SKY; SCARPA; SCONSOR; RAASAY; LOCH BRACADALE; TALISKER; DUNVEGAN; SUPERSTITIONS.

(A. D. 1827. Auvo.)

THE road from Broadford to Sconsor passes under bare, precipitous, and lofty hills, deeply channelled by streams, forming part of the range of the Coolin, or Cuchullin; two above Sconsor being of sugar-loaf form. The sound separating the little Island of Scarpa from Sky, is the principal rendezvous of the herring-vessels; small sloops, which purchase the fish from the boats and convey them to market. The Isle of Raasay is opposite Sconsor, the laird's mansion appearing embosomed in trees. The ancestors of the present proprietor, Mr. Macleod, possessed Sky, and an extensive tract of the mainland of Scotland, but were driven into the narrow precincts which he at present occupies, by the Mackenzies, after a severe contest and successive battles.

Struan, on the south side of the island, to which the road proceeds across a dreary moor, is on the shore of Loch Bracadale. The coast is bold and romantic: the entrance of the Bay is guarded by an island crested by singular rocks, called Macleod's Table, but which resemble a fort rather than a table, and off an adjoining promontory shoot aloft three needle-shaped rocks, known by the name of Macleod's Maidens.

Some steep hills separate the bay from Talisker, which is seen from a considerable height-a large farm-house, surrounded by forest-trees, in a richly-green valley, opening to the sea, and enclosed by steep ridges, one of which, the Brishmeal Hill, of circular shape, is basaltic; a spot, as Johnson observes, destined by nature for a hermitage. The garden of Talisker is adorned by a fine plane-tree: the winds prevent the Scotch fir from striking its roots in a situation so exposed. The beach abounds with beautiful zeolite. The elevation of the Brishmeal hill is 800 feet; in form and material it resembles the Scuir of Egg. The immediate approach to its summit on one side, is a narrow passage, guarded by two basaltic columns standing like sentinels, formed by two perpendicular and lofty walls, reticulated by the transverse section of the strata of which they are composed, and opening at length on a magnificent panoramic view embracing the towering peak of the Storr; the rugged ridges of the Coolin, Egg, Rum, and Canna bounding the southern, and the continuous chain of the Long Island the western, horizon.

The sheep-farm which my host of Talisker rents of Mr. Macleod, consists of 11,000 acres; another, rented by a single individual, embracing a considerable part of the Coolin Hills, comprises 30,000 acres. Of Sky, excepting some small estates, about two-thirds belong to Lord Macdonald, and the remainder to Mr. Macleod. On Lord Macdonald's a considerable quantity of horned cattle are reared. The bulls of Sky are celebrated, and much in request. Mr. Macleod's yields principally sheep. One shepherd takes charge of 400 or 500 sheep; many of these animals perish from inclemency of weather, and from falling over precipices. The loss incurred by the Scottish sheep-farmers through depreciation of produce, may be inferred from the fact, that the price of a wedder had been reduced, between 1821 and 1827, from thirty shillings to eleven shillings; whilst that of wool had fallen from forty-five shillings the double stone measure (forty-eight pounds) to thirteen shillings, chiefly within the last two years. In October it is the practice to tar and butter the wool: but its sale is impaired by its weight. The sheep were now proceeding to the fair at Falkirk; the numerous ferries render their progress tedious and expensive. The Scottish drovers accompany their cattle to the southern markets of England; and, in justice to them, I must remark, on my own observation, confirmed by the testimony of the stage-coach drivers on the northern road, that they are equalled by none in civility and dexterity in clearing the roads of their flocks or herds, for the passage of the coaches; a point of great importance to the safety, as well as speed, of these vehicles. These hardy fellows may be seen by the road-side, mixing their meal with water, or stretched in their plaids at night on the bare ground, from which they had dislodged a warm bullock to obtain possession of his lair.

