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diff --git a/76787-0.txt b/76787-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad518b9 --- /dev/null +++ b/76787-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6362 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76787 *** + + + + + + + + A SUMMER IN SKYE + + + BY ALEXANDER SMITH + + AUTHOR OF "A LIFE DRAMA," ETC. + + + + VOLUME II. + + + + ALEXANDER STRAHAN, PUBLISHER + 148 STRAND, LONDON + 1865 + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. II. + + +THE LANDLORD'S WALK + +ORBOST AND DUNVEGAN + +DUNTULM + +JOHN PENRUDDOCK + +A SMOKING PARLIAMENT + +THE EMIGRANTS + +HOMEWARDS + +GLASGOW + +HOME + + + + +A SUMMER IN SKYE. + + + +_THE LANDLORD'S WALK._ + +Walking into the interior of Skye is like walking into antiquity; the +present is behind you, your face is turned toward Ossian. In the +quiet silent wilderness you think of London, Liverpool, Edinburgh, or +whatever great city it may be given you to live and work in, as of +something of which you were cognisant in a former existence. Not +only do you breathe the air of antiquity; but everything about you is +a veritable antique. The hut by the road-side, thatched with turfs, +smoke issuing from the roof, is a specimen of one of the oldest +styles of architecture in the world. The crooked spade with which +the crofter turns over the sour ground carries you away into fable. +You remove a pile of stones on the moor, and you come to a flagged +chamber in which there is a handful of human bones--whose, no one can +tell. Duntulm and Dunsciach moulder on their crags, but the song the +passing milkmaid sings is older than they. You come upon old swords +that were once bright and athirst for blood; old brooches that once +clasped plaids; old churchyards with carvings of unknown knights on +the tombs; and old men who seem to have inherited the years of the +eagle or the crow. These human antiques are, in their way, more +interesting than any other: they are the most precious objects of +_virtu_ of which the island can boast. And at times, if you can keep +ear and eye open, you stumble on forms of life, relations of master +and servant, which are as old as the castle on the crag or the cairn +of the chief on the moor. Cash payment is not the "sole nexus +between man and man." In these remote regions your servants' +affection for you is hereditary as their family name or their family +ornaments; your foster-brother would die willingly for you; and if +your nurse had the writing of your epitaph, you would be the bravest, +strongest, handsomest man that ever walked in shoe leather or out of +it. + +[Sidenote: Mr M'Ian's house] + +The house of my friend Mr M'Ian is set down on the shore of one of +the great Lochs that intersect the island; and as it was built in +smuggling times, its windows look straight down the Loch towards the +open sea. Consequently at night, when lighted up, it served all the +purposes of a lighthouse: and the candle in the porch window, I am +told, has often been anxiously watched by the rough crew engaged in +running a cargo of claret or brandy from Bordeaux. Right opposite, +on the other side of the Loch, is the great rugged fringe of the +Cuchullin hills; and lying on the dry summer grass you can see it, +under the influence of light and shade, change almost as the +expression of a human face changes. Behind the house the ground is +rough and broken, every hollow filled, every knoll plumaged with +birches, and between the leafy islands, during the day, rabbits scud +continually, and in the evening they sit in the glades and wash their +innocent faces. A mile or two back from the house a glen opens into +soft green meadows, through which a stream flows; and on these +meadows Mr M'Ian, when the weather permits, cuts and secures his hay. +The stream is quiet enough usually, but after a heavy day's rain, or +when a waterspout has burst up among the hills, it comes down with a +vengeance, carrying everything before it. On such occasions its roar +may be heard a mile away. [Sidenote: View from the bridge.] About a +pistol-shot from the house the river is crossed by a plank bridge, +and in fine weather it is a great pleasure to sit down there and look +about one. The stream flows sluggishly over rocks, in the deep +places of a purple or port-wine colour, and lo! behind you, through +the arch, slips a sunbeam, and just beneath the eye there gleams a +sudden chasm of brilliant amber. The sea is at ebb, and the shore is +covered with stones and dark masses of sea-weed; and the rocks a +hundred yards off--in their hollows they hold pools of clear +sea-water in which you can find curious and delicately-coloured ocean +blooms--are covered with orange lichens, which contrast charmingly +with the masses of tawny dulse and the stone-littered shore on the +one side, and the keen blue of the sea on the other. Beyond the blue +of the sea the great hills rise, with a radiant vapour flowing over +their crests. Immediately to the left a spur of high ground runs out +to the sea edge,--the flat top smooth and green as a billiard table, +the sheep feeding on it white as billiard balls,--and at the foot of +this spur of rock a number of huts are collected. They are half lost +in an azure veil of smoke, you smell the peculiar odour of peat reek, +you see the nets lying out on the grass to dry, you hear the voices +of children. Immediately above, and behind the huts and the spur of +high ground, the hill falls back, the whole breast of it shaggy with +birch-wood; and just at the top you see a clearing and a streak of +white stony road, leading into some other region as solitary and +beautiful as the one in which you at present are. And while you sit +on the bridge in a state of half-sleepy contentment--a bee nuzzling +in a bell-shaped flower within reach of your stick, the sea-gulls +dancing silent quadrilles overhead, the white lightning flash of a +rabbit from copse to copse twenty yards off--you hear a sharp +whistle, then a shout, and looking round there is M'Ian himself +standing on a height, his figure clear against the sky: and +immediately the men tinkering the boat on the shore drop work and +stand and stare, and out of the smoke that wraps the cottages rushes +bonnetless, Lachlan Dhu, or Donald Roy, scattering a brood of poultry +in his haste, and marvelling much what has moved his master to such +unwonted exertion. + +My friend's white house is a solitary one, no other dwelling of the +same kind being within eight miles of it. In winter, wind and rain +beat it with a special spite; and the thunder of the sea creeps into +your sleeping ears, and your dreams are of breakers and reefs, and +ships going to pieces, and the cries of drowning men. In summer, it +basks as contentedly on its green knoll; green grass, with the daisy +wagging its head in the soft wind, runs up to the very door of the +porch. But although solitary enough--so solitary; that if you are +asked to dine with your nearest neighbour you must mount and +ride--there are many more huts about than those we have seen nestling +on the shore beneath the smooth green plateau on which sheep are +feeding. If you walk along to the west,--and a rough path it is, for +your course is over broken boulders,--you come on a little bay with +an eagle's nest of a castle perched on a cliff, and there you will +find a school-house and a half-a-dozen huts, the blue smoke steaming +out of the crannies in the walls and roofs. Dark pyramids of peat +are standing about, sheep and cows are feeding on the bits of +pasture, gulls are weaving their eternal dances above, and during the +day the school-room is murmuring like a beehive--only a much less +pleasant task than the making of honey is going on within. +[Sidenote: The pensioner.] Behind the house to the east, hidden by +the broken ground and the masses of birch-wood, is another collection +of huts; and in one of these lives the most interesting man in the +place. He is an old pensioner, who has seen service in different +quarters of the world; and frequently have I carried him a string of +pigtail, and shared his glass of usquebaugh, and heard him, as he sat +on a stone in the sunshine, tell tales of barrack life in Jamaica; of +woody wildernesses filled with gorgeous undergrowth, of parasites +that climbed like fluttering tongues of fire, and of the noisy towns +of monkeys and parrots in the upper branches. I have heard him also +severely critical on the different varieties of rum. Of every fiery +compound he had a catholic appreciation, but rum was his special +favourite--being to him what a Greek text was to Person, or an old +master to Sir George Beaumont. So that you see, although Mr M'Ian's +house was in a sense solitary, yet it was not altogether bereaved of +the sight and sense of human habitations. On the farm there were +existing perhaps, women and children included, some sixty souls; and +to these the relation of the master was peculiar, and perhaps without +a parallel in the island. + +[Sidenote: Rude courts of justice.] + +When, nearly half-a-century ago, Mr M'Ian left the army and became +tacksman, he found cotters on his farm, and thought their presence as +much a matter of course as that limpets should be found upon his +rocks. They had their huts, for which they paid no rent; they had +their patches of corn and potato ground, for which they paid no rent. +There they had always been, and there, so far as Mr M'Ian was +concerned, they would remain. He had his own code of generous +old-fashioned ethics, to which he steadily adhered; and the man who +was hard on the poor, who would dream of driving them from the places +in which they were born, seemed to him to break the entire round of +the Commandments. Consequently the huts still smoked on the hem of +the shore and among the clumps of birch-wood. The children who +played on the green when he first became tacksman grew up in process +of time, and married; and on these occasions he not only sent them +something on which to make merry withal, but he gave them--what they +valued more--his personal presence; and he made it a point of honour, +when the ceremony was over, to dance the first reel with the bride. +When old men or children were sick, cordials and medicines were sent +from the house; when old man or child died, Mr M'Ian never failed to +attend the funeral. He was a Justice of the Peace; and when disputes +arose amongst his own cotters, or amongst the cotters of +others--when, for instance, Katy M'Lure accused Effie M'Kean of +stealing potatoes; when Red Donald raged against Black Peter on some +matter relating to the sale of a dozen lambs; when Mary, in her anger +at the loss of her sweetheart, accused Betty (to whom said sweetheart +had transferred his allegiance) of the most flagrant breaches of +morality--the contending parties were sure to come before my friend; +and many a rude court of justice I have seen him hold at the door of +his porch. Arguments were heard _pro_ and _con_, witnesses were +examined, evidence was duly sifted and weighed, judgment was made, +and the case dismissed; and I believe these decisions gave in the +long run as much satisfaction as those delivered in Westminster or +the Edinburgh Parliament-House. Occasionally, too, a single girl or +shepherd, with whose character liberties were being taken, would be +found standing at the porch-door anxious to make oath that they were +innocent of the guilt or the impropriety laid to their charge. Mr +M'Ian would come out and hear the story, make the party assert his or +her innocence on oath, and deliver a written certificate to the +effect that in his presence, on such and such a day, so and so had +sworn that certain charges were unfounded, false, and malicious. +Armed with this certificate, the aspersed girl or shepherd would +depart in triumph. He or she had passed through the ordeal by oath, +and nothing could touch them farther. + +[Sidenote: Mr M'Ian's cotters.] + +Mr M'Ian paid rent for the entire farm; but to him the cotters paid +no rent, either for