CHAPTER VII.

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Armidale.
Isle of Sky.-

Sir Alexander

Glenelg. Macdonald. Parish Church of Slate. Ode on Sky.-Corrichatachin.—Highland Hospitality.-Ode to Mrs. Thrale.-Country Life.-Macpherson's Dissertations:-Second Sight.—Sail to Rasay.—Fingal. - Homer.—Rasay.—Infidelity.—Bentley.-Mallet. --Hooke.--Duchess of Marlborough.-Heritable Jurisdictions.—Insular Life.—Laird of Macleod.

Thursday, Sept. 2.-I HAD slept ill. Dr. Johnson's anger had affected me much. I considered that, without any bad intention, I might suddenly forfeit his friendship; and was impatient to see him this morning. I told him how uneasy he had made me by what he had said, and reminded him of his own remark at Aberdeen, upon old friendships being hastily broken off. He owned, he had spoken to me in passion; that he would not have done what he threatened; and that, if he had, he should have been ten times worse than I; that forming intimacies would indeed be "limning the water," were they liable to such sudden dissolution; and he added, "Let's think no more on't." BOSWELL. "Well then, Sir, I shall be easy. Remember, I am to have fair warning in case of any quarrel. You are never to spring a mine upon me. It was absurd in me to believe you." JOHNSON. "You deserved about as much, as to believe me from night to morning."

After breakfast, we got into a boat for Sky. It rained much when we set off, but cleared up as we advanced. One of the boatmen, who spoke English, said that a mile at land was two miles at sea. I then observed, that from Glenelg to Armidale in Sky, which was our present course, and is called twelve, was only six miles; but this he could not understand. "Well," said Dr. Johnson, "never talk to me of the native good sense of the Highlanders. Here is a fellow who calls one mile two, and yet cannot comprehend that twelve such imaginary miles make in truth but six."

We reached the shore of Armidale before one o'clock. Sir Alexander Macdonald came down to receive us. He and his lady (formerly Miss Boswell (), of Yorkshire), were then in a house built by a tenant at this place, which is in the district of Slate, the family mansion here having been burned in Sir Donald Macdonald's time.

The most ancient seat of the chief of the Macdonalds in the Isle of Sky was at Duntulm, where there are the remains of a stately castle. The principal residence of the family is now at Mugstot, at which there is a considerable building. Sir Alexander and Lady Macdonald had come to Armidale in their way to Edinburgh, where it was necessary for them to be soon after this time.

Armidale is situated on a pretty bay of the narrow sea, which flows between the main land of Scot

(1) The Yorkshire branch of the family have generally spelt the name Bosville. Their estates are now possessed by Lord

land and the Isle of Sky. In front there is a grand prospect of the rude mountains of Moidart and Knoidart. Behind are hills gently rising and covered with a finer verdure than I expected to see in this climate, and the scene is enlivened by a number of little clear brooks. (1)

Sir Alexander Macdonald having been an Eton scholar (2), and being a gentleman of talents, Dr.

(1) Instead of finding the head of the Macdonalds surrounded with his clan, and a festive entertainment, we had a small company, and cannot boast of our cheer. The particulars are minuted in my "Journal," but I shall not trouble the public with them. I shall mention but one characteristic circumstance. My shrewd and hearty friend, Sir Thomas (Wentworth) Blacket, Lady Macdonald's uncle, who had preceded us in a visit to this ehief, upon being asked by him, if the punch-bowl, then upon the table, was not a very handsome one, replied, "Yes, if it were full."-Boswell's First Edit.