On recrossing Loch Bracadale, in the grey of the morning, in a four-oared boat, I was startled by the exclamation of the rowers, who began to pull vehemently, and evidently under much alarm, that a whale was approaching, and "very like a whale it was;" a fish, apparently sixty feet in length, rolling in the dusk towards the stern of the boat. As it passed, it proved to be a couple of porpoises, or pellochs, as they are called in Scotland, preserving a distance so exact, that they might well be mistaken for a single fish. The apprehension of the boatmen had been awakened by the circumstance of a real whale having, for some time, taken up its quarters in a neighbouring bay, molesting the boats. The obvious inference that the seamonsters, of which we receive such formidable accounts, might be thus constructed by the terrified imagination of the beholders, has been corroborated by a similar supposition of Sir Humphry Davy, stated in his Salmonia, respecting the Norwegian sea-ormen. The Bay of Loch Bracadale affords an excellent harbour; it was once celebrated as a favourite resort of herrings, but has been long and unaccountably deserted by these capricious fish. A dreary moor intervenes between this bay and that of Dunvegan. The Castle, (see page 85,) is the ancient residence of Mr. Macleod, chief of the clan of that name, or as he is more properly designated, Macleod of Macleod. Its dimensions are not imposing: but its situation, overhanging the water, and in an unfrequented extremity of a remote island; and the traditionary history and the relics which attest the truth of the legends, invest Dunvegan with romantic interest. Sir Walter Scott concludes his Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft with an account of a night passed by him in the haunted apartment of this castle; and well might such awful themes be associated, in the imagination of Sir Walter Scott, with the Isle of Sky, or as it ought more properly to be called of "Mist." the Danish word Skue, from which it is derived, signifying Mist. For this island was once celebrated for the second sight, and Bracadale, of all its wild districts, the most favoured with this supernatural gift.

Framing hideous spells,

In Sky's lone isle the gifted wizard seer
Lodged in the wintry eave, with fate's fell spear,
Or in the depths of Uist's dark forest dwells.

To monarchs dear, some hundred miles astray, Oft have they seen fate give the fatal blow: The seer in Sky shriek'd as the blood did flow, When headless Charles warm on the scaffold lay". The traveller naturally inquires in Bracadale for traces of the second sight, and may be disappointed when he is informed here, as in other parts of Scotland, in general terms, qualified not a little when investigated, that all the ancient superstitions of the country have vanished. Now this statement cannot be admitted. Serious, imaginative, indolent, solitary in the ordinary condition of their lot, though social in disposition, familiar with nature in all the changing aspects with which northern seasons invest it, and with dangers by flood or fell, the natives of these regions are peculiarly susceptible of religious impressions. And unhappily, during many ages, ignorant, or instructed only in error, they blended with the true faith which they had received from the missionaries of the Gospel, all the absurd poetical fictions derived from the stock from which they sprung, or from Scandinavian invaders, from monks, or the innumerable horde of impostors, bards †, minstrels,

COLLINS'S Ode on the Superstitions of the Highlands. The beautiful description of the second sight contained in this poem, was supplied by Mr. Mackenzie, author of the Man of Feeling. "Uist's not a tree will grow on an island swept with blasts and overblown with dark forest" exists only in the imagination of the poet; for at present sands. The bog-timber found buried under its surface affords, however, some posthumous vindication of the accuracy of the poet's allusion.' The estimation in which the famous bards of olden time were held may be gathered from the ancient laws of the kingdom. "In Scotland in one compendious volume," it was ordered that “all the reign of Kenneth the Second, who drew all the confusit laws of vagabondis, fulis, bardis, scudlaris, and all sicklik idill pepill, shall be brint on the cheik, and scurgit with wandis, bot (unless) they find some craft to win their living." In the laws made by Macbeth for the common weil, "fulis, menstralis, bardis, and al other compellit to seik sume craft to win their leving;-gif they refuse, they sic idill pepill; bot gif they be specially licent by the king, sall be sall be drawing, like hors in the pluck and harrowis."-BELLEN DEN'S Translation of Boece's Chronicles of Scotland.-Edinburgh Review.

seers, and dealers in second sight, who preyed upon their credulity. Among this number must be included the criminals of all classes and conditions, to be found in all communities, but more especially in those in which, as in the ancient Highland clannish associations, certain conve nient customs had superseded moral and legal obligation. These persons naturally encouraged a popular creed which furnished a ready explanation of all the mischief, whether theft, plundering of cattle, parentage or kidnapping of children, which was constantly perpetrated, by the suggestion of demoniacal agency; in short, by multiplying into a diversity of mischievous beings, ready to do an ill turn to any one, that unknown but right well-known personage the No-man of Homer, the No-body of domestic life.