their huts or for their patches of corn and +potato ground. But the cotters were by no means merely +pensioners--taking, and giving nothing in return. The most active of +the girls were maids of various degree in Mr M'Ian's house; the +cleverest and strongest of the lads acted as shepherds, &c.; and +these of course received wages. The grown men amongst the cotters +were generally at work in the south, or engaged in fishing +expeditions, during summer; so that the permanent residents on the +farm were chiefly composed of old men, women, and children. When +required, Mr M'Ian demands the services of these people just as he +would the services of his household servants, and they comply quite +as readily. If the crows are to be kept out of the corn, or the cows +out of the turnip-field, an urchin is remorselessly reft away from +his games and companions. If a boat is out of repair, old Dugald is +deputed to the job, and when his task is completed, he is rewarded +with ten minutes' chat and a glass of spirits up at the house. When +fine weather comes, every man, woman, and child is ordered to the +hay-field, and Mr M'Ian potters amongst them the whole day, and takes +care that no one shirks his duty. When his corn or barley is ripe +the cotters cut it, and when the harvest operations are completed, he +gives the entire cotter population a dance and harvest-home. But +between Mr M'Ian and his cotters no money passes; by a tacit +understanding he is to give them house, corn-ground, potato-ground, +and they are to remunerate him with labour. + +[Sidenote: Mr M'Ian's old-fashioned speech.] + +Mr M'Ian, it will be seen, is a conservative, and hates change; and +the social system by which he is surrounded wears an ancient and +patriarchal aspect to a modern eye. It is a remnant of the system of +clanship. The relation of cotter and tacksman, which I have +described, is a bit of antiquity quite as interesting as the old +castle on the crag--nay, more interesting, because we value the old +castle mainly in virtue of its representing an ancient form of life, +and here is yet lingering a fragment of the ancient form of life +itself. You dig up an ancient tool or weapon in a moor, and place it +carefully in a museum: here, as it were, is the ancient tool or +weapon in actual use. No doubt Mr M'Ian's system has grave defects: +it perpetuates comparative wretchedness on the part of the cotters, +it paralyses personal exertion, it begets an ignoble contentment; but +on the other hand it sweetens sordid conditions, so far as they can +be sweetened, by kindliness and good services. If Mr M'Ian's system +is bad, he makes the best of it, and draws as much comfort and +satisfaction out of it, both for himself and for others, as is +perhaps possible. Mr M'Ian's speech was as old-fashioned as he was +himself; ancient matters turned up on his tongue just as ancient +matters turned up on his farm. You found an old grave or an old +implement on the one, you found an old proverb or an old scrap of a +Gaelic poem on the other. After staying with him some ten days, I +intimated my intention of paying a visit to my friend the +Landlord--with whom Fellowes was then staying--who lived some forty +miles off in the north-western portion of the island. The old +gentleman was opposed to rapid decisions and movements, and asked me +to remain with him yet another week. When he found I was resolute he +glanced at the weather-gleam, and the troops of mists gathering on +Cuchullin, muttering as he did so, "'Make ready my galley,' said the +king, 'I shall sail for Norway on Wednesday.' 'Will you,' said the +wind, who, flying about, had overheard what was said, 'you had better +ask my leave first.'" + +[Sidenote: The Landlord.] + +Between the Landlord and M'Ian there were many likenesses and +divergences. Both were Skyemen by birth, both had the strongest love +for their native island, both had the management of human beings, +both had shrewd heads, and hearts of the kindest texture. But at +this point the likenesses ended, and the divergences began. Mr M'Ian +had never been out of the three kingdoms. The Landlord had spent the +best part of his life in India, was more familiar with huts of ryots, +topes of palms, tanks in which the indigo plant was steeping, than +with the houses of Skye cotters and the processes of sheep-farming. +He knew the streets of Benares or Delhi better than he knew the +streets of London; and, when he first came home, Hindostanee would +occasionally jostle Gaelic on his tongue. The Landlord too, was +rich, would have been considered a rich man even in the southern +cities; he was owner of many a mile of moorland, and the tides of +more than one far-winding Loch rose and rippled on shores that called +him master. In my friend the Landlord there was a sort of +contrariety, a sort of mixture or blending of opposite elements which +was not without its fascination. He was in some respects a resident +in two worlds. He liked motion; he had a magnificent scorn of +distance: to him the world seemed comparatively small; and he would +start from Skye to India with as much composure as other men would +take the night train to London. He paid taxes in India and he paid +taxes in Skye. His name was as powerful in the markets of Calcutta +as it was at the Muir of Ord. He read the _Hurkaru_ and the +_Inverness Courier_. He had known the graceful salaam of the East, +as he now knew the touched bonnets of his shepherds. And in living +with him, in talking with him, one was now reminded of the green +western island on which sheep fed, anon of tropic heats, of pearl and +gold, of mosque and pinnacle glittering above belts of palm-trees. +In his company you were in imagination travelling backwards and +forwards. You made the overland route twenty times a day. Now you +heard the bagpipe, now the monotonous beat of the tom-tom and the +keen clash of silver cymbals. You were continually passing backwards +and forwards, as I have said. You were in the West with your +half-glass of bitters in the morning, you were in the East with the +curry at dinner. Both Mr M'Ian and the Landlord had the management +of human beings, but their methods of management were totally +different. Mr M'Ian accepted matters as he found them, and +originating nothing, changing nothing, contrived to make life for +himself and others as pleasant as possible. The Landlord, when he +entered on the direction of his property, exploded every ancient form +of usage, actually _ruled_ his tenants; would permit no factor, +middle-man, or go-between; met them face to face, and had it out with +them. The consequence was that the poor people were at times sorely +bewildered. They received their orders and carried them out, with +but little sense of the ultimate purpose of the Landlord--just as the +sailor, ignorant of the principles of navigation, pulls ropes and +reefs sails and does not discover that he gains much thereby, the +same sea-crescent being around him day by day, but in due time a +cloud rises on the horizon, and he is in port at last. + +[Sidenote: The waterspout.] + +As M'Ian had predicted, I could only move from his house if the +weather granted permission; and this permission the weather did not +seem disposed to grant. For several days it rained as I had never +seen it rain before; a waterspout, too, had burst up among the hills, +and the stream came down in mighty flood. There was great hubbub at +the house. Mr M'Ian's hay, which was built in large stacks in the +valley meadows, was in danger, and the fiery cross was sent through +the cotters. Up to the hay-fields every available man was despatched +with carts and horses, to remove the stacks to some spot where the +waters could not reach them; while at the bridge nearer the house +women and boys were stationed with long poles, and what +rudely-extemporised implements Celtic ingenuity could suggest, to +intercept and fish out piles and trusses which the thievish stream +was carrying away with it seaward. These piles and trusses would at +least serve for the bedding of cattle. For three days the rainy +tempest continued; at last, on the fourth, mist and rain rolled up +like a vast curtain in heaven, and then again were visible the clumps +of birch-wood, and the bright sea and the smoking hills, and far away +on the ocean floor Rum and Canna, without a speck of cloud on them, +sleeping in the coloured calmness of early afternoon. This uprising +of the elemental curtain was, so far as the suddenness of the effect +was concerned, like the uprising of the curtain of the pantomime on +the transformation scene--all at once a dingy, sodden world had +become a brilliant one, and all the newly-revealed colour and +brilliancy promised to be permanent. + +[Sidenote: The farm of Knock.] + +Of this happy change in the weather I of course took immediate +advantage. About five o'clock in the afternoon my dog-cart was +brought to the door; and after a parting cup with Mr M'Ian--who pours +a libation both to his arriving and his departing guest--I drove away +on my journey to remote Portree, and to the unimagined country that +lay beyond Portree, but which I knew held Dunvegan, Duntulm, +Macleod's Tables, and Quirang. I drove up the long glen with a +pleasant exhilaration of spirit. I felt grateful to the sun, for he +had released me from rainy captivity. The drive, too, was pretty; +the stream came rolling down in foam, the smell of the wet +birch-trees was in the brilliant air, every mountain-top was +strangely and yet softly distinct; and looking back, there were the +blue Cuchullins looking after me, as if bidding me farewell! At last +I reached the top of the glen, and emerged on a high plateau of +moorland, in which were dark inky tarns with big white water-lilies +on them; and skirting across the plateau I dipped down on the +parliamentary road, which, like a broad white belt, surrounds Skye. +Better road to drive on you will not find in the neighbourhood of +London itself! and just as I was descending, I could not help +pulling up. The whole scene was of the extremest beauty--exquisitely +calm, exquisitely coloured. On my left was a little lake with a +white margin of water-lilies, a rocky eminence throwing a shadow +half-way across it. Down below, on the sea-shore, was the farm of +Knock, with white outhouses and pleasant patches of cultivation, the +school-house, and the church, while on a low spit of land the old +castle of the Macdonalds was mouldering. Still lower down and +straight away stretched the sleek blue Sound of Sleat, with not a +sail or streak of steamer smoke to break its vast expanse, and with a +whole congregation of clouds piled up on the horizon, soon to wear +their evening colours. I let the sight slowly creep into my study of +imagination, so that I might be able to reproduce it at pleasure; +that done, I drove down to Isle Oronsay by pleasant sloping stages of +descent, with green hills on right and left, and along the roadside, +like a guard of honour, the purple stalks of the foxglove. + +[Sidenote: Mr Fraser's trouts.] + +The evening sky was growing red above me when I drove into Isle +Oronsay, which consists of perhaps fifteen houses in all. It sits on +the margin of a pretty bay, in which the cry of the fisher is +continually heard, and into which the _Clansman_ going to or coming +from the south steams twice or thrice in the week. At a little +distance is a lighthouse with a revolving light.