He begins with informing us, that he had defired to vifit the Hebrides, fo long, fays he, that I fcarcely remember how the with was originally excited; and was, in the autumn of the year 1773, induced to undertake the journey, by finding in Mr. Bofwell a companion, whofe acutenefs would help my inquiry, and whofe gaiety of converfation and civility of mannèrs are fufficient to counteract the inconveniences of travel, in countries lefs hofpitable than we have paffed.'

The learned Traveller relates no occurrences of his journey from London to Edinburgh. His itinerary, therefore, commences with his departure from the capital of North Britain; which was on the 18th of Auguft; fomewhat too late in the featon, furely, for a tour in that country, and a voyage in those feas, in which no man, we believe, ever thought of taking a journey of pleafure in the winter. In this refpect Mr. Pennant, the year before, had greatly the advantage of our Author; for he wifely took his departure in the early and delightful month of May; with the reasonable expectation of having only fairweather difficulties to encounter.

Croffing the Frith of Forth, the curiofity of our Travellers was attracted by Inch Keith; a fmall ifland, of which, on examination, Dr. Johnson had little to remark, except,-in his peculiar manner,- that it was not wholly bare of grafs, and very fertile of thistles.'

The first place of note that excited the Doctor's particular attention, was the city and univerfity of St. Andrews; where our Travellers were gratified by every mode of kindness, and entertained with all the elegance of lettered hofpitality.' He gives an ample account of this once flourishing archiepifcopal city; pathetically laments its decay; and quits it with a declaration perfectly in character, from a man of our Author's great fenfibility, and well known zeal for the honours and interests of religion and learning: the kindness of the profeffors, fays he, did not contribute to abate the uneafy remembrance of an univerfity declining, a college alienated, and a church profaned and haftening to the ground.'

Author of a Tour to Corfica, with Memoirs of Paoli, and other ingenious performances: fee Review, vol. xxxix. p. 43.

+ The profanation here alluded to, is that of the chapel of St. Leonard's college. This college (one of three, of which the univerfity formerly confifled) is now diffolved by the fale of its buildings and the appropriation of its revenues to the Profeffors of the two others. The chapel of the alienated college is yet ftanding, and is converted into a greenhoufe. Our Author obferves that the plants do not hitherto profper; and we imagine the pious Doctor was at no lofs for the reafen.

From

From St. Andrews we attend our Author along a dreary, defart, tree-lefs and joylefs way, through Dundee, to Aberbrothwick; where was a monaftery of great renown in the hiftory of Scotland: and its ruins afford ample teftimony of its ancient magnificence. A brief defcription of them is given, and Dr. Johnfon declares, that he fhould fcarcely have regretted his journey, had it afforded nothing more than the fight of Aberbrothwick.

Proceed to Montrofe; a well built town. The English chapel there afforded a twofold curiofity, in Scotland: it was clean, and it had an organ. The Scots, though a very religious people, are faid to be remarkably negligent of their churches, in refpect to cleanliness of which even Mr. Pennant, if we rightly remember, has taken notice, notwithstanding his general complaifance to the country.

Arrive at Aberdeen. This flourishing city is defcribed; and in its univerfity our travellers met with the fame kind and honourable reception as at St. Andrews: Dr. Johnson was honoured with the freedom of the city.

From Aberdeen they proceeded to Slaines caftle, and vifited the famous Butlers of Buchan. This laft is a natural curiofity; and is extremely well defcribed by our Author. There is alfo a defeription of it in Mr. Pennant's firft Tour.