That the supposed prodigies which rendered these regions objects of superstitious awe, or of timid curiosity, should have been exaggerated by those few travellers who penetrated the veil of mystery which enwrapped them*, may be attributed partly to the credulity of the times in which they lived, no less than to that of the nations from whom they received their information, and to the wilful imposition practised upon them.

The same motive which formerly stimulated the narration of tales of wonder, now restrains it, namely, regard to the estimation of strangers.

But the creed of centuries is not at once eradicated, and it is impossible to converse familiarly with the natives of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, by their hearths, or by their torrents, on their wild moors, or on their stormy seas, in the season of peril or of repose, of sorrow or of festivity, without being convinced that they cling, in despite of education and intercourse with strangers, to the superstitious delusions, and even practices, of their forefathers. Of the remnants of their ancient creed some few samples may be enumerated,-and first, as to the yet existing belief of witchcraft, or communion with evil spirits; the tales of hags riding on broomsticks belonged to the olden time. I heard an aged minister in the neighbourhood of the scene of Macbeth's witches, attribute their disappear ance to the substitution of tea for the cordials which for merly animated the gossip of the ancient beldams, and produced those nocturnal capers on the brown heath, which

Sacheverel's visit to the Hebrides, in 1688, has been already alluded to. His opinion of the difficulty of exploring these Islands may be gathered from his account of his second and last day's excursion in Mull, the only one, save Ionà, upon which he landed. "If I thought the first day's journey, sixteen miles, hard and unequal, this was much worse; high and craggy mountains, horrid rocks and dreadful precipices; Pelion upon Ossa are trifling and little if compared to them."

A passage extracted from a German oration in praise of travel published by a whimsical English traveller, Thomas Coryate in his Crudities, illustrates the notion respecting the Hebrides entertained two centuries ago, on the continent of Europe. " Behold," exclaims the orator, in the course of a general survey of the wonders of the world, "a lake of Ireland, which turns wood into iron by an admirable prodigy of nature; or see the Islands of Scotland swimming after the manner of the ancient Cyclades, and flitting up and down on the water at the sport of the tempests: there thou wilt wonder to see certaine trees from whose fruit falling into the water that runneth underneath, ducks and geese do grow." "Monro, Dean of the Isles, tells us, says Dr. Maculloch that "there is a pigmies' isle at the north point of Lewis, (there is no island of any kind there now,) with ane little kirk in it of their own handy-work. Within this kirk, the ancients of that country of Lewis says that the saids pigmies has been airded (buried) thair. Many men of divers countrys has delvit up deeplie the flure of the little kirke, and I myself amanges the leave (rest), and has found in it, deepe and under the erthe, certaine bains and round heads, of wonderful little quantity, allegit to be the bains of the said pigmies, quhilk may be likely, according to sundrie historys that we read of the pigmies." Martin's beautiful green island of the deep still floats in the imagination of the natives, not only of the Western Isles, but even of the civilized county of Fife. A lady informed me that she had had the good fortune to see an effect of refraction at Aberford, on that coast, a part of the coast which was green becoming apparently detached, and insulated by the sea: and that the people assured her that it was the Green Island, and was not unfrequently visible. My readers may remember Thorson's exquisite description of such a phænomenon:

As when a shepherd of the Hebrid Isles,
Placed far amid the melancholy main,
Whether it be lone fancy him beguiles,
Or that aërial spirits sometimes deign
To stand embodied to our senses plain,
Sees on the naked hill, or valley low,
The while in ocean Phoebus dips his wain,
A vast assembly moving to and fro,

Then all at once in air dissolves the wond'rous show! Pennant; Mrs. Grant, and other writers, may be referred to in proof of the continuance of many of the ancient superstitions, after extravagance had ceased to characterize the narrations of Highland travellers, and they no longer "invigorated their readers with giants and dwarfs.”.

seen by boors, whose imagination like that of Tam o'Shanter, was heated by the same intoxicating beverage, were frequently mistaken for the dances of supernatural revellers. To descend to facts: it is notorious that witchcraft was recognised as a legal offence in Scotland in the last century: that many women were burnt for witchcraft, in a village in East Lothian, in 1705, and that the last unhappy woman that suffered for witchcraft, was burnt at Dornoch many years afterwards, and that the common people still entertained strong prejudices against her rela tions at the close of the century. Those who deny that the Highlanders retain their belief in the intercourse with evil spirits, and a supernatural power derived from it, assume in their behalf a greater degree of civilization than any to which the English can lay claim.

