ULVA
While We Stood Deliberating, We Were Happily Espied From An Irish
Ship, That Lay At Anchor In The Strait.
The master saw that we
wanted a passage, and with great civility sent us his boat, which
quickly conveyed us to Ulva, where we were very liberally
entertained by Mr. Macquarry.
To Ulva we came in the dark, and left it before noon the next day.
A very exact description therefore will not be expected. We were
told, that it is an Island of no great extent, rough and barren,
inhabited by the Macquarrys; a clan not powerful nor numerous, but
of antiquity, which most other families are content to reverence.
The name is supposed to be a depravation of some other; for the
Earse language does not afford it any etymology. Macquarry is
proprietor both of Ulva and some adjacent Islands, among which is
Staffa, so lately raised to renown by Mr. Banks.
When the Islanders were reproached with their ignorance, or
insensibility of the wonders of Staffa, they had not much to reply.
They had indeed considered it little, because they had always seen
it; and none but philosophers, nor they always, are struck with
wonder, otherwise than by novelty. How would it surprise an
unenlightened ploughman, to hear a company of sober men, inquiring
by what power the hand tosses a stone, or why the stone, when it is
tossed, falls to the ground!
Of the ancestors of Macquarry, who thus lies hid in his
unfrequented Island, I have found memorials in all places where
they could be expected.
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