But
of Scandinavia and Germany, nothing is known but that as we trace
their state upwards into antiquity, their woods were greater, and
their cultivated ground was less.
That causes were different from want of room may produce a general
disposition to seek another country is apparent from the present
conduct of the Highlanders, who are in some places ready to
threaten a total secession. The numbers which have already gone,
though like other numbers they may be magnified, are very great,
and such as if they had gone together and agreed upon any certain
settlement, might have founded an independent government in the
depths of the western continent. 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. The Laird, who
formerly lived in a castle, now lives in a house; sometimes
sufficiently neat, but seldom very spacious or splendid. The
Tacksmen and the Ministers have commonly houses. Wherever there is
a house, the stranger finds a welcome, and to the other evils of
exterminating Tacksmen may be added the unavoidable cessation of
hospitality, or the devolution of too heavy a burden on the
Ministers.
Of the houses little can be said. They are small, and by the
necessity of accumulating stores, where there are so few
opportunities of purchase, the rooms are very heterogeneously
filled. With want of cleanliness it were ingratitude to reproach
them. The servants having been bred upon the naked earth, think
every floor clean, and the quick succession of guests, perhaps not
always over-elegant, does not allow much time for adjusting their
apartments.
Huts are of many gradations; from murky dens, to commodious
dwellings.
The wall of a common hut is always built without mortar, by a
skilful adaptation of loose stones. Sometimes perhaps a double
wall of stones is raised, and the intermediate space filled with
earth. The air is thus completely excluded. Some walls are, I
think, formed of turfs, held together by a wattle, or texture of
twigs. Of the meanest huts, the first room is lighted by the
entrance, and the second by the smoke hole. The fire is usually
made in the middle. But there are huts, or dwellings of only one
story, inhabited by gentlemen, which have walls cemented with
mortar, glass windows, and boarded floors. Of these all have
chimneys, and some chimneys have grates.
The house and the furniture are not always nicely suited. We were
driven once, by missing a passage, to the hut of a gentleman,
where, after a very liberal supper, when I was conducted to my
chamber, I found an elegant bed of Indian cotton, spread with fine
sheets. The accommodation was flattering; I undressed myself, and
felt my feet in the mire. The bed stood upon the bare earth, which
a long course of rain had softened to a puddle.
In pastoral countries the condition of the lowest rank of people is
sufficiently wretched. Among manufacturers, men that have no
property may have art and industry, which make them necessary, and
therefore valuable. But where flocks and corn are the only wealth,
there are always more hands than work, and of that work there is
little in which skill and dexterity can be much distinguished. He
therefore who is born poor never can be rich. The son merely
occupies the place of the father, and life knows nothing of
progression or advancement.
The petty tenants, and labouring peasants, live in miserable
cabins, which afford them little more than shelter from the storms.
The Boor of Norway is said to make all his own utensils. In the
Hebrides, whatever might be their ingenuity, the want of wood
leaves them no materials. They are probably content with such
accommodations as stones of different forms and sizes can afford
them.
Their food is not better than their lodging. They seldom taste the
flesh of land animals; for here are no markets. What each man eats
is from his own stock. The great effect of money is to break
property into small parts. In towns, he that has a shilling may
have a piece of meat; but where there is no commerce, no man can
eat mutton but by killing a sheep.
Fish in fair weather they need not want; but, I believe, man never
lives long on fish, but by constraint; he will rather feed upon
roots and berries.
The only fewel of the Islands is peat. Their wood is all consumed,
and coal they have not yet found. Peat is dug out of the marshes,
from the depth of one foot to that of six. That is accounted the
best which is nearest the surface. It appears to be a mass of
black earth held together by vegetable fibres.