I met with one honest old forester, a sturdy champion of ancient creeds and practices, who boldly avowed his conviction of the existence of such intercourse, and his recollection of several persons in his youth who dealt in it. Nay, he maintained that the belief in it was now reviving; and attributed the circumstance to the increased knowledge of the Scriptures, which, in his opinion, corroborated by the citation of several texts in which witchcraft is spoken of, authorised it.

Indisputable evidence of the prevalence of the popular credulity is afforded by the custom still adhered to in many parts of Scotland, of resorting to seers, persons supposed to be endowed with supernatural sagacity, capable of thwarting the infernal agency, or of detecting the human instrument employed to perpetrate its mischief. Their reputation varies in proportion to their success, and attracts persons wishing to consult them from remote parts. An instance occurred very lately on the coast opposite to Sky, near to Balmacarra House, of the confidence reposed in the oracular response of one of these sages. A young man was drowned under very affecting circumstances; his mother immediately ascertained by applying to a seer, that his body would be discovered, and on the strength of this assurance waded daily from morning till night, waist-deep in the loch, till the prediction was fulfilled.

The Highlanders carry on their breasts a broach, as a preservative against supernatural mischief; and the priests of Barra sell holy water to the fishermen to propitiate the winds.

Of second sight instances are not unfrequently mentioned, and the circumstances and evidence of the appearance accurately reported. The persons who have witnessed such supernatural apparitions are usually averse to speak of them, and look solemn and mysterious when allusion is made to them, and they are ever regarded as men to whom "some strange thing had happened." Indeed, many Highland families having been educated in the belief of traditionary appendages of this description to their history, they have not yet learned to divest themselves wholly of the impression of their truth. If, however, we must give implicit credit on this subject to Pennant, we must admit that the last believer in second sight was a gentleman who died near Duncansby Head just before his tour.

The belief in the import of certain prophecies, which have been long current respecting most of the Highland families, has not altogether ceased. The hereditary transmission of such maledictory denunciations, and the extraordinary confirmation which they have occasionally derived from events, account for the impression which they still produce. They originated usually in clannish or personal animosity or revenge, and are usually ascribed to a certain renowned sage, Thomas the Rhymer, of whom it may be soothly said, that

Whate'er he did of gramarye, He always did maliciously.

There is little doubt that these predictions have so far fulfilled the purpose for which they were uttered, of haunting the imagination, and even accelerating the death of the supposed victims of them. It is well known that similar denunciations attach to some Irish and even English milies.

The Highlanders unquestionably believe in the prophetical import of dreams. Doubtless, visions of the night may be employed by Providence in the course of its ordinary operations, to produce impressions calculated to prepare us for approaching danger or calamity; thoug the consequent ordinary anticipation of occurrences, as the probable sequel of dreams portending them, would entangle us in the meshes of superstition. The extraordinary

See SINCLAIR's Survey.

fulfilment of dreams is often mentioned in the Highlands. One of the most remarkable mentioned to me was that of an aged island laird who dreamed, previous to a visit to Sky, that he should fall over a precipice: he was returning in the evening to Talisker, accompanied by a servant, when the augury was realized; his servant was severely hurt, and he himself crippled for life. This gentleman assured me, that his housekeeper dreamed the self-same dream on the same night.

A laird residing near Loch Ness was unfortunately drowned in the Caledonian Canal during my stay in the neighbourhood, a dream which he had had some weeks before, portending the event, having manifestly produced a - deep impression on his spirits, was instantly circulated. But it would be idle to multiply instances.