--an idle building +during the day, but when night comes, awakening to full +activity,--sending now a ray to Ardnamurchan, now piercing with a +fiery arrow the darkness of Glenelg. In Isle Oronsay is a merchant's +shop, in which every conceivable article may be obtained. At Isle +Oronsay the post-runner drops a bag, as he hies on to Armadale +Castle. At Isle Oronsay I supped with my friend Mr Fraser. From him +I learned that the little village had been, like M'Ian's house, +fiercely scourged by rains. On the supper-table was a dish of +trouts. "Where do you suppose I procured these?" he asked. "In one +of your burns, I suppose." "No such thing; I found them in my +potato-field." "In your potato-field! How came that about?" "Why, +you see the stream, swollen by three days' rain, broke over a +potato-field of mine on the hill-side and carried the potatoes away, +and left these plashing in pool and runnel. The Skye streams have a +slight touch of honesty in them!" I smiled at the conceit, and +expounded to my host the law of compensation which pervades the +universe, of which I maintained the trouts on the table were a +shining example. Mr Fraser assented; but held that Nature was a poor +valuator--that her knowledge of the doctrine of equivalents was +slightly defective--that the trouts were well enough, but no +reimbursement for the potatoes that were gone. + +Next morning I resumed my journey. The road, so long as it skirted +the sea-shore, was pretty enough; but the sea-shore it soon left, and +entered a waste of brown monotonous moorland. The country round +about abounds in grouse, and was the favourite shooting-ground of the +late Lord Macdonald. By the road-side his lordship had erected a +stable and covered the roof with tin; and so at a distance it flashed +as if the Koh-i-noor had been dropped by accident in that dismal +region. As I went along, the hills above Broadford began to rise; +then I drove down the slope, on which the market was held--the tents +all struck, but the stakes yet remaining in the ground--and after +passing the six houses, the lime-kiln, the church, and the two +merchants' shops, I pulled up at the inn door, and sent the horse +round to the stable to feed and to rest an hour. + +[Sidenote: Island of Scalpa.] + +After leaving Broadford the traveller drives along the margin of the +ribbon of salt water which flows between Skye and the Island of +Scalpa. Up this narrow sound the steamer never passes, and it is +only navigated by the lighter kinds of sailing craft. Scalpa is a +hilly island of some three or four miles in length, by one and a half +in breadth, is gray-green in colour, and as treeless as the palm of +your hand. It has been the birthplace of many soldiers. After +passing Scalpa the road ascends; and you notice as you drive along +that during the last hour or so the frequent streams have changed +colour. In the southern portion of the island they come down as if +the hills ran sherry--here they are pale as shallow sea-water. This +difference of hue arises of course from a difference of bed. About +Broadford they come down through the mossy moorland, here they run +over marble. Of marble the island is full; and it is not impossible +that the sculptors of the twentieth century will patronise the +quarries of Strath and Kyle rather than the quarries of Carrara. But +wealth is needed to lay bare these mineral treasures. The fine +qualities of Skye marble will never be obtained until they are laid +open by a golden pickaxe. + +Once you have passed Scalpa you approach Lord Macdonald's deer +forest. You have turned the flank of the Cuchullins now, and are +taking them in rear, and you skirt their bases very closely too. The +road is full of wild ascents and descents, and on your left, for a +couple of miles or so, you are in continual presence of bouldered +hill-side sloping away upward to some invisible peak, overhanging +wall of wet black precipice, far-off serrated ridge that cuts the sky +like a saw. Occasionally these mountain forms open up and fall back, +and you see the sterilest valleys running no man knows whither. +Altogether the hills here have a strange weird look. Each is as +closely seamed with lines as the face of a man of a hundred, and +these myriad reticulations are picked out with a pallid gray-green, +as if through some mineral corrosion. Passing along you are +strangely impressed with the idea that some vast chemical experiment +has been going on for some thousands of years; that the region is +nature's laboratory, and that down these wrinkled hill-fronts she had +spilt her acids and undreamed-of combinations. You never think of +verdure in connexion with that net-work of gray-green, but only of +rust, or of some metallic discoloration. You cannot help fancying +that if a sheep fed on one of those hill-sides it would to a +certainty be poisoned. Altogether the sight is very grand, very +impressive, and very uncomfortable, and it is with the liveliest +satisfaction that, tearing down one of the long descents, you turn +your back on the mountain monsters, and behold in front the green +Island of Raasay, with its imposing modern mansion, basking in +sunshine. It is like passing from the world of the gnomes to the +world of men. + +[Sidenote: Lord Macdonald's forest.] + +I have driven across Lord Macdonald's deer forest in sunshine and in +rain, and am constrained to confess that, under the latter +atmospherical condition, the scenery is the more imposing. Some +months ago I drove in the mail-gig from Sligachan to Broadford. +There was a high wind, the sun was bright, and consequently a great +carry and flight of sunny vapours. All at once, too, every half-hour +or so, the turbulent brightness of wind and cloud was extinguished by +fierce squalls of rain. You could see the coming rain-storm blown +out on the wind toward you like a sheet of muslin cloth. On it came +racing in its strength and darkness, the long straight watery lines +pelting on road and rock, churning in marsh and pool. Over the +unhappy mail-gig it rushed, bidding defiance to plaid or waterproof +cape, and wetting every one to the skin. The mail jogged on as best +it could through the gloom and the fury, and then the sunshine came +again making to glisten, almost too brightly for the eye, every +rain-pool on the road. In the sunny intervals there was a great race +and hurry of towered vapour, as I said; and when a shining mass smote +one of the hill-sides, or shrouded for a while one of the more +distant serrated crests, the concussion was so palpable to the eye +that the ear felt defrauded, and silence seemed unnatural. And when +the vast mass passed onward to impinge on some other mountain +barrier, it was singular to notice by what slow degrees, with what +evident reluctance the laggard skirts combed off. [Sidenote: The +meek-faced man of fifty.] All these effects of rain and windy vapour +I remember vividly, and I suppose that the vividness was partly due +to the lamentable condition of a fellow-traveller. He was a +meek-faced man of fifty. He was dressed in sables, his +swallow-tailed coat was thread-bare, and withal seemed made for a +smaller man. There was an uncomfortable space between the wrists of +his coat and his black-thread gloves. He wore a hat, and against the +elements had neither the protection of plaid nor umbrella. No one +knew him, to no one did he explain his business. To my own notion he +was bound for a funeral at some place beyond Portree. He was not a +clergyman--he might have been a schoolmaster who had become +green-moulded in some out-of-the-way locality. Of course one or two +of the rainy squalls settled the meek-faced man in the thread-bare +sables. Emerging from one of these he resembled a draggled rook, and +the rain was pouring from the brim of his pulpy hat as it might from +the eaves of a cottage. A passenger handed him his spirit-flask, the +meek-faced man took a hearty pull, and returning it, said +plaintively, "I'm but poorly clad, sir, for this God-confounded +climate." I think often of the utterance of the poor fellow: it was +the only thing he said all the way; and when I think of it, I see +again the rain blown out towards me on the wind like a waving sheet +of muslin cloth, and the rush, the concussion, the upbreak, and the +slow reluctant trailing off from the hill-side of the sunny cloud. +The poor man's plaintive tone is the anchor which holds these things +in my memory. + +The forest is of course treeless. Nor are deer seen there +frequently. Although I have crossed it frequently, only once did I +get a sight of antlers. Carefully I crept up, sheltering myself +behind a rocky haunch of the hill to where the herd were lying, and +then rushed out upon them with a halloo. In an instant they were on +their feet, and away went the beautiful creatures, doe and fawn, a +stag with branchy head leading. They dashed across a torrent, +crowned an eminence one by one and disappeared. Such a sight is +witnessed but seldom; and the traveller passing through the brown +desolation sees usually no sign of life. In Lord Macdonald's deer +forest neither trees nor deer are visible. + +When once you get quit of the forest you come on a shooting-box, +perched on the sea-shore; then you pass the little village of +Sconser; and, turning the sharp flank of a hill, drive along Loch +Sligachan to Sligachan Inn, about a couple of miles distant. This +inn is a famous halting-place for tourists. There are good fishing +streams about, I am given to understand, and through Glen Sligachan +you can find your way to Camasunary, and take the boat from thence to +Loch Coruisk, as we did. It was down this glen that the messenger +was to have brought the tobacco to our peculiar friend. If you go +you may perhaps find his skeleton scientifically articulated by the +carrion crow and the raven. From the inn door the ridges of the +Cuchullins are seen wildly invading the sky, and in closer proximity +there are other hills which cannot be called beautiful. Monstrous, +abnormal, chaotic, they resemble the other hills on the earth's +surface, as Hindoo deities resemble human beings. The mountain, +whose sharp flank you turned after you passed Sconser, can be +inspected leisurely now, and is to my mind supremely ugly. In summer +it is red as copper, with great ragged patches of verdure upon it, +which look by all the world as if the coppery mass had _rusted_ +green. On these green patches cattle feed from March to October. +You bait at Sligachan,--can dine on trout which a couple of hours +before were darting hither and thither in the stream, if you +like,--and then drive leisurely along to Portree while the setting +sun is dressing the wilderness in gold and rose. And all the way the +Cuchullins follow you; the wild irregular outline, which no +familiarity can stale, haunts you at Portree, as it does in nearly +every quarter of Skye. + +[Sidenote: Portree.] + +Portree folds two irregular ranges of white houses, the one range +rising steeply above the other, around a noble bay, the entrance to +which is guarded by rocky precipices. At a little distance the +houses are white as shells, and as in summer they are all set in the +greenness of foliage the effect is strikingly pretty; and if the +sense of prettiness departs to a considerable extent on a closer +acquaintance, there is yet enough left to gratify you so long as you +remain there, and to make it a pleasant place to think about when you +are gone. The lower range of houses consists mainly of warehouses +and fish-stores; the upper, of the main hotel, the two banks, the +court-house, and the shops. A pier runs out into the bay, and here, +when the state of tide permits, comes the steamer, on its way to or +from Stornoway and unlades. Should the tide be low the steamer lies +to in the bay, and her cargo and passengers come to shore by means of +boats. She usually arrives at night; and at low tide, the burning of +coloured lights at the mast-heads, the flitting hither and thither of +busy lanterns, the pier boats coming and going with illumined wakes, +and ghostly fires on the oar-blades, the clatter of chains and the +shock of the crank hoisting the cargo out of the hold, the general +hubbub and storm of Gaelic shouts and imprecations make the arrival +at once picturesque and impressive. In the bay the yacht of the +tourist is continually lying, and at the hotel door his dog-cart is +continually departing or arriving. In the hotel parties arrange to +visit Quirang or the Storr, and on the evenings of market-days, in +the large public rooms, farmers and cattle-dealers sit over tumblers +of smoking punch and discuss noisily the prices and the qualities of +stock. Besides