From These Remains Of Ancient Sanctity, Which Are Every Where To Be
Found, It Has Been Conjectured, That, For The Last Two Centuries,
The Inhabitants Of The Islands Have Decreased In Number.
This
argument, which supposes that the churches have been suffered to
fall, only because they were no longer necessary, would have some
force, if the houses of worship still remaining were sufficient for
the people.
But since they have now no churches at all, these
venerable fragments do not prove the people of former times to have
been more numerous, but to have been more devout. If the
inhabitants were doubled with their present principles, it appears
not that any provision for publick worship would be made. Where
the religion of a country enforces consecrated buildings, the
number of those buildings may be supposed to afford some
indication, however uncertain, of the populousness of the place;
but where by a change of manners a nation is contented to live
without them, their decay implies no diminution of inhabitants.
Some of these dilapidations are said to be found in islands now
uninhabited; but I doubt whether we can thence infer that they were
ever peopled. The religion of the middle age, is well known to
have placed too much hope in lonely austerities. Voluntary
solitude was the great act of propitiation, by which crimes were
effaced, and conscience was appeased; it is therefore not unlikely,
that oratories were often built in places where retirement was sure
to have no disturbance.
Raasay has little that can detain a traveller, except the Laird and
his family; but their power wants no auxiliaries. Such a seat of
hospitality, amidst the winds and waters, fills the imagination
with a delightful contrariety of images. Without is the rough
ocean and the rocky land, the beating billows and the howling
storm: within is plenty and elegance, beauty and gaiety, the song
and the dance. In Raasay, if I could have found an Ulysses, I had
fancied a Phoeacia.
DUNVEGAN
At Raasay, by good fortune, Macleod, so the chief of the clan is
called, was paying a visit, and by him we were invited to his seat
at Dunvegan. Raasay has a stout boat, built in Norway, in which,
with six oars, he conveyed us back to Sky. We landed at Port Re,
so called, because James the Fifth of Scotland, who had curiosity
to visit the Islands, came into it. The port is made by an inlet
of the sea, deep and narrow, where a ship lay waiting to dispeople
Sky, by carrying the natives away to America.
In coasting Sky, we passed by the cavern in which it was the
custom, as Martin relates, to catch birds in the night, by making a
fire at the entrance. This practice is disused; for the birds, as
is known often to happen, have changed their haunts.
Here we dined at a publick house, I believe the only inn of the
island, and having mounted our horses, travelled in the manner
already described, till we came to Kingsborough, a place
distinguished by that name, because the King lodged here when he
landed at Port Re. We were entertained with the usual hospitality
by Mr. Macdonald and his lady, Flora Macdonald, a name that will be
mentioned in history, and if courage and fidelity be virtues,
mentioned with honour. She is a woman of middle stature, soft
features, gentle manners, and elegant presence.
In the morning we sent our horses round a promontory to meet us,
and spared ourselves part of the day's fatigue, by crossing an arm
of the sea. We had at last some difficulty in coming to Dunvegan;
for our way led over an extensive moor, where every step was to be
taken with caution, and we were often obliged to alight, because
the ground could not be trusted. In travelling this watery flat, I
perceived that it had a visible declivity, and might without much
expence or difficulty be drained. But difficulty and expence are
relative terms, which have different meanings in different places.
To Dunvegan we came, very willing to be at rest, and found our
fatigue amply recompensed by our reception. Lady Macleod, who had
lived many years in England, was newly come hither with her son and
four daughters, who knew all the arts of southern elegance, and all
the modes of English economy. Here therefore we settled, and did
not spoil the present hour with thoughts of departure.
Dunvegan is a rocky prominence, that juts out into a bay, on the
west side of Sky. The house, which is the principal seat of
Macleod, is partly old and partly modern; it is built upon the
rock, and looks upon the water. It forms two sides of a small
square: on the third side is the skeleton of a castle of unknown
antiquity, supposed to have been a Norwegian fortress, when the
Danes were masters of the Islands. It is so nearly entire, that it
might have easily been made habitable, were there not an ominous
tradition in the family, that the owner shall not long outlive the
reparation. The grandfather of the present Laird, in defiance of
prediction, began the work, but desisted in a little time, and
applied his money to worse uses.
As the inhabitants of the Hebrides lived, for many ages, in
continual expectation of hostilities, the chief of every clan
resided in a fortress. This house was accessible only from the
water, till the last possessor opened an entrance by stairs upon
the land.
They had formerly reason to be afraid, not only of declared wars
and authorized invaders, or of roving pirates, which, in the
northern seas, must have been very common; but of inroads and
insults from rival clans, who, in the plenitude of feudal
independence, asked no leave of their Sovereign to make war on one
another. Sky has been ravaged by a feud between the two mighty
powers of Macdonald and Macleod.
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