There is another superstitious prejudice of most serious practical inconvenience to our northern fellow-countrymen, namely, an aversion to swine. This has induced the supposition that the Highlanders have sprung from a Jewish stock, and the public have been threatened with a considerable volume, in addition to previous dissertations, on the subject. It is possible that the prejudice may have been brought from the East, but more probable that it originates in a perverted interpretation of the meaning of the Scripture-narrative of the swine being possessed by devils; for the Highlanders do not regard any of the prohibitions of the Old Testament respecting blood and unclean meats, nor do the other subdivisions of the great Celtic family show any aversion to swine's flesh; the Irish peasant, it is well known, depends on his pig for the payment of his rent. "What, would you have me eat devil's meat!" the exclamation of an old Highland woman addressed to a Ross-shire gentleman, who presumed to offer to her some pork, literally expressed the sentiments of this people on the subject. The extent to which this prejudice prevails is little known in England; it is almost universal through the Northern Highlands and Islands, and has only within few years, partially yielded to the inroads of advancing knowledge in the southern, and many of the domestic servants in Edinburgh and Glasgow, brought from these regions, still scrupulously observe it. Well might M. Simond wonder, that “ among all the filthinesses of these good people (the Highlanders,) swine were not to be seen." The progress of education and intercourse with strangers, will, doubtless, gradually extirpate this unfortunate prejudice, and provide a new staple of subsistence and of wealth to this people; and in the train of the schoolmaster will appear a certain useful functionary, whose vocation has lately derived well-merited celebrity from a recent popular work. Happy will it be for the Highlanders if, together with their old superstitions, they do not abandon those wholesome religious restraints, which the example and influence of strangers have in some degree impaired. The decline of the ancient superstitions in Scotland has been lamented on various accounts: to those who regret the disappearance of that ideal world, which affords a boundless range to the revels of the imagination, it may be merely hinted, that though poets were made for the world, and gifted assuredly they are for the moral gratification and instruction of mankind, the world was not made exclusively for poets. Others bewail the loss of the superstitions as belonging to that ancient Highland system which, arrayed in all the bright colours of the fancy, is the object of their idolatry, and as having proved a valuable substitute for moral and religious instruction. General Stewart, after deploring the extirpation of "the innocent, attractive, and often sublime superstitions of the Highlands," thus proceeds, "I trust I shall not be thought too partial to the ancient and innocent superstitions of my countrymen, if I wish that the restraints on vice were more numerous than the laws afford; and confess my belief, that the fear of a ghost is as honourable and legitimate a check as the fear of the gallows, and the thought of bringing dishonour on a man's country, name, and kindred, fully as respectable as the fear of Bridewell, Botany Bay, or the executioner's whip."

That superstition may prove a partial substitute for religion cannot be doubted; but its principle is opposed to that of religion, inasmuch as it resolves itself, in all its shapes and modifications, into fear, whereas the principle of true religion is love; the one through Divine influence,

Those of my Highland readers who have not perused Bubbles from the Brunnens of Nassau, will do well to turn to the animated description of the Schwein-General alluded to. May the glens of Albin resound to the crack of his whip!

† STEWART'S Sketches.

operating through the appointed means, producing the other, but without it degenerating into a timid, servile, indolent, enervating sentiment. An old writer has well observed, that "a superstitious man is like a galley-slave chained to his oar, wherever the vessel pursues her course; while a religious man moves freely and sails at large." The well-known want of energy which has long characterized the fishermen, a very numerous and important class of the natives of these regions, has found a ready pretext in the superstitious observance of the various omens and appearances which regulate their times of sailing.

SKY; PORTREE; STORRHEAD; SLEAT; STRATH AIRD; LOCH SCAVIG; LOCH CORUISK; COOLIN HILLS; SPAR CAVE; TENURES; CHARACTER; KYLE HAKEN.

A PACKET-BOAT plies twice in the week between the harbour of Dunvegan and Harris. The northern vessels, in their passage through the Minsh, often seek shelter here. The road to Portree skirts several arms of the sea, the shores of which are cultivated, exhibiting corn and plantations, interspersed with cottages and some good houses. The landlord of the little inn at Snizort combined with his ordinary vocation the function of agent for the distribution of the Scriptures, his shelves exhibited the usual assortment of religious books, and his neighbours met at his house on Sunday for the purpose of reading together the Sacred Volume. The little town of Portree, on the edge of its bay and excellent harbour, consisting of neat and wellconstructed houses, contrasts strikingly with the generally dreary aspect of the island: it contains a church, an inn, and a gaol, the sheriff's court of the island being held here. Portree is supposed to derive its name from the circumstance of James the Fifth of Scotland having put into its harbour during his tour through the Hebrides. The island of Raasay lies parallel to the coast for some miles; and at its northern extremity is the small isle of Rona. The parish of Portree contains two other places of worship besides the church, and as the minister performs service here on three Sundays out of five, it occurs only once in the five at each of the other stations. To westward of this place is a scene of uncommon grandeur: a small pass enclosed between the high and precipitous summit of Storrhead, and a cluster of enormous piles of black rock, round and massy, or tapering and columnar, the base of which is strewed with fragments of the same material. The north-west promontory of Sky is celebrated for its scenery; the basaltic formation prevailing in many places. The point of Duin has been well delineated by Dr. Macculloch, and Quirang, of more recent notoriety, by Major Murray.