the hotel and the pier, the banks, and the +court-house already mentioned, there are other objects of interest in +the little island town--three churches, a post-office, a poor-house, +and a cloth manufactory. And it has more than meets the eye--one of +the Jameses landed here on a visitation of the Isles, Prince Charles +was here on his way to Raasay, Dr Johnson and Boswell were here; and +somewhere on the green hill on which the pretty church stands, a +murderer is buried--the precise spot of burial is unknown, and so the +entire hill gets the credit that of right belongs only to a single +yard of it. In Portree the tourist seldom abides long; he passes +through it as a fortnight before he passed through Oban. It does not +seem to the visitor a specially remarkable place, but everything is +relative in this world. It is an event for the Islesman at Dunvegan +or the Point of Sleat to go to Portree, just as it is an event for a +Yorkshireman to go to London. + +[Sidenote: Skeabost.] + +When you drive out of Portree you are in Macleod's country, and you +discover that the character of the scenery has changed. Looking +back, the Cuchullins are wild and pale on the horizon, but everything +around is brown, softly-swelling, and monotonous. The hills are +round and low, and except when an occasional boulder crops out on +their sides like a wart, are smooth as a seal's back. They are +gray-green in colour, and may be grazed to the top. Expressing once +to a shepherd my admiration of the Cuchullins, the man replied, while +he swept with his arm the entire range, "There's no feeding there for +twenty wethers!" here, however, there is sufficient feeding to +compensate for any lack of beauty. About three miles out of Portree +you come upon a solitary-looking school-house by the wayside, and a +few yards farther to a division of the roads. A finger-post informs +you that the road to the right leads to Uig, that to the left to +Dunvegan. As I am at present bound for Dunvegan, I skirr along to +the left, and after an hour's drive come in sight of blue Loch +Snizort, with Skeabost sitting whitely on its margin. Far inland +from the broad Minch, like one of those wavering swords which +mediæval painters place in the hands of archangels, has Snizort come +wandering; and it is the curious mixture of brine and pasture-land, +of mariner life and shepherd life, which gives its charm to this +portion of the island. The Lochs are narrow, and you almost fancy a +strong-lunged man could shout across. The sea-gull skims above the +feeding sheep, the shepherd can watch the sail of the sloop, laden +with meal, creeping from point to point. In the spiritual atmosphere +of the country the superstitions of ocean and moorland mingle like +two odours. Above all places which I have seen in Skye, Skeabost has +a lowland look. There are almost no turf-huts to be seen in the +neighbourhood; the houses are built of stone and lime, and are tidily +white-washed. The hills are low and smooth; on the lower slopes corn +and wheat are grown; and from a little distance the greenness of +cultivation looks like a palpable smile--a strange contrast to the +monotonous district through which, for an hour or so, you have +driven. As you pass the inn, and drive across the bridge, you notice +that there is an island in the stony stream, and that this island is +covered with ruins. The Skyeman likes to bury his dead in islands, +and this one in the stream at Skeabost is a crowded cemetery. I +forded the stream, and wandered for an hour amongst the tombs and +broken stones. [Sidenote: The Island of Graves.] There are traces of +an ancient chapel on the island, but tradition does not even make a +guess at its builder's name or the date of its erection. There are +old slabs, lying sideways, with the figures of recumbent men with +swords in their hands, and inscriptions--indecipherable now--carved +on them. There is the grave of a Skye clergyman who, if his epitaph +is to be trusted, was a burning and a shining light in his day--a +gospel candle irradiating the Hebridean darkness. I never saw a +churchyard so mounded, and so evidently over-crowded. Here laird, +tacksman, and cotter elbow each other in death. Here no one will +make way for a new-comer, or give the wall to his neighbour. And +standing in the little ruined island of silence and the dead, with +the river perfectly audible on either side, one could not help +thinking what a picturesque sight a Highland funeral would be, +creeping across the moors with wailing pipe-music, fording the river, +and his bearers making room for the dead man amongst the older dead +as best they could. And this sight, I am told, may be seen any week +in the year. To this island all the funerals of the country-side +converge. Standing there, too, one could not help thinking that this +space of silence, girt by river noises, would be an _eerie_ place by +moonlight. The broken chapel, the carved slabs lying sideways, as if +the dead man beneath had grown restless and turned himself, and the +head-stones jutting out of the mounded soil at every variety of +angle, would appal in the ink of shadow and the silver of moonbeam. +In such circumstances one would hear something more in the stream as +it ran past than the mere breaking of water on stones. + +After passing the river and the island of graves you drive down +between hedges to Skeabost church, school, post-office, and manse, +and thereafter you climb the steep hill towards Bernesdale and its +colony of turf-huts; and when you reach the top you have a noble view +of the flat blue Minch, and the Skye headlands, each precipitous, +abrupt, and reminding you somehow of a horse which has been suddenly +reined back to its haunches. The flowing lines of those headlands +suggest an onward motion, and then, all at once, they shrink back +upon themselves, as if they feared the roar of breakers and the smell +of the brine. But the grand vision is not of long duration, for the +road descends rapidly towards Taynlone Inn. In my descent I beheld +two bare-footed and bare-headed girls yoked to a harrow, and dragging +it up and down a small plot of delved ground. + +[Sidenote: A Highland hut.] + +Sitting in the inn I began to remember me how frequently I had heard +in the south of the destitution of the Skye people and the discomfort +of the Skye hut. During my wanderings I had the opportunity of +visiting several of these dwellings, and seeing how matters were +transacted within. Frankly speaking, the Highland hut is not a model +edifice. It is open to wind, and almost always pervious to rain. An +old bottomless herring-firkin stuck in the roof usually serves for +chimney, but the blue peat-reek disdains that aperture, and steams +wilfully through the door and the crannies in the walls and roof. +The interior is seldom well-lighted--what light there is proceeding +rather from the orange glow of the peat-fire, on which a large pot is +simmering, than from the narrow pane with its great bottle-green +bull's-eye. The rafters which support the roof are black and glossy +with soot, as you can notice by sudden flashes of firelight. The +sleeping accommodation is limited, and the beds are composed of +heather or ferns. The floor is the beaten earth, the furniture is +scanty; there is hardly ever a chair--stools and stones, worn smooth +by the usage of several generations, have to do instead. One portion +of the hut is not unfrequently a byre, and the breath of the cow is +mixed with the odour of peat-reek, and the baa of the calf mingles +with the wranglings and swift ejaculations of the infant Highlanders. +In such a hut as this there are sometimes three generations. The +mother stands knitting outside, the children are scrambling on the +floor with the terrier and the poultry, and a ray of cloudy sunshine +from the narrow pane smites the silver hairs of the grandfather near +the fire, who is mending fishing-nets against the return of his +son-in-law from the south. Am I inclined to lift my hands in horror +at witnessing such a dwelling? Certainly not. I have only given one +side of the picture. The hut I speak of nestles beneath a rock, on +the top of which dances the ash-tree and the birch. The emerald +mosses on its roof are softer and richer than the velvets of kings. +Twenty yards down that path you will find a well that needs no ice in +the dog-days. At a little distance, from rocky shelf to shelf, trips +a mountain burn, with abundance of trout in the brown pools. At the +distance of a mile is the sea, which is not allowed to ebb and flow +in vain; for in the smoke there is a row of fishes drying; and on the +floor a curly-headed urchin of three years or thereby is pommeling +the terrier with the scarlet claw of a lobster. Methought, too, when +I entered I saw beside the door a heap of oyster shells. Within the +hut there is good food, if a little scant at times; without there is +air that will call colour back to the cheek of an invalid, pure +water, play, exercise, work. That the people are healthy, you may +see from their strong frames, brown faces, and the age to which many +attain; that they are happy and light-hearted, the shouts of laughter +that ring round the peat-fire of an evening may be taken as +sufficient evidence. I protest I cannot become pathetic over the +Highland hut. I have sat in these turfen dwellings, amid the +surgings of blue smoke, and received hospitable welcome, and found +amongst the inmates good sense, industry, family affection, +contentment, piety, happiness. And when I have heard +philanthropists, with more zeal than discretion, maintain that these +dwellings are a disgrace to the country in which they are found, I +have thought of districts of great cities which I have seen,--within +the sound of the rich man's chariot wheels, within hearing of +multitudinous Sabbath bells--of evil scents and sights and sounds; of +windows stuffed with rags; of female faces that look out on you as +out of a sadder Inferno than that of Dante's; of faces of men +containing the debris of the entire decalogue, faces which hurt you +more than a blow would: of infants poisoned with gin, of children +bred for the prison and the hulks. Depend upon it there are worse +odours than peat smoke, worse next-door neighbours than a cow or a +brood of poultry; and although a couple of girls dragging a harrow be +hardly in accordance with our modern notions, yet we need not forget +that there are worse employment for girls than even that. I do not +stand up for the Highland hut; but in one of these smoky cabins I +would a thousand-fold rather spend my days than in the Cowgate of +Edinburgh, or in one of the streets that radiate from Seven Dials. + +[Sidenote: A Highland village.] + +After travelling three or four days, I beheld on the other side of a +long, blue, river-like loch, the house of the Landlord. From the +point at which I now paused, a boat could have taken me across in +half an hour, but as the road wound round the top of the Loch, I had +yet some eight or ten miles to drive before my journey was +accomplished. Meantime the Loch was at ebb and the sun was setting. +On the hill-side, on my left as I drove, stretched a long street of +huts covered with smoky wreaths, and in front of each a strip of +cultivated ground ran down to the road which skirted the shore. +Potatoes grew in one strip or lot, turnips in a second, corn in a +third, and as these crops were in different stages of advancement, +the entire hillside, from the street of huts downward, resembled one +of those counterpanes which thrifty housewifes manufacture by sewing +together patches of different patterns. Along the road running at +the back of the huts a cart was passing; on the moory hill behind, a +flock of sheep, driven by men and dogs, was contracting and expanding +itself like quicksilver. The women were knitting at the hut doors, +the men were at work in the cultivated patches in front. On all this +scene of cheerful and fortunate industry, on men and women, on +turnips, oats, and potatoes, on cottages set in