It Were Perhaps To Be Desired, That No Change In
This Particular Should Have Been Made.
When the Laird could only
eat the produce of his lands, he was under the necessity of
residing upon
Them; and when the tenant could not convert his stock
into more portable riches, he could never be tempted away from his
farm, from the only place where he could be wealthy. Money
confounds subordination, by overpowering the distinctions of rank
and birth, and weakens authority by supplying power of resistance,
or expedients for escape. The feudal system is formed for a nation
employed in agriculture, and has never long kept its hold where
gold and silver have become common.
Their arms were anciently the Glaymore, or great two-handed sword,
and afterwards the two-edged sword and target, or buckler, which
was sustained on the left arm. In the midst of the target, which
was made of wood, covered with leather, and studded with nails, a
slender lance, about two feet long, was sometimes fixed; it was
heavy and cumberous, and accordingly has for some time past been
gradually laid aside. Very few targets were at Culloden. The
dirk, or broad dagger, I am afraid, was of more use in private
quarrels than in battles. The Lochaber-ax is only a slight
alteration of the old English bill.
After all that has been said of the force and terrour of the
Highland sword, I could not find that the art of defence was any
part of common education. The gentlemen were perhaps sometimes
skilful gladiators, but the common men had no other powers than
those of violence and courage. Yet it is well known, that the
onset of the Highlanders was very formidable. As an army cannot
consist of philosophers, a panick is easily excited by any unwonted
mode of annoyance. New dangers are naturally magnified; and men
accustomed only to exchange bullets at a distance, and rather to
hear their enemies than see them, are discouraged and amazed when
they find themselves encountered hand to hand, and catch the gleam
of steel flashing in their faces.
The Highland weapons gave opportunity for many exertions of
personal courage, and sometimes for single combats in the field;
like those which occur so frequently in fabulous wars. At Falkirk,
a gentleman now living, was, I suppose after the retreat of the
King's troops, engaged at a distance from the rest with an Irish
dragoon. They were both skilful swordsmen, and the contest was not
easily decided: the dragoon at last had the advantage, and the
Highlander called for quarter; but quarter was refused him, and the
fight continued till he was reduced to defend himself upon his
knee. At that instant one of the Macleods came to his rescue; who,
as it is said, offered quarter to the dragoon, but he thought
himself obliged to reject what he had before refused, and, as
battle gives little time to deliberate, was immediately killed.
Funerals were formerly solemnized by calling multitudes together,
and entertaining them at great expence. This emulation of useless
cost has been for some time discouraged, and at last in the Isle of
Sky is almost suppressed.
Of the Earse language, as I understand nothing, I cannot say more
than I have been told. It is the rude speech of a barbarous
people, who had few thoughts to express, and were content, as they
conceived grossly, to be grossly understood. After what has been
lately talked of Highland Bards, and Highland genius, many will
startle when they are told, that the Earse never was a written
language; that there is not in the world an Earse manuscript a
hundred years old; and that the sounds of the Highlanders were
never expressed by letters, till some little books of piety were
translated, and a metrical version of the Psalms was made by the
Synod of Argyle. Whoever therefore now writes in this language,
spells according to his own perception of the sound, and his own
idea of the power of the letters. The Welsh and the Irish are
cultivated tongues. The Welsh, two hundred years ago, insulted
their English neighbours for the instability of their Orthography;
while the Earse merely floated in the breath of the people, and
could therefore receive little improvement.
When a language begins to teem with books, it is tending to
refinement; as those who undertake to teach others must have
undergone some labour in improving themselves, they set a
proportionate value on their own thoughts, and wish to enforce them
by efficacious expressions; speech becomes embodied and permanent;
different modes and phrases are compared, and the best obtains an
establishment. By degrees one age improves upon another.
Exactness is first obtained, and afterwards elegance. But diction,
merely vocal, is always in its childhood. As no man leaves his
eloquence behind him, the new generations have all to learn. There
may possibly be books without a polished language, but there can be
no polished language without books.
That the Bards could not read more than the rest of their
countrymen, it is reasonable to suppose; because, if they had read,
they could probably have written; and how high their compositions
may reasonably be rated, an inquirer may best judge by considering
what stores of imagery, what principles of ratiocination, what
comprehension of knowledge, and what delicacy of elocution he has
known any man attain who cannot read. The state of the Bards was
yet more hopeless. He that cannot read, may now converse with
those that can; but the Bard was a barbarian among barbarians, who,
knowing nothing himself, lived with others that knew no more.
There has lately been in the Islands one of these illiterate poets,
who hearing the Bible read at church, is said to have turned the
sacred history into verse. I heard part of a dialogue, composed by
him, translated by a young lady in Mull, and thought it had more
meaning than I expected from a man totally uneducated; but he had
some opportunities of knowledge; he lived among a learned people.
After all that has been done for the instruction of the
Highlanders, the antipathy between their language and literature
still continues; and no man that has learned only Earse is, at this
time, able to read.
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