On Sunday, several Englishmen met at the parish church of Sleat, where the minister performed an English service, expressly in compliment to them. The cemetery here, as well as elsewhere in these parts of Scotland, not being consecrated, is sadly desecrated by the incursions of cattle, and other intruders, being not protected by any fence: a circumstance revolting to Englishmen, accustomed to respect the asylums of their dead.

The grandest scenery of Sky, and perhaps of Scotland, occurs in the south-eastern division of the island. Between Benna Callich, and another mountain scarcely less bold and abrupt, stands the Manse of Sleat. Crossing Loch Slepin, I proceeded along the rugged coast of Strath, to its point called the Aird, a promontory which penetrated by caverns, or severed into buttresses, in some places projecting far in tabulated ledges over the sea, tinted richly with yellow, green, and other colours, presents a strikingly beautiful and majestic front to the stormy ocean; to the ravages of which its shattered and perforated precipices bear ample testimony. Reflecting the rays of an unclouded sun, it offered a brilliant contrast to the dark forms of Rum, and the neighbouring islands, which rose to the southward. One of the caves is pointed out as that in which the Pretender found a retreat; his companion, on the occasion, who resided in this very neighbourhood, was well known to the minister of the parish. We rowed slowly under the Aird, every cove or buttress deserving attention, till the opposite head-land beyond Loch Scavig discovered itself, and as we entered the bay, we perceived the precipitous and serrated ridges of the Coolin mountains, towering in all their grandeur above the shores, and terminating a perspective, formed by the steep sides of the two prominent buttresses of the range, and enclosing the gloomy valley and deep dark waters of Loch Coruisk, from which the

principal peaks rise abruptly. The fabled Upas-tree could not produce desolation more complete than that which characterizes this savage but sublime scene. The sea-fowl retain undisturbed possession of a solitary islet in the lake. The utmost elevation of the Coolin hills, is 3000 feet; they yet abound with deer, and we spent an arduous day in stalking them*.

On the shore of Loch Slepin is the celebrated spar-cave of Strath Aird. The entrance to it is formed by a natural passage between high perpendicular walls of rock, smooth as if wrought by the chisel. The cave is low and winding, exhibiting for some distance little spar; when, becoming incrusted with this brilliant substance, it suddenly passes over a high mound on which its roof rests, supported by massy columns, crowned by capitals of pendent icicles. From this majestic portal, a steep descent conducts to a pool of the clearest water. It is only within a few years, that this cave was brought to light: its beauty and magnificence, when first discovered, before it had been despoiled of its stalactitic decorations by the contemptible pilfering of inconsiderate travellers, is spoken of with rapture, by those who enjoyed the singular good fortune of witnessing it. What a proof does the unobserved toil of Nature, constructing, during ages, a monument of its workmanship so splendid in the dark recesses of a rock, afford of the might and skill of the guiding hand of Him who directs her operations, where no eye but His surveys them, as well as on those vast fields of space, on which worlds may gaze with wonder and delight!

The large Island of Sky is portioned out by the proprietors among tacksmen, holding leases of nineteen years or a longer term, who underlet their farms to a number of inferior occupants.

on his farm several years, declared that he had never seen a blow struck; though occasionally, he admitted, that quarrels occurred at the fairs. Prize-fighting is held in perfect contempt by the natives of these regions; whose martial spirit has, nevertheless, been sufficiently celebrated, to prove that it requires no stimulant from this brutal

custom.

The moral and religious improvement of the natives of Sky has advanced lately, and is not a little attributable to the operations of the Gaelic schools. Of the benefit derived from them, an instance was mentioned to me by one of the ministers, of a man who had reached an advanced period of life in perfect ignorance; when two of his daughters, who had been sent to school, read to him: and he attained an uncommonly extensive and accurate knowledge of the Scriptures, whilst his character experienced a complete reformation.