azure films of +peat-reek, the rosy light was striking--making a pretty spectacle +enough. From the whole hill-side breathed peace, contentment, +happiness, and a certain sober beauty of usefulness. Man and nature +seemed in perfect agreement and harmony--man willing to labour, +nature to yield increase. Down to the head of the Loch the road +sloped rapidly, and at the very head a small village had established +itself. It contained an inn, a school-house, in which divine service +was held on Sundays; a smithy, a merchant's shop--all traders are +called _merchants_ in Skye--and, by the side of a stream which came +brawling down from rocky steep to steep, stood a corn mill, the big +wheel lost in a watery mist of its own raising, the door and windows +dusty with meal. Behind the village lay a stretch of black moorland +intersected by drains and trenches, and from the black huts which +seemed to have grown out of the moor, and the spaces of sickly green +here and there, one could see that the desolate and forbidding region +had its colonists, and that they were valiantly attempting to wring a +sustenance out of it. Who were the squatters on the black moorland? +Had they accepted their hard conditions as a matter of choice, or had +they been banished there by a superior power? Did the dweller in +those outlying huts bear the same relation to the villagers, or the +flourishing cotters on the hill-side, that the gipsy bears to the +English peasant, or the red Indian to the Canadian farmer? I had no +one to inform me at the time; meanwhile the sunset fell on these +remote dwellings, lending them what beauty and amelioration of colour +it could, making a drain sparkle for a moment, turning a far-off pool +into gold leaf, and rendering, by contrast of universal warmth and +glow, yet more beautiful the smoke which swathed the houses. Yet +after all the impression made upon one was cheerless enough. Sunset +goes but a little way in obviating human wretchedness. It fires the +cottage window, but it cannot call to life the corpse within; it can +sparkle on the chain of a prisoner, but with all its sparkling it +does not make the chain one whit the lighter. Misery is often +picturesque, but the picturesqueness is in the eyes of others, not in +her own. The black moorland and the banished huts abode in my mind +during the remainder of my drive. + +[Sidenote: The Landlord's house.] + +Everything about a man is characteristic, more or less; and in the +house of the Landlord I found that singular mixture of hemispheres +which I had before noticed in his talk and in his way of looking at +times. His house was plain enough externally, but its furniture was +curious and far-brought. The interior of his porch was adorned with +heads of stags and tusks of elephants. He would show you Highland +relics, and curiosities from sacked Eastern palaces. He had the tiny +porcelain cup out of which Prince Charles drank tea at Kingsburgh, +and the signet ring which was stripped from the dead fingers of +Tippoo Saib. In his gun-room were modern breech-loaders and +revolvers, and matchlocks from China and Nepaul. On the walls were +Lochaber axes, claymores, and targets that might have seen service at +Inverlochy, hideous creases, Afghan daggers, curiously-curved swords, +scabbards thickly crusted with gems. In the library the last new +novel leaned against the "Institutes of Menu." On the drawing-room +table, beside _carte-de-visite_ books, were ivory card-cases wrought +by the patient Hindoo artificer as finely as we work our laces, +Chinese puzzles that baffled all European comprehension, and comical +squab-faced deities in silver and bronze. While the Landlord was +absent, I could fancy these strangely-assorted articles striking one +with a sense of incongruity: but when at home, each seemed a portion +of himself. He was related as closely to the Indian god as to Prince +Charles's cup. The ash and birch of the Highlands danced before his +eyes, the palm stood in his imagination and memory. + +[Sidenote: The Landlord's pets.] + +And then he surrounded himself with all kinds of pets, and lived with +them on the most intimate terms. When he entered the breakfast-room +his terriers barked and frisked and jumped about him; his great black +hare-hound, Maida, got up from the rug on which it had been basking +and thrust its sharp nose into his hand; his canaries broke into +emulous music, as if sunshine had come into the room; the parrot in +the porch clambered along the cage with horny claws, settled itself +on its perch, bobbed its head up and down for a moment, and was +seized with hooping-cough. When he went out the black hare-hound +followed at his heel; the peacock, strutting on the gravel in the +shelter of the larches, unfurled its starry fan; in the stable his +horses turned round to smell his clothes and to have their foreheads +stroked: melodious thunder broke from the dog-kennel when he came: +and at his approach his falcons did not withdraw haughtily, as if in +human presence there was profanation; they listened to his voice, and +a gentler something tamed for a moment the fierce cairngorms of their +eyes. When others came near they ruffled their plumage and uttered +sharp cries of anger. + +[Sidenote: The Landlord's visitors.] + +After breakfast it was his habit to carry the parrot out to a long +iron garden-seat in front of the house--where, if sunshine was to be +had at all, you were certain to find it--and placing the cage beside +him, smoke a cheroot. The parrot would clamber about the cage, +suspended head downwards would take crafty stock of you with an eye +which had perhaps looked out on the world for a century or so, and +then, righting itself, peremptorily insist that Polly should put on +the kettle, and that the boy should shut up the grog. On one special +morning, while the Landlord was smoking and the parrot whooping and +whistling, several men, dressed in rough pilot cloth which had seen +much service and known much darning, came along the walk and +respectfully uncovered. Returning their salutation, the Landlord +threw away the end of his cheroot and went forward to learn their +message. The conversation was in Gaelic: slow and gradual at first, +it quickened anon, and broke into gusts of altercation; and on these +occasions I noticed that the Landlord would turn impatiently on his +heel, march a pace or two back to the house, and then, wheeling +round, return to the charge. He argued in the unknown tongue, +gesticulated, was evidently impressing something on his auditors +which they were unwilling to receive, for at intervals they would +look in one another's faces,--a look plainly implying, "Did you ever +hear the like?" and give utterance to a murmured chit, _chit, chit_ +of dissent and humble protestation. At last the matter got itself +amicably settled, the deputation--each man making a short sudden duck +before putting on his bonnet--withdrew, and the Landlord came back to +the parrot, which had, now with one eye, now with another, been +watching the proceeding. He sat down with a slight air of annoyance. + +"These fellows are wanting more meal," he said, "and one or two are +pretty deep in my books already." + +"Do you, then, keep regular accounts with them?" + +"Of course. I give nothing for nothing. I wish to do them as much +good as I can. They are a good deal like my old ryots, only the ryot +was more supple and obsequious." + +"Where do your friends come from?" I asked. + +"From the village over there," pointing across the narrow blue loch. +"Pretty Polly! Polly!" + +The parrot was climbing up and down the cage, taking hold of the +wires with beak and claw as it did so. + +"I wish to know something of your villagers. The cotters on the +hill-side seem comfortable enough, but I wish to know something of +the black land and the lonely huts behind." + +"Oh," said he, laughing, "that is my penal settlement--I'll drive you +over to-morrow." He then got up, tossed a stone into the shrubbery, +after which Maida dashed, thrust his hands into his breeches' pocket +for a moment, and marched into the house. + +[Sidenote: The Landlord's arrival.] + +Next morning we drove across to the village, and pretty enough it +looked as we alighted. The big water-wheel of the mill whirred +industrious music, flour flying about the door and windows. Two or +three people were standing at the merchant's shop. At the smithy a +horse was haltered, and within were brilliant showers of sparks and +the merry clink of hammers. The sunshine made pure amber the pools +of the tumbling burn, and in one of these a girl was rinsing linen, +the light touching her hair into a richer colour. Our arrival at the +inn created some little stir. The dusty miller came out, the smith +came to the door rubbing down his apron with a horny palm, the girl +stood upright by the burn-side shading her eyes with her hand, one of +the men at the merchant's shop went within to tell the news, the +labourers in the fields round about stopped work to stare. The +machine was no sooner put to rights and the horses taken round to the +stable than the mistress of the house complained that the roof was +leaky, and she and the Landlord went in to inspect the same. Left +alone for a little, I could observe that, seeing my friend had +arrived, the people were resolved to make some use of him, and here +and there I noticed them laying down their crooked spades, and coming +down towards the inn. One old woman, with a white handkerchief tied +round her head, sat down on a stone opposite, and when the Landlord +appeared--the matter of the leaky roof having been arranged--she rose +and dropped a courtesy. She had a complaint to make, a benefit to +ask, a wrong to be redressed. I could not, of course, understand a +word of the conversation, but curiously sharp and querulous was her +voice, with a slight suspicion of the whine of the mendicant in it, +and every now and then she would give a deep sigh, and smooth down +her apron with both her hands. I suspect the old lady gained her +object, for when the Landlord cracked his joke at parting the most +curious sunshine of merriment came into the withered features, +lighting them up and changing them, and giving one, for a flying +second, some idea of what she must have been in her middle age, +perhaps in her early youth, when she as well as other girls had a +sweetheart. + +[Sidenote: The penal settlement.] + +In turn we visited the merchant's shop, the smithy, and the mill; +then we passed the schoolhouse--which was one confused murmur, the +sharp voice of the teacher striking through at intervals--and turning +up a narrow road, came upon the black region and the banished huts. +The cultivated hill-side was shining in sunlight, the cottages +smoking, the people at work in their crofts--everything looking +blithe and pleasant; and under the bright sky and the happy weather +the penal settlement did not look nearly so forbidding as it had done +when, under the sunset, I had seen it a few evenings previously. The +houses were rude, but they seemed sufficiently weather-tight. Each +was set down in a little oasis of cultivation, a little circle in +which by labour the sour land had been coaxed into a smile of green; +each small domain was enclosed by a low turfen wall, and on the top +of one of these a wild goat-looking sheep was feeding, which, as we +approached, jumped down with an alarmed bleat, and then turned to +gaze on the intruders. The land was sour and stony, the dwellings +framed of the rudest materials, and the people--for they all came +forward to meet him, and at each turfen wall the Landlord held a +_levée_--especially the older people, gave one the idea somehow of +worn-out tools. In some obscure way they reminded one of bent and +warped oars, battered spades, blunted pickaxes. On every figure was +written hard, unremitting toil. Toil had twisted their frames, +seamed and puckered their leathern faces, made their hands horny, +bleached their grizzled locks. Your fancy had to run back along +years and years of labour before it could