Bamf is next vifited; and, in progreffive order, Elgin, Fores, Calder, Fort-George, and Inverness. At this laft mentioned place, the Author emphatically fays, we were now to bid farewell to the luxury of travelling, [the poft-chaife] and to enter a country upon which, perhaps, no wheel has ever rolled." -Here, therefore, they procured horfes and guides; and on the thirteenth of Auguft,' (mifprinted, we fuppofe, for thirtieth,) directed their courfe toward Fort-Auguftus; to which they had a pleafant day's journey, by the fide of Loch-Nefs: the road fine, and the profpect romantic and delightful *. Our Author, in defcribing this celebrated piece of water, defcants on its fuppofed extraordinary quality, by which it is faid to enjoy an exemption from freezing; and, as natural hiftory is now one of the favourite ftudies of the Scottish nation,' he recommends Loch-Nefs to their diligent examination.

Here they met with the first Highland but they had obferved; and as our businefs, fays the Author, was with life and manners, we were willing to vifit it.' The conftruction of an hut is thus described:

See a particular defcription of this noble Lough, and the profpects of the country on both fides of it, copied from Mr. Pennant, in our Review, vol. xlvi. p. 150—151.

• A hut

• A hut is constructed with loose ftones, ranged for the most part with fome tendency to circularity. It must be placed where the wind cannot act upon it with violence, because it has no cement; and where the water will run eafily away, becauie it has no floor but the naked ground. The wall, which is commonly about fix feet high, declines from the perpendicular a little inward. Such rafters as can be procured are then railed for a roof, and covered with heath, which makes a strong and warm thatch, kept from flying off by ropes of twifled heath, of which the ends, reaching from the center of the thatch to the top of the wall, are held firm by the weight of a large ftone. No light is admitted but at the entrance, and through a hole in the thatch, which gives vent to the smoke. This hole is not directly over the fic, left the rain fhould extinguifh it; and the fmoke therefore naturally fills the place before it escapes, Such is the general ftructure of the houfes in which one of the nations of this opulent and powerful ifland has been hitherto content to live. Huts however are not more uniform than palaces; and this which we were infpecting was very far from one of the meaneft, for it was divided into feveral apartments; and its inhabitants poffefied fuch property as a paftoral poet might exalt into riches.

When we entered, we found an old woman boiling goatsflesh in a kettle. She fpuke little English, but we had interpreters at hand; and he was willing enough to display her whole fyftem of economy. She has five children, of which none are yet gone from her. The eldeft, a boy of thirteen, and her husband, who is eighty years old, were at work in the wood. Her two next fons were gone to Inverness to buy meal, by which oatmeal is always meant. Meal fhe confidered as expenfive food, and told us, that in fpring, when the goats gave milk, the children could live without it. She is mistress of fixty goats, and I faw many kids in an enclosure at the end of her house. She had al o fome poultry. By the lake we faw a potatoe-garden, and a fma!l fpot of ground on which flood four Thucks, containing each twelve fheaves of barley. She has all this from the labour of their own hands, and for what is neceffary to be bought, her kids and her chickens are fent to

market.

With the true paftoral hospitality, she asked us to fit down and drink whisky. She is religious, and though the kirk is four miles off, probably eight English miles, he goes thither every Sunday. We gave her a fhiling, and the begged inuff; for fnuff is the luxury of a Highland cottage.'

In another place, in defcribing the iflands, with the manners and cuftoms of their inhabitants, our Author gives a farther account of the but, as diftinguished from the house.

• The

The habitations of men in the Hebrides may be diftinguifhed into huts and houfes. By a houfe, I mean a building with one story over another; by a hut, a dwelling with only one floor. The laird, who formerly lived in a caftle, now lives in a house; fometimes fufficiently neat, but feldom very spacious or fplendid.'-' Of the houses little can be faid. They are fmall, and by the neceflity of accumulating ftores, where there are fo few opportunities of purchafe, the rooms are very heterogeneously filled. With want of cleanlinefs it were ingra titude to reproach them. The fervants having been bred upon the naked earth, think every floor clean, and the quick fucceffion of guefts, perhaps not always over-elegant, does not allow much time for adjufting their apartments.

Huts are of many gradations; from murky dens, to commodious dwellings.