The Highlanders have been remarkable for the extraordinary strength and capacity of their memory, which was partly attributable to the absence of those helps to the retention of legendary and genealogical lore, and religious knowledge, so much prized by them, which books supply. In the Gaelic language, there was no book except the Bible, and that was not circulated. In proportion to the diffusion of education and of books, traditionary knowledge has naturally declined; partly as superseded by more valuable erudition, and partly as the necessity of perpetuating it no longer exists. It has been justly regretted, that no decided effort has been made to collect and record the traditionary lore, current among the people, ere the traces of it become gradually more and more obliterated. It would tend to preserve to the poet and the moralist ample and valuable materials: to illustrate manners, forms of government, and of society, which have been supplanted by a new order of things; and, though its deficiency of chronological reference and arrangement would prevent it supplying in any measure the place of history, to illustrate it. On the score of its encroachment on the province of memory and of tradition, education has been impugned by the abettors of the ancient system. But to what lengths will prejudice urge the mind infected by it! Shall we, after having received the free use of our limbs, regret the loss of the crutch?

country.

of baker nor butcher. The bread of which I partook at mine host's, at Dunvegan, was baked at Glasgow, and brought to the island by steam. Proof of the approximating power of this new moving principle, that a tradesman can supply his customers with the staff of life, at a distance of so many hundred miles!

ROSS-SHIRE; LOCH ALSH; BALMACARRA HOUSE; LOCHS LONG AND DUICH; ENNAN-DOWAN CASTLE; LOCH MAREE; POL-EWE.

THE man in charge of the ferry-boat was far distant; but a gentleman residing near at hand, probably accustomed to the delays of travellers, invited me to his house, prepared refreshments, and landed me in his own boat at Balmacarra House, on the shore of Loch Alsh. This mansion is delightfully situated under a high and well-wooded bank. The long and lofty promontory of Glenelg forms the opposite boundary of the bay; and the scene derives much animation from the vessels passing along the sound, under the towering coast of Sky. Sir Hugh's pleasure-grounds and garden are laid out, and a neat and cheerful village is raised in a valley, enclosed by a spacious amphitheatre of nills, embracing and protecting from destructive winds a circuit of several miles, adorned by extensive plantations of larch and other trees, of thirty years' growth, planted by the present proprietor. Some of the larch are of considerable height and size, furnishing materials for a large ferry-boat which Sir Hugh is building for one of his lochs. A fine cataract is formed by a torrent on one of the adjoining mountains, and the red-deer and roe-buck abound on them; the latter are very tame, and frequent the shrubberies, where they will allow themselves to be fed from the hand by persons with whom they are familiar.

Loch-Alsh penetrates far into the interior, and is divided into two branches, of which the northern is called LochLong, and the southern Duich. A broad and cultivated valley extends to the point at which those lakes intersect each other. Much of it was originally bog, and has been converted by Sir Hugh into a rich and productive soil. He applied, with success, the directions contained in "Lord Meadowbank's Treatise on Compost;" an excellent soil, - particularly adapted to barley, being formed by the intermixture of sand, sea-shells, and manure, with three feet of peat.

The ancient Castle of Ennan-dowan stands on the western shore of Loch-Long, at the point at which it meets the two lakes. Here, according to tradition, settled, in the fourteenth century, the elder son of the house of Fitzgerald of Leinster, driven out of Ireland by his younger brother, the immediate ancestor of the Duke of Leinster. The fugitive received grants of lands, performed valuable services, and founded the family of Mackenzies of Seaforth, who were, in virtue of their patrimonial estate of Kintail, in which district the castle is situated, the Lords of Kintail. "High Chief of Kintail," is the well-known appellation by which Walter Scott addresses the late Lord Seaforth, in his Farewell Ballad. A part of it was purchased from the family by Sir Hugh Innes, and the rest is the property of Mr. Stewart Mackenzie, who married the eldest daughter of the late Lord Seaforth. This castle is in a ruinous state, having been blown up by the king's forces in 1745. Along the banks of the lakes, and in the valley, are numerous, large, and well-peopled villages: the natives are principally employed in fishing, the herrings frequenting the coasts; they were now busily engaged in collecting the harvest, and they frequently, when the seasons of harvest and fishing coincide, spend their days in the former and the nights in the latter occupation, proving themselves capable of excessive exertion when stimulated by the prospect of obvious reward. The eagerness shown in getting in the harvest, arises chiefly from the hazard to which it must be exposed in a climate so uncertain, and subject to violent rains. The mountaineers are, however, much more apprehensive of drought than of wet, the scanty produce of the hills being soon parched up by hot and dry weather, and the cattle must then be driven to the lowlands, or subsist at a considerable expense upon forage. Among the busy reapers stood, superintending the gathering of the harvest, a farmer, ninety-six years of age. A man died lately in this parish at the age of 104: such instances of longevity are by no means uncommon in these regions.