arrive at the original boy +or girl. Still they were cheerful-looking after a sort, contented, +and loquacious withal. The man took off his bonnet, the woman +dropped her courtesy, before pouring into the Landlord's ear how the +wall of the house wanted mending, how a neighbour's sheep had come +into the corn, had been _driven_ into the corn out of foul spite and +envy it was suspected, how new seed would be required for next year's +sowing, how the six missing fleeces had been found in the hut of the +old soldier across the river, and all the other items which made up +their world. And the Landlord, his black hound couched at his feet, +would sit down on a stone, or lean against the turf wall and listen +to the whole of it, and consult as to the best way to repair the +decaying house, and discover how defendant's sheep came into +complainant's corn, and give judgment, and promise new seed to old +Donald, and walk over to the soldier's and pluck the heart out of the +mystery of the missing fleeces. And going in and out amongst his +people, his functions were manifold. He was not Landlord only--he +was leech, lawyer, divine. He prescribed medicine, he set broken +bones, and tied up sprained ankles; he was umpire in a hundred petty +quarrels, and damped out wherever he went every flame of wrath. Nor, +when it was needed, was he without ghostly counsel. On his land he +would permit no unbaptized child; if Donald was drunk and brawling at +a fair, he would, when the inevitable headache and nausea were gone, +drop in and improve the occasion, to Donald's much discomfiture and +his many blushes; and with the bed-ridden woman, or the palsied man, +who for years had sat in the corner of the hut as constantly as a +statue sits within its niche--just where the motty sunbeam from the +pane with its great knob of bottle-green struck him--he held serious +conversations, and uttered words which come usually from the lips of +a clergyman. + +[Sidenote: The cottages on the hill-side.] + +We then went through the cottages on the cultivated hill-side, and +there another series of _levées_ were held. One cotter complained +that his neighbour had taken advantage of him in this or the other +matter: another man's good name had been aspersed by a scandalous +tongue, and ample apology must be made, else the sufferer would bring +the asperser before the sheriff. Norman had borrowed for a day +Neil's plough, had broken the shaft, and when requested to make +reparation, had refused in terms too opprobrious to be repeated. The +man from Sleat who had a year or two ago come to reside in these +parts, and with whom the world had gone prosperously, was minded at +next fair to buy another cow--would he therefore be allowed to rent +the croft which lay alongside the one which he already possessed? To +these cotters the Landlord gave attentive ear, standing beside the +turf dike, leaning against the walls of their houses, sitting down +inside in the peat smoke--the children gathered together in the +farthest corner, and regarding him with no little awe. And so he +came to know all the affairs of his people--who was in debt, who was +waging a doubtful battle with the world, who had money in the bank; +and going daily amongst them he was continually engaged in warning, +expostulation, encouragement, rebuke. Nor was he always sunshine: he +was occasionally lightning too. The tropical tornado, which unroofs +houses and splits trees, was within the possibilities of his moods as +well as the soft wind which caresses the newly-yeaned lamb. Against +greed, laziness, dishonesty, he flamed like a seven-times heated +furnace. When he found that argument had no effect on the obstinate +or the pig-headed, he suddenly changed his tactics, and descended in +a shower of _chaff_, which is to the Gael an unknown and terrible +power, dissolving opposition as salt dissolves a snail. + +The last cotter had been seen, the last _levée_ had been held, and we +then climbed up to the crown of the hill to visit the traces of an +old fortification, or _dün_, as the Skye people call it. These +ruins, and they are thickly scattered over the island, are supposed +to be of immense antiquity--so old, that Ossian may have sung in each +to a circle of Fingalian chiefs. When we reached the _dün_--a loose +congregation of mighty stones, scattered in a circular form, with +some rude remnants of an entrance and a covered way--we sat down, and +the Landlord lighted a cheroot. Beneath lay the little village +covered with smoke. Far away to the right, Skye stretched into +ocean, pale headland after headland. In front, over a black +wilderness of moor, rose the conical forms of Macleod's Tables, and +one thought of the "restless bright Atlantic plain" beyond, the +endless swell and shimmer of watery ridges, the clouds of sea birds, +the sudden glistening upheaval of a whale and its disappearance, the +smoky trail of a steamer on the horizon, the tacking of white-sailed +craft. On the left, there was nothing but moory wilderness and hill, +with something on a slope flashing in the sunshine like a diamond. A +falcon palpitating in the intense blue above, the hare-hound cocked +her ears and looked out alertly, the Landlord with his field-glass +counted the sheep feeding on the hill-side a couple of miles off. +Suddenly he closed the glass, and lay back on the heather, puffing a +column of white smoke into the air. + +"I suppose," said I, "your going in and out amongst your tenants +to-day is very much the kind of thing you used to do in India?" + +"Exactly. I know these fellows, every man of them--and they know me. +We get on very well together. I know everything they do. I know all +their secrets, all their family histories, everything they wish, and +everything they fear. I think I have done them some good since I +came amongst them." + +"But," said I, "I wish you to explain to me your system of penal +servitude, as you call it. In what respect do the people on the +cultivated hillside differ from the people in the black ground behind +the village?" + +"Willingly. But I must premise that the giving away of money in +charity is, in nine cases out often, tantamount to throwing money +into the fire. It does no good to the bestower: it does absolute +harm to the receiver. You see I have taken the management of these +people into my own hands. I have built a school-house for them--on +which we will look in and overhaul on our way down--I have built a +shop, as you see, a smithy, and a mill. I have done everything for +them, and I insist that, when a man becomes my tenant, he shall pay +me rent. If I did not so insist I should be doing an injury to +myself and to him. The people on the hill-side pay me rent; not a +man Jack of them is at this moment one farthing in arrears. The +people down there in the black land behind the village, which I am +anxious to reclaim, don't pay rent. They are broken men, broken +sometimes by their own fault and laziness, sometimes by culpable +imprudence, sometimes by stress of circumstances. When I settle a +man there I build him a house, make him a present of a bit of land, +give him tools, should he require them, and set him to work. He has +the entire control of all he can produce. He improves my land, and +can, if he is industrious, make a comfortable living. I won't have a +pauper on my place: the very sight of a pauper sickens me." + +"But why do you call the black lands your penal settlement?" + +Here the Landlord laughed. "Because, should any of the crofters on +the hill-side, either from laziness or misconduct, fall into arrears, +I transport him at once. I punish him by sending him among the +people who pay no rent. It's like taking the stripes off a +sergeant's arm and degrading him to the ranks; and if there is any +spirit in the man he tries to regain his old position. I wish my +people to respect themselves, and to hold poverty in horror." + +"And do many get back to the hill-side again?" + +"Oh, yes! and they are all the better for their temporary banishment. +I don't wish residence there to be permanent in any case. When one +of these fellows gets on, makes a little money, I have him up here at +once among the rent-paying people. I draw the line at a cow." + +"How?" + +"When a man by industry or by self-denial has saved money enough to +buy a cow, I consider the black land is no longer the place for him. +He is able to pay rent, and he must pay it. I brought an old fellow +up here the other week, and very unwilling he was to come. He had +bought himself a cow, and so I marched him up here at once. I wish +to stir all these fellows up, to put into them a little honest pride +and self-respect." + +"And how do they take to your system?" + +"Oh, they grumbled a good deal at first, and thought their lines were +hard; but discovering that my schemes have been for their benefit, +they are content enough now. In these black lands, you observe, I +not only rear corn and potatoes, I rear and train men, which is the +most valuable crop of all. But let us be going. I wish you to see +my scholars. I think I have got one or two smart lads down there." + +[Sidenote: The school.] + +In a short time we reached the school-house, a plain, +substantial-looking building, standing mid-way between the inn and +the banished huts. As it was arranged that neither schoolmaster nor +scholar should have the slightest idea that they were to be visited +that day, we were enabled to see the school in its ordinary aspect. +When we entered the master came forward and shook hands with the +Landlord, the boys pulled their red fore-locks, the girls dropped +their best courtesies. Sitting down on a form I noted the bare +walls, a large map hanging on one side, the stove with a heap of +peats near it, the ink-smeared bench and the row of girls' heads, +black, red, yellow, and brown, surmounting it, and the boys, +barefooted and in tattered kilts, gathered near the window. The +girls regarded us with a shy, curious gaze, which was not ungraceful; +and in several of the freckled faces there was the rudiments of +beauty, or of comeliness at least. The eyes of all, boys as well as +girls, kept twinkling over our persons, taking silent note of +everything. I don't think I ever before was the subject of so much +curiosity. One was pricked all over by quick-glancing eyes as by +pins. We had come to examine the school, and the ball opened by a +display of copy books. Opening these, we found pages covered with +"_Emulation is a generous passion,_" "_Emancipation does not make +man,_" in very fair and legible handwriting. Expressing our +satisfaction, the schoolmaster bowed low, and the prickling of the +thirty or forty curious eyes became yet more keen and rapid. The +schoolmaster then called for those who wished to be examined in +geography--very much as a colonel might seek volunteers for a forlorn +hope--and in a trice six scholars, kilted, of various ages and sizes, +but all shock-headed and ardent, were drawn up in line in front of +the large map. A ruler was placed in the hand of a little fellow at +the end, who, with his eyes fixed on the schoolmaster and his body +bent forward eagerly, seemed as waiting the signal to start off in a +race. "Number one, point out river Tagus." Number one charged the +Peninsula with his ruler as ardently as his great-grandfather in all +probability charged the French at Quebec. "Through what country does +the Tagus flow?" "Portugal." "What is the name of the capital +city?" "Lisbon." Number one having accomplished his devoir, the +ruler was handed on to number two, who traced the course of the +Danube, and answered several questions thereanent with considerable +intelligence. Number five was a little fellow; he was asked to point +out Portree, and as the Western Islands hung too high in the north +for him to reach, he jumped at them. He went into the North Sea the +first time, but on his second attempt he smote Skye with his ruler +very neatly. Numbers three, four, and six acquitted themselves +creditably--number four boggling a little deal about +Constantinople--much to the vexation of the schoolmaster. Slates +were then produced, and the six geographers--who were the cream of +the school, I daresay--were prepared for arithmetical action. As I +was examiner, and had no desire to get into deep waters, the efforts +of my kilted friends were, at my request, confined to the good old +rule of simple addition. The schoolmaster called out ten or eleven +ranks of figures, and then cried add. Six swishes of the +slate-pencil were heard, and then began the arithmetical tug of war. +Each face was immediately hidden behind a slate, and we could hear +the quick tinkle of pencils. All at once there was a hurried swish, +and the red-head, who had boggled about Constantinople, flashed round +his slate on me with the summation fairly worked out. Flash went +another slate, then another, till the six were held out. All the +answers corresponded, and totting up the figures I found them +correct. Then books were procured, and we listened to English +reading. In a loud tone of voice, as if they were addressing some +one on an opposite hill-side, and with barbarous intonation, the +little fellows read off about a dozen sentences each. Now and again +a big word brought a reader to grief, as a tall fence brings a +steeple-chaser; now and again a reader went through a word as a +hunter goes through a hedge which he cannot clear--but, on the whole, +they deserved the commendation which they received. The Landlord +expressed his satisfaction, and mentioned that he had left at the inn +two baskets of gooseberries for the scholars. The schoolmaster again +bowed; and although the eyes of the scholars were as bright and +curious as before, they had laid their heads together, and were +busily whispering now. + +The schools in Skye bear the same relationship to the other +educational establishments of the country that a turf-hut bears to a +stone-and-lime cottage. These schools are scattered thinly up and +down the Island, and the pupils are unable to attend steadily on +account of the distances they have to travel, and the minor +agricultural avocations in which they are at intervals engaged. The +schoolmaster is usually a man of no surpassing intelligence or +acquirement; he is wretchedly remunerated, and his educational aids +and appliances, such as books, maps, &c., are defective. But still a +turf-hut is better than no shelter, and a Skye school is better than +no school at all. The school, for instance, which we had just +visited, was an authentic light in the darkness. There boys and +girls were taught reading, writing, and ciphering--plain and homely +accomplishments it is true, but accomplishments that bear the keys of +all the doors that lead to wealth and knowledge. The boy or girl who +can read, write, and cast up accounts deftly, is not badly equipped +for the battle of life; and although the school which the Landlord +has established is plain and unostentatious in its forms and modes of +instruction, it at least, with tolerable success, teaches these. For +the uses made of them by the pupils in after life, the pupils are +themselves responsible. + + + + +_ORBOST AND DUNVEGAN._ + +Punctually at nine next morning there was a grating of wheels on the +gravel, and Malcolm and his dog-cart were at the door. After a +little delay I took my place on the vehicle and we drove off. +Malcolm was a thick-set, good-humoured, red haired and whiskered +little fellow, who could be silent for half a day if needed, but who +could speak, and speak to the point, too, when required. When +driving, and especially when the chestnut mare exhibited any +diminution of speed, he kept up a running fire of ejaculations. "Go +on," he would say, as he shook the reins, for the whip he mercifully +spared, "what are you thinking about?" "Hoots! chit, chit, chit! I'm +ashamed of you!" "Now then. Hoots!" and these reproaches seemed to +touch the mare's heart, for at every ejaculation she made a dash +forward as if the whip had touched her. + +[Sidenote: View from the dog-cart] + +On the way from Grishornish to Dunvegan, about a couple of miles from +the latter place, a road branches off to the right and runs away +downward through the heathery waste; and about forty yards onward you +come to a bridge spanning a gully, and into this gully three streams +leap and become one, and then the sole stream flows also to the right +with shallow fall and brawling rapid, the companion of the descending +road. The road up to the bridge is steep, but it is steeper beyond, +and at the bridge Malcolm jumped down and walked alongside with the +reins in his hands. In the slow progression your eye naturally +follows the road and the stream; and beyond the flank of a hill +sloping gradually down to the purple gloom of undulating moorland, +you catch a glimpse of a bit of blue sea, some white broken cliffs +that drop down into it; and, leaning on these cliffs, a great green +sunny strath, with a white dot of a house upon it. The glimpse of +sea, and white cliffs, and stretch of sunny greenness is pleasant; +the hill, which you have yet to climb, keeps the sun from you, and +all around are low heathery eminences. You stare at the far-off +sunlit greenness, and having satisfied yourself therewith, begin to +examine the ground above and on either side of the bridge, and find +it possessed of much pastoral richness and variety. The main portion +is covered with heather, but near you there are clumps of ferns, and +further back are soft banks and platforms of verdure on which kine +might browse and ruminate, and which only require the gilding of +sunshine to make them beautiful. "What bridge is this?" I asked of +Malcolm, who was still trudging alongside with the reins in his hand. +"The Fairy Bridge"--and then I was told that the fairy sits at sunset +on the green knolls and platforms of pasture chirming and singing +songs to the cows; and that when a traveller crosses the bridge, and +toils up the hill, she is sure to accompany him. As this was our own +course, I asked, "Is the fairy often seen now?" "Not often. It's +the old people who know about her. The shepherds sometimes hear her +singing when they are coming down the hill; and years ago, a pedlar +was found lying across the road up there dead; and it was thought +that the fairy had walked along with him. But, indeed, I never saw +or heard her myself--only that is what the old people say." And so +in a modern dog-cart you are slowly passing through one of the +haunted places in Skye! + +[Sidenote: The spoiling of the dikes.] + +I fancy Malcolm must have seen that this kind of talk interested me. +"Did you ever hear, sir, about the Battle of the Spoiling of the +Dikes down at Trompon Kirk, yonder?" and he pointed with his whip to +the yellow-green strath which broke down in cliffs to the sea. + +I answered that I never had, and Malcolm's narrative flowed on at +once. + +"You see, sir, there was a feud between the Macdonalds of the +Mainland and the Macleods of Trotternish; and one Sunday, when the +Macleods were in church, the Macdonalds came at full of tide, unknown +to any one, and fastened their boats to the arched rocks on the +shore--for it's a strange coast down there, full of caves and natural +bridges and arches. Well, after they had fastened their boats, they +surrounded the church, secured the door, and set it on fire. Every +one was burned that Sunday except one woman, who squeezed herself +through a window--it was so narrow that she left one of her breasts +behind her--and escaped carrying the news. She raised the country +with her crying and the sight of her bloody clothes. The +people--although it was Sunday--rose, men and women, and came down to +the burning church, and there the battle began. The men of Macleod's +country fought, and the women picked up the blunted arrows, sharpened +them on the stones, and then gave them to the men. The Macdonalds +were beaten at last, and made for their boats. But by this time it +was ebb of tide; and what did they see but the boats in which they +had come, and which they had fastened to the rocky arches, hanging in +the air! Like an otter, when its retreat to the sea is cut off, the +Macdonalds turned on the men of Macleod's country and fought till the +last of them fell, and in the sheughs of the sand their blood was +running down red into the sea. At that time the tide came further in +than it does now, and the people had built a turf dike to keep it +back from their crops. Then they took the bodies of the Macdonalds +and laid them down side by side at the foot of the dike, and tumbled +it over on the top of them. That was the way they were buried. And +after they had tumbled the dike they were vexed, for they minded then +that the sea might come in and destroy their crops. That's the +reason that the battle is called the Battle of the Spoiled Dikes." + +"The men of Macleod's country would regret the spoiling of the dikes, +as Bruce the battle-axe with which, on the evening before +Bannockburn, and in the seeing of both armies, he cracked the skull +of the English knight who came charging down upon him." + +[Sidenote: The Sciur of Eig.] + +Undiverted by my remark, Malcolm went on, "Maybe, sir, you have seen +the Sciur of Eig as you came past in the steamer?" + +"Yes, and I know the story. The Macdonalds were cooped up in a cave, +and the Macleods ranged over the island and could find no trace of +them. They then in high dudgeon returned to their boats, meaning to +depart next morning. There was a heavy fall of snow during the +night, was there not? and just when the Macleods were about to sail, +the figure of a man, who had come out to see if the invaders were +gone, was discerned on the top of the Sciur, against the sky line. +The Macleods returned, and by the foot-prints in the snow they +tracked the man to his hiding-place. They then heaped up heath and +what timber they could procure, at the mouth of the cave, applied +fire, and suffocated all who had therein taken shelter. Is that not +it?" + +"The Macdonalds first burned the church at Trompon down there. The +bones of the Macdonalds are lying in the cave to this day, they say. +I should like to see them." + +"But don't you think it was a dreadful revenge? Eig was one of the +safe places of the Macdonalds; and the people in the cave were +chiefly old men, women, and children. Don't you think it was a very +barbarous act, Malcolm?" + +"I don't know," said Malcolm; "I am a Macleod myself." + +[Sidenote: Macleod's Tables.] + +By the time I had heard the story of Lady Grange, who sleeps in the +Trompon churchyard, we had toiled pretty well up the steep ascent. +On our way we heard no fairy singing to the kine, nor did any +unearthly figure accompany us. Perhaps the witchery of the setting +sun was needed. By the time we reached the top of the hill the +pyramidical forms of Macleod's Tables were distinctly visible, and +then Malcolm took his seat beside me in the dog-cart. + +Macleod's Tables, two hills as high as Arthur's Seat, flat at the top +as any dining-table in the country--from which peculiar conformation +indeed they draw their names--and covered deep into spring by a +table-cloth of snow; Macleod's Maidens, three spires of rock rising +sheer out of the sea, shaped like women, around whose feet the foamy +wreaths are continually forming, fleeting, and disappearing--what +magic in the names of rocky spire and flat-topped hill to him who +bears the name of Macleod, and who can call them his own! What is +modern wealth--association-less, without poetry, melting like snow in +the hot hand of a spendthrift--compared to that old inheritance of +land, which is patent to the eye, which bears your name, around which +legends gather,--all vital to you as your great-grandmother's blue +eyes and fair hair; as your great-grandfather's hot temper and the +corrugation of his forehead when he frowned! These bold landmarks of +family possession must be regarded with peculiar interest by the +family. They make the white sheet on which you--a shadow of fifty +years or thereby--are projected by