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the forge. Other circumftances of no elegant recital concurred to disgust us. We had been frighted by a lady at Edinburgh, with difcouraging reprefentations of Highland lodgings. Sleep, however, was neceffary. Our Highlanders had at last found fome hay, with which the inn could not supply them. I directed them to bring a bundle into the room, and flept upon it in my riding coat. Mr. Bofwell 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 twentieth, we found ourfelves on the edge of the fea. Having procured a boat, we difmiffed our Highlanders, whom I would recommend to the service of any future travellers, and were ferried over to the ifle of Sky. We landed at Armidel, where we were met on the fands by Sir Alexander Macdonald, who was at that time there with his lady, preparing to leave the island, and refide at Edinburgh.

Armidel is a neat house, built where the Macdonalds had once a feat, which was burnt in the commotions that followed the Revolution. The walled orchard, which belonged to the former houfe, ftill remains. It is well fhaded by tall afh-trees, of a fpecies, as Mr. Janes the foffilift informed me, uncommonly valuable. This plantation is very properly mentioned by Dr. Campbell, in his new account of the ftate of Britain, and deferves attention; because it proves that the prefent nakedness of the Hebrides is not wholly the fault of nature.

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As we fat at Sir Alexander's table, we were entertained, according to the ancient ufage of the north, with the melody of the bagpipe. Every thing in those countries has its hiftory. As the bagpiper was playing, an elderly gentleman informed us, that in fome remote time, the Macdonalds of Glengary having been injured, or offended by the inhabitants of Culloden, and refolving to have juftice or vengeance, came to Culloden on a Sunday, where, finding their enemies at worship, they shut them up in the church, which they fet on fire; and this, faid he, is the tune that the piper played while they were burning.

Narrations like this, however uncertain, deserve the notice of a traveller, because they are the only records of a nation that has no hiftorians, and afford the most genuine reprefentation of the life and character of the ancient Highlanders.

Under the denomination of Highlander are comprehended in Scotland all that now fpeak the Erfe language, or retain the primitive manners, whether they live among the mountains or in the iflands; and in that fense I use the name, when there is not fome apparent reafon for making a diftinction.

In Sky I firft obferved the ufe of brogues, a kind of artless shoes, ftitched with thongs fo loosely, that though they defend the foot from ftones, they do not exclude water. Brogues were formerly made of raw hides, with the hair inwards, and fuch are perhaps still used in rude and remote parts; but they are faid not to laft above two days. Where life is fomewhat improved, they are now made of leather tanned with oak-bark, as in other places, or with

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the bark of birch, or roots of tormentil, a substance recommended in defect of bark, about forty years ago, to the Irish tanners, by one,to whom the parliament of that kingdom voted a reward. The leather of Sky is not completely penetrated by vegetable matter, and therefore cannot be very durable.

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My enquiries about brogues, gave me an early fpecimen of Highland information. One day I was told, that to make brogues was a domeftick art, which every man practifed for himself, and that a pair of brogues was the work of an hour. I fuppofed that the hufband made brogues as the wife made an apron, till next day it was told me, that a brogue-maker was a trade, and that a pair would cot half-a-crown. It will eafily occur that these representations may both be true, and that, in fome places, men may buy them, and in others make them for themfelves; but I had both the accounts in the fame houfe within two days.

Many of my fubfequent enquiries upon more interesting topicks ended in the like uncertainty. He that travels in the Highlands may eafily faturate his foul with intelligence, if he will acquiefce in the firft account. The Highlander gives to every queftion an answer fo prompt and peremptory, that fkepticism itself is dared into filence, and the mind finks before the bold reporter in unrefifting credulity; but if a fecond question be ventured, it breaks the enchantment; for it is immediately difcovered, that what was told fo confidently was told at hazard, and that fuch fearleffness of affertion was either the fport of negligence, or the refuge of ignorance.

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If individuals are thus at variance with themselves, it can be no wonder that the accounts of different men are contradictory. The traditions of an ignorant and favage people have been for ages negligently heard, and unskilfully related. Diftant events must have been mingled together, and the actions of one man given to another. These, however, are deficiencies in ftory, for which no man is now to be cenfured. It were enough, if what there is yet opportunity of exa, mining were accurately infpected, and juftly reprefented; but fuch is the laxity of Highland converfation, that the enquirer is kept in continual fufpenfe, and by a kind of intellectual retrogradation, knows lefs as he hears more,

In the islands the plaid is rarely worn. The law by which the Highlanders have been obliged to change the form of their drefs, has, in all the places that we have vifited, been univerfally obeyed. I have feen only one gentleman completely clothed in the ancient habit, and by him it was worn only occafionally and wantonly. The common people do not think themfelves under any legal neceffity of having coats; for they fay that the law against plaids was made by lord Hardwicke, and was in force only for his life: but the fame poverty that made it then difficult for them to change their clothing, hinders them now from changing it again.

The fillibeg, or lower garment, is fill very common, and the bonnet almoft univerfal; but their attire is fuch as produces, in a fufficient degree, the effect intended by the law, of abolishing the diffi militude of appearance between the Highlanders and the other inhabitants of Britain; and, if dress be fuppofed

pofed to have much influence, facilitates their coalition with their fellow-fubjects.

What we have long used we naturally like; and therefore the Highlanders were unwilling to lay afide their plaid, which yet to an unprejudiced spectator muft appear an incommodious and cumbersome drefs; for hanging loofe upon the body, it must flutter in a quick motion, or require one of the hands to keep it clofe. The Romans always laid afide the gown when they had any thing to do. It was a drefs fo unfuitable to war, that the fame word which fignified a gown fignified peace. The chief ufe of a plaid feems to be this, that they could commodiously wrap themfelves in it, when they were obliged to fleep without a bet

ter cover.

In our paffage from Scotland to Sky, we were wet for the first time with a fhower. This was the beginning of the Highland winter, after which we were told that a fucceffion of three dry days was not to be expected for many months. The winter of the Hebrides confifts of little more than rain and wind. As they are furrounded by an ocean never frozen, the blasts that come to them over the water are too much foftened to have the power of congelation. The falt loughs, or inlets of the fea, which shoot very far into the ifland, never have any ice upon them, and the pools of fresh water will never bear the walker.. The fnow that fometimes falls, is foon diffolved by the air, or the rain.

This is not the defcription of a cruel climate, yet the dark months are here a time of great diftrefs; because the fummer can do little more than feed it

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felf,

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