第64章 INCH KENNETH(4)

There is in the Island one house more,and only one,that has a chimney:we entered it,and found it neither wanting repair nor inhabitants;but to the farmers,who now possess it,the chimney is of no great value;for their fire was made on the floor,in the middle of the room,and notwithstanding the dignity of their mansion,they rejoiced,like their neighbours,in the comforts of smoke.

It is observed,that ecclesiastical colleges are always in the most pleasant and fruitful places.While the world allowed the monks their choice,it is surely no dishonour that they chose well.This Island is remarkably fruitful.The village near the churches is said to contain seventy families,which,at five in a family,is more than a hundred inhabitants to a mile.There are perhaps other villages:yet both corn and cattle are annually exported.

But the fruitfulness of Iona is now its whole prosperity.The inhabitants are remarkably gross,and remarkably neglected:I know not if they are visited by any Minister.The Island,which was once the metropolis of learning and piety,has now no school for education,nor temple for worship,only two inhabitants that can speak English,and not one that can write or read.

The people are of the clan of Maclean;and though Sir Allan had not been in the place for many years,he was received with all the reverence due to their Chieftain.One of them being sharply reprehended by him,for not sending him some rum,declared after his departure,in Mr.Boswell's presence,that he had no design of disappointing him,'for,'said he,'I would cut my bones for him;and if he had sent his dog for it,he should have had it.'

When we were to depart,our boat was left by the ebb at a great distance from the water,but no sooner did we wish it afloat,than the islanders gathered round it,and,by the union of many hands,pushed it down the beach;every man who could contribute his help seemed to think himself happy in the opportunity of being,for a moment,useful to his Chief.

We now left those illustrious ruins,by which Mr.Boswell was much affected,nor would I willingly be thought to have looked upon them without some emotion.Perhaps,in the revolutions of the world,Iona may be sometime again the instructress of the Western Regions.

It was no long voyage to Mull,where,under Sir Allan's protection,we landed in the evening,and were entertained for the night by Mr.

Maclean,a Minister that lives upon the coast,whose elegance of conversation,and strength of judgment,would make him conspicuous in places of greater celebrity.Next day we dined with Dr.

Maclean,another physician,and then travelled on to the house of a very powerful Laird,Maclean of Lochbuy;for in this country every man's name is Maclean.

Where races are thus numerous,and thus combined,none but the Chief of a clan is addressed by his name.The Laird of Dunvegan is called Macleod,but other gentlemen of the same family are denominated by the places where they reside,as Raasa,or Talisker.

The distinction of the meaner people is made by their Christian names.In consequence of this practice,the late Laird of Macfarlane,an eminent genealogist,considered himself as disrespectfully treated,if the common addition was applied to him.

Mr.Macfarlane,said he,may with equal propriety be said to many;but I,and I only,am Macfarlane.

Our afternoon journey was through a country of such gloomy desolation,that Mr.Boswell thought no part of the Highlands equally terrifick,yet we came without any difficulty,at evening,to Lochbuy,where we found a true Highland Laird,rough and haughty,and tenacious of his dignity;who,hearing my name,inquired whether I was of the Johnstons of Glencroe,or of Ardnamurchan.

Lochbuy has,like the other insular Chieftains,quitted the castle that sheltered his ancestors,and lives near it,in a mansion not very spacious or splendid.I have seen no houses in the Islands much to be envied for convenience or magnificence,yet they bare testimony to the progress of arts and civility,as they shew that rapine and surprise are no longer dreaded,and are much more commodious than the ancient fortresses.

The castles of the Hebrides,many of which are standing,and many ruined,were always built upon points of land,on the margin of the sea.For the choice of this situation there must have been some general reason,which the change of manners has left in obscurity.

They were of no use in the days of piracy,as defences of the coast;for it was equally accessible in other places.Had they been sea-marks or light-houses,they would have been of more use to the invader than the natives,who could want no such directions of their own waters:for a watch-tower,a cottage on a hill would have been better,as it would have commanded a wider view.

If they be considered merely as places of retreat,the situation seems not well chosen;for the Laird of an Island is safest from foreign enemies in the center;on the coast he might be more suddenly surprised than in the inland parts;and the invaders,if their enterprise miscarried,might more easily retreat.Some convenience,however,whatever it was,their position on the shore afforded;for uniformity of practice seldom continues long without good reason.

A castle in the Islands is only a single tower of three or four stories,of which the walls are sometimes eight or nine feet thick,with narrow windows,and close winding stairs of stone.The top rises in a cone,or pyramid of stone,encompassed by battlements.