The road to Dingwall must be quitted at the solitary inn of Auchnasheen by travellers who visit Lewis. The

landlord deliberately speeded me, ignorant of my route, on a dark night, without a guide, and was with difficulty prevailed upon to furnish one, when he pitched upon a little ragged urchin, without hat, and not understanding a syllable of English, who very reluctantly trotted forward amidst a deluge of rain, and after a walk of several miles, pointed out a light, and then led the way across a small river, to the very clean and comfortable little inn of Kinlochue.

Kinlochue is near the head of Loch Maree. A boat was ready next morning, but the men were engaged in the harvest. Some of them came when summoned; and were despatched in quest of the others: those again required fresh messengers; and three hours elapsed before our crew was complete and we were afloat! A Highlander despatched in quest of a stray sheep is usually considered as lost for the day. A strong head-wind baffled the unskilful exertions of my rowers; and every ten minutes they paused, to sip whiskey and take snuff; the latter, a tedious process according to the national economy, which abhors the wasteful expenditure of finger and thumb, and at once conveys the whole supply to the nose by means of a quill, so that not a particle can escape its destination. Our slow progress was well repaid by the romantic scenery of a lake little frequented. The grandeur is confined entirely to the eastern shore, which rises abruptly from the water to a considerable height; its lofty precipices occasionally opening into coves and chasms, or shelving off into sloping banks, sprinkled with trees, chiefly ash, and towering aloft into rugged peaks, which rank among the highest in Scotland.

A sheltered nook of several acres, at the foot of this mountain, contains a farm-house embosomed in trees, at which the hospitality of the lady who resides in it provided a most seasonable collation. Loch Maree is diversified by several islands, one of which contains an ancient burial-place.

A river conveys the waters of the lake to the sea at Pol-ewe pursuing its course for two miles, between banks adorned by neat farm-houses, cottages, and plots of cultivated land. The boatmen returned to Kinlochue without tasting food, except a small piece of oat-cake on the lake, and not intending to satisfy the cravings of appetite till they reached home at midnight. The abstinence which they practise induces perpetual resort to stimulants, which a good wholesome meal would render unnecessary. The landlord at Pol-ewe produced wheaten bread, and informed me, that it was brought from Stornaway; the bakers of Glasgow having thus their rivals, in the most north-western island of the Hebrides.

THE MINSH; LEWIS; STORNAWAY.

THE packet sails once in the week from Pol-ewe to Stornaway. It is an ill-found vessel, its tackling ill-suited to bad weather, and its crew insufficient, being in summer only three; a fourth is added in winter. The cabin was such, that none of the passengers would venture into it; the hold affording far preferable accommodation. Government contributes 1307. per annum to the support of the vessel. Warning should be taken from the fate of its predecessor, which foundered in the gale of November, 1824. The accident was owing to the unfortunate determination of the minister of Stornaway, who insisted on the skipper sailing, against his better judgment*. The length of the passage to Stornaway is forty-two miles. In the Minsh, the channel which separates Lewis from the main land, the wind veers round to the W. and S. W. at noon, generally throughout the year, and invariably during the four winter months. A vessel leaving Polewe early, may reach the Long Island before the change; but our passage was prolonged to seventeen hours; and we deviated from our course three points, owing to the deficiency of the compass. We landed in the harbour amid the ruins of an old castle. the harbour of Stornaway, and its being the resort of the It is singular that, notwithstanding the importance of vessels engaged in the Baltic trade, there is no light-house at its entrance. The Commissioners of the Northern Lights properly decline erecting light-houses in harbours, till they have provided them for the principal head-lands; but the expense of a light-house at Stornaway might be almost defrayed by the dues which are now uncalled for. There is a light-house at Scalpa, on the coast of Harris; and one is in progress at Cape Wrath; there is none on the

* A steam-boat now communicates with Lewis.