variance with themselves, it can be no
wonder that the accounts of different men are contradictory. The
traditions of an ignorant and savage people have been for ages
negligently heard, and unskilfully related. Distant events must
have been mingled together, and the actions of one man given to
another. These, however, are deficiencies in story, for which no
man is now to be censured. It were enough, if what there is yet
opportunity of examining were accurately inspected, and justly
represented; but such is the laxity of Highland conversation, that
the inquirer is kept in continual suspense, and by a kind of
intellectual retrogradation, knows less as he hears more.
In the islands the plaid is rarely worn. The law by which the
Highlanders have been obliged to change the form of their dress,
has, in all the places that we have visited, been universally
obeyed. I have seen only one gentleman completely clothed in the
ancient habit, and by him it was worn only occasionally and
wantonly. The common people do not think themselves under any
legal necessity of having coats; for they say that the law against
plaids was made by Lord Hardwicke, and was in force only for his
life:
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