Out of one of the beds, on
which we were to repose, started up, at our entrance, a man black
as a Cyclops from the forge.
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.
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