The wall of a common hut is always built without mortar, by a skilful adaptation of loofe ftones. Sometimes perhaps a double wall of ftones is raised, and the intermediate space filled with earth. The air is thus completely excluded. Some walls are, I think, formed of turfs, held together by a wattle, or texture of twigs. Of the meanest huts, the first room is lighted by the entrance, and the second by the smoke-hole. The fire is ufually made in the middle. But there are huts, or dwellings, of only one ftory, inhabited by gentlemen, which have walls cemented with mortar, glass windows, and boarded floors. Of these all have chimneys, and fome chimneys have grates.

The house and the furniture are not always nicely fuited. We were driven once, by miffing a paffage, to the hut of a gentleman, where, after a very liberal fupper, when I was conducted to my chamber, I found an elegant bed of Indian cotton, fpread with fine theets. The accommodation was flattering; I undreffed myself, and felt my feet in the mire. The bed ftood upon the bare earth, which a long course of rain had foftened into a puddle.'

From Fort-Auguftus they had to crofs the Highlands, toward the western coaft, and to content themfelves with fuch accommodations as a way fo little frequented could afford. The journey, however, did not appear formidable, as they faw it but of two days' continuance. On they pailed, through the dreariness of folitude;' they were now in the bofom of the Highlands, with full leifure to contemplate the appearance and properties of mountainous regions, fuch as have been, in many countries, the laft fhelters of national diftrefs, and are every where the fcenes of adventures, ftratagems, furprizes, and efcapes.-The latter part of this obfervation is illuftrated by a variety of anecdotes fcattered through the work, relating to the feuds and contefts, the rapine and devaftations, which fubfifted among

7

among the chiefs of the clans, in former times, before the abolition of the heretable jurifdictions, which took place soon after the rebellion in 1745.

Our Author flightly fketches out the landscape of the defart; but, though the subject is barren, the touches of the pencil are masterly.

Of the hills, he says, many may be called with Homer's Ida abundant in fprings, but few can deferve the epithet which he befows upon Pelion by waving their leaves. They exhibit very little variety; being almost wholly covered with dark heath, and even that feems to be checked in its growth. What is not heath is nakedness, a little diverfified by now and then a ftream rushing down the steep. An eye accustomed to flowery pallures and waving harvests is aftonished and repelled by this wide extent of hopeless fterility. The appearance is that of matter incapable of form or usefulness, difmiffed by nature from her care and difinherited of her favours, left in its original elemental state, or quickened only with one fullen power of useless vegetation,

It will very readily occur, that this uniformity of barrenness can afford very little amusement to the traveller; that it is eafy to fit at home and conceive rocks and heath, and waterfalls; and that these journeys are useless labours, which neither impregnate the imagination, nor enlarge the understanding. It is true that of far the greater part of things, we must content ourselves with fuch knowledge as defcription may exhibit, or analogy fupply; but it is true likewife, that these ideas are always incomplete, and that at least, till we have compared them with realities, we do not know them to be just. As we fee more, we become poffeffed of more certainties, and confequently gain more principles of reasoning, and found a wider bafis of analogy.

Regions mountainous and wild, thinly inhabited, and little cultivated, make a great part of the earth, and he that has never feen them, muft live unacquainted with much of the face of nature, and with one of the great fcenes of human existence.

As the day advanced towards noon, we entered a narrow. valley not very flowery, but fufficiently verdant. Our guides told us, that the horses could not travel all day without reft or meat, and intreated us to ftop here, because no grafs would be found in any other place. The request was reasonable and the argument cogent. We therefore willingly difmounted and diverted ourselves as the place gave us opportunity.

I fat down on a bank, fuch as a writer of Romance might have delighted to feign. I had indeed no trees to whisper over my head, but a clear rivulet ftreamed at my feet. The day was calm, the air foft, and all was rudeness, filence, and folitude., Before me, and on either fide, were high hills, which by hin-.

3

dering