Johnson, in a letter to Mrs. Thrale, says, "We had a passage of about twelve miles to the point where Sir Alexander Macdonald resided, having come from his seat, in the middle of the island, to a small house on the shore, as we believe, that he might with less reproach entertain us meanly. If he aspired to meanness, his retrograde ambition was completely gratified; but he did not succeed equally in escaping reproach. He had no cook, nor I suppose much provision; nor had the lady the common decencies of her tea-table: we picked up our sugar with our fingers. Boswell was very angry, and reproached him with his improper parsimony."-Letters, vol. i. p. 137. And again: "I have done thinking of Sir Alexander Macdonald, whom we now call Sir Sawney; he has disgusted all mankind by injudicious parsimony, and given occasion to so many stories, that Boswell has some thoughts of collecting them, and making a novel of his life."

These passages leave no doubt as to the person meant in the various allusions to the mean and parsimonious landlord and chieftain, which the reader will find in the subsequent parts of the Tour.-C.

(2) See his Latin verses addressed to Dr. Johnson, in the Appendix, No. II.-B.-Indifferent, and, indeed, unintelligible, as these verses are, they probably suggested to Dr. Johnson's mind the writing those Latin verses in Skye and Inch-Kenneth, which we shall see presently.- C.

Johnson had been very well pleased with him in London. But my fellow-traveller and I were now full of the old Highland spirit, and were dissatisfied at hearing of rents racked and à chief not surrounded by his clan. Dr. Johnson said, "Sir, the Highland chiefs should not be allowed to go farther south than Aberdeen. A strong-minded man, like [his brother] Sir James Macdonald, may be improved by an English education; but in general they will be tamed into insignificance."()

We found here Mr. Janes of Aberdeenshire, a naturalist. Janes said he had been at Dr. Johnson's in London, with Ferguson the astronomer. JOHNSON. "It is strange that, in such distant places, I should meet with any one who knows me. I should have thought I might hide myself in Sky."

Friday, Sept. 3.- This day proving wet, we should have passed our time very uncomfortably, had we not found in the house two chests of books, which we eagerly ransacked. After dinner, when I alone was left at table with the few Highland gentlemen who were of the company, having talked (2) with very high respect of Sir James Mac

(1)" But my fellow-traveller and I were now full of the old Highland spirit, and were dissatisfied at hearing heavy complaints of rents racked, and the people driven to emigration; and finding a chief not summoned by his clan, Dr. Johnson said, It grieves me to see the chief of a great clan appear to such disadvantage. This gentleman has talen s, nay, some learning; but he is totally unfit for his situation.' I meditated an escape from this house the very next day; but Dr. Johnson resolved that we should weather it out till Monday."- First Edit.

(2) Here, in the first edition, was a leaf cancelled, which, no doubt, contained some of the original strictures of the "Journal"

donald, they were all so much affected as to shed tears. One of them was Mr. Donald Macdonald, who had been lieutenant of grenadiers in the Highland regiment, raised by Colonel Montgomery, now Earl of Eglintoune, in the war before last; one of those regiments which the late Lord Chatham prided himself in having brought from "the mountains of the north" by doing which he contributed to extinguish in the Highlands the remains of disaffection to the present royal family. From this gentleman's conversation, I first learnt how very popular his colonel was among the Highlanders; of which I had such continued proofs, during the whole course of my Tour, that on my return I could not help telling the noble Earl himself, that I did not before know how great a man he was.

We were advised by some persons here to visit Rasay, in our way to Dunvegan, the seat of the Laird of Macleod. Being informed that the Rev. Mr. Donald M'Queen was the most intelligent man in Sky, and having been favoured with a letter of introduction to him, by the learned Sir James Foulis (1), I sent it to him by an express, and re

on Sir Alexander Macdonald's want of hospitality and spirit.— C.

(1) Sir James Foulis, of Collinton, Bart. was a man of an ancient family, a good scholar, and a hard student; duly imbued with a large share both of Scottish shrewdness and Scottish prejudice. His property, his income at least, was very moderate. Others might have increased it in a voyage to India, which he made in the character of a commissioner; but Sir James returned as poor as he went there. Sir James Foulis was one of the few Lowlanders whom Highlanders allowed to be well skilled in the Gaelic, an acquaintance which he made late in life.-WALTER SCOTT.