It Is
Usual To Call Gentlemen In Scotland By The Name Of Their
Possessions, As Raasay, Bernera, Loch Buy, A Practice Necessary In
Countries Inhabited By Clans, Where All That Live In The Same
Territory Have One Name, And Must Be Therefore Discriminated By
Some Addition.
This gentleman, whose name, I think, is Maclean,
should be regularly called Muck; but the appellation, which he
thinks too coarse for his Island, he would like still less for
himself, and he is therefore addressed by the title of, Isle of
Muck.
This little Island, however it be named, is of considerable value.
It is two English miles long, and three quarters of a mile broad,
and consequently contains only nine hundred and sixty English
acres. It is chiefly arable. Half of this little dominion the
Laird retains in his own hand, and on the other half, live one
hundred and sixty persons, who pay their rent by exported corn.
What rent they pay, we were not told, and could not decently
inquire. The proportion of the people to the land is such, as the
most fertile countries do not commonly maintain.
The Laird having all his people under his immediate view, seems to
be very attentive to their happiness. The devastation of the
small-pox, when it visits places where it comes seldom, is well
known. He has disarmed it of its terrour at Muack, by inoculating
eighty of his people. The expence was two shillings and sixpence a
head. Many trades they cannot have among them, but upon occasion,
he fetches a smith from the Isle of Egg, and has a tailor from the
main land, six times a year.
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