the camera obscura of fate. The +Tables and the Maidens remain for ever bearing your name, while +you--the individual Macleod--are as transitory as the mist wreath of +the morning which melts on the one, or the momentary shape of +wind-blown foam which perishes on the base of the other. The value +of these things is spiritual, and cannot be affected by the click of +the auctioneer's hammer, or the running of the hour-glass sand on the +lawyer's table after the title-deeds have been read and the bids are +being made. Wealth is mighty, but it can no more buy these things +than it can buy love, or reverence, or piety. Jones may buy the +Tables and the Maidens, but they do not own him; he is for ever an +alien: they wear the ancient name, they dream the ancient dream. +When poverty has stripped your livery from all your servants, they +remain faithful. When an Airlie is about to die, with tuck of drum, +they say, a ghostly soldier marches round the castle. Rothschild, +with all his millions, could not buy that drummer's services. What +is the use of buying an estate to-day? It is never wholly yours; the +old owner holds part possession with you. It is like marrying a +widow; you hold her heart, but you hold it in partnership with the +dead. I should rather be the plainest English yeoman whose family +has been in possession of a farm since the Heptarchy than be the +richest banker in Europe. The majority of men are like Arabs, their +tents are pitched here to-night and struck to-morrow. Those families +only who have held lands for centuries can claim an abiding home. In +such families there is a noble sense of continuity, of the unbroken +onflowing of life. The pictures and the furniture speak of +forefather and foremother. Your ancestor's name is on your books, +and you see the pencil marks which he has placed against the passages +that pleased him. The necklace your daughter wears heaved on the +breast of the ancestress from whom she draws her smile and her eyes. +The rookery that caws to-night in the sober sunset cawed in the ears +of the representative of your house some half-dozen generations +back--the very same in every respect, 'tis the individual rooks only +that have changed. The full-foliaged murmur of the woods shape your +name, and yours only. As for these Macleods-- + +[Sidenote: The house at Orbost.] + +"That's Orbost, sir, the house under the hill," said Malcolm, +pointing with his whip, and obviously tired of the prolonged silence, +"and yonder on the left are the Cuchullins. The sea is down there, +but you cannot see it from this. We'll be there in half an hour," +and exactly in half an hour, with Macleod's Tables behind us, we +passed the garden and the offices, and alighted on the daisied sward +before the house. + +After I had wandered about for an hour I made up my mind that, had I +the choice, I should rather live at Orbost than at any other house in +Skye. And yet, at Orbost, the house itself is the only thing that +can reasonably be objected to. In the first place, it is one of +those elegant expressionless houses in the Italian style with which +one is familiar in the suburban districts of large cities, and as +such it is quite out of keeping with the scenery and the spiritual +atmosphere of the island. It is too modern, and villa like. It is +as innocent of a legend as Pall Mall. It does not believe in ghost +stories. It has a dandified and sceptical look; and as it has not +taken to the island, the island has not taken to it. Around it trees +have not grown well; they are mere stunted trunks, bare, hoary, +wind-writhen. There is not a lichen or discoloration on its +smoothly-chiselled walls; not a single chimney or gable has been +shrouded with affectionate ivy. It looks like a house which has +"cut" the locality, and which the locality has "cut" in return. In +the second place, the house is stupidly situated. It turns a cold +shoulder on the grand broken coast; on the ten miles of sparkling sea +on which the sun is showering millions of silver coins, ever a new +shower as the last one disappears; on Rum, with a veil of haze on its +highest peak; on the lyrical Cuchullins--for although of the rigidest +granite, they always give one the idea of passion and tumult; on the +wild headlands of Bracadale, fading one after another, dimmer and +dimmer, into distance;--on all this the house turns a cold shoulder, +and on a meadow on which some dozen colts are feeding, and on a low +strip of moory hill beyond, from which the cotters draw their peats, +it stares intently with all its doors and windows. Right about face. +Attention! That done, the most fastidious could object to nothing at +Orbost, on the point of beauty at least. The faces of the Skye +people, continually set like flints against assaults of wind and +rain, are all lined and puckered about the eyes; and in Skye houses +you naturally wish to see something of the same weather-beaten look. +Orbost, with its smooth front and unwinking windows, outrages the +fitness of things. + +Of the interior no one can complain; for on entering you are at once +surrounded by a proper antiquity and venerableness. The dining-room +is large and somewhat insufficiently lighted, and on the walls hang +two of Raeburn's half-lengths--the possession of which are in +themselves vouchers of a family's respectability--and several +portraits of ladies with obsolete waists and head-dresses, and +military gentlemen in the uniform of last century. The furniture is +dark and massy; the mahogany drawing depth and colour from age and +usage; the carpet has been worn so bare that the pattern has become +nearly obliterated. The room was not tidy, I was pleased to see. A +small table placed near the window was covered with a litter of +papers; in one corner were guns and fishing-rods, and a +fishing-basket laid near them on the floor; and the round dusty +mirror above the mantelpiece--which had the curious faculty of +reducing your size, so that in its depth you saw yourself as it were +at a considerable distance--had spills of paper stuck between its +gilded frame and the wall. From these spills of paper I concluded +that the house was the abode of a bachelor who occasionally smoked +after dinner--which, indeed, was the case, only the master of the +house was from home at the time of my visit. In the drawing-room, +across the lobby, hooped ladies of Queen Anne's time might have sat +and drunk tea out of the tiniest china cups. The furniture was +elegant, but it was the elegance of an ancient beau. The draperies +were rich, but they had lost colour, like a spinster's cheek. In a +corner stood a buffet with specimens of cracked china. Curious +Indian ornaments, and a volume of Clarissa Harlowe, and another +volume of the Poetical Works of Mr Alexander Pope--the binding faded, +the paper dim--lay on the central table. Had the last reader left +them there? They reminded me of the lute--it may be seen at this day +in Pompeii--which the dancing girl flung down in an idle moment. In +a dusky corner a piano stood open, but the ivory keys had grown +yellow, and all richness of voice had been knocked out of them by the +fingerings of dead girls. I touched them, and heard the metallic +complaint of ill-usage, of old age, of utter loneliness and neglect. +I thought of Ossian, and the flight of the dark-brown years. It was +the first time they had spoken for long. The room, too, seemed to be +pervaded by a scent of withered rose leaves, but whether this odour +lived in the sense or the imagination, it would be useless to inquire. + +[Sidenote: The garden at Orbost.] + +Orbost lies pleasantly to the sun, and in the garden I could almost +fancy Malvolio walking cross-gartered--so trim it was, so sunnily +sedate, so formal, so ancient-looking. The shadow on the dial told +the age of the day, clipped box-wood ran along every walk. Trees, +crucified to the warm brick walls, stretched out long arms on which +fruit was ripening. The bee had stuck his head so deeply into a rose +that he could hardly get it out again, and so with the leaves--as a +millionaire with bank-notes--he impatiently buzzed and fidgeted. And +then you were not without sharp senses of contrast: out of the sunny +warmth and floral odours you lifted your eyes, and there were +Macleod's Tables rising in an atmosphere of fable; and up in the wind +above you, turning now and again its head in alert outlook, skimmed a +snow-white gull, weary--as tailors sometimes are with sitting--of +dancing on the surges of the sea. + +Orbost stands high above the sea, and if you wish thoroughly to enjoy +yourself you must walk down the avenue to the stone seat placed on +the road which winds along the brow of the broken cliffs, and which, +by many a curve and bend, reaches the water level at about a quarter +of a mile's distance, where there is a boat-house, and boats lying +keel uppermost or sideways, and a stretch of yellow sand on which the +tide is flowing, creamy line after creamy line. From where you sit +the ground breaks down first in a wall of cliff, then in huge +boulders as big as churches, thereafter in bushy broken ground with +huts perched in the coziest places, each hut swathed in the loveliest +films of blue smoke; and all through this broken ground there are +narrow winding paths along which a cow is always being gingerly +driven, or a wild Indian-looking girl is bringing water from some +cool spring beneath. Here you can quietly enjoy the expanse of +dazzling sea, a single sail breaking the restless scintillations; far +Rum asleep on the silver floor; and, caught at a curious angle, the +Cuchullin hills--reminding you of some stranded iceberg, splintered, +riven, many-ridged, which the sun in all his centuries has been +unable to melt. In the present light they have a curiously hoary +look, and you can notice that in the higher corries there are long +streaks of snow. [Sidenote: The glen at Orbost.] On the right, +beyond the boat-house, a great hill, dappled with brown and olive +like a seal's back, and traversed here and there by rocky terraces, +breaks in precipices down to the sea line; and between it and the +hill on which you are sitting, and which slopes upward behind, you +see the beginning of a deep glen, in its softness and greenness +suggesting images of pastoral peace, the bringing home of rich pails +by milkmaids, the lowing of cattle in sober ruddy sunsets. "What +glen is that, Malcolm?" "Oh, sir, it just belongs to the farm." "Is +there a house in it?" "No, but there's the ruins of a dozen." +"How's that?" "Ye see, the old Macleods liked to keep their cousins +and second cousins about them; and so Captain Macleod lived at the +mouth of the glen, and Major Macleod at the top of it, and Colonel +Macleod over the hill yonder. If the last trumpet had been blown at +the end of the French war, no one but a Macleod would have risen out +of the churchyard at Dunvegan. If you want to see a chief +now-a-days, you must go to London for him. Ay, sir, Dun Kenneth's +prophecy has come to pass--'In the days of Norman, son of the third +Norman, there will be a noise in the doors of the people, and wailing +in the house of the widow; and Macleod will not have so many +gentlemen of his name as will row a five-oared boat around the +Maidens!' The prophecy has come to pass, and the Tables are no +longer Macleod's--at least one of them is not." + +After wandering about Orbost we resumed our seats in the dog-cart, +and drove to Dunvegan Castle. + +As we drew near Dunvegan we came down on one of those sinuous +sea-lochs which--hardly broader than a river--flow far inland, and +carry mysteriousness of sight and sound, the gliding sail, the +sea-bird beating high against the wind, to the door of the shepherd, +who is half a sailor among his bleating flocks. Across the sea, and +almost within hail of your voice, a farm and outhouses looked +embattled against the sky. Along the shore, as we drove, were boats +and nets, and here and there little clumps and knots of houses. +People were moving about on the roads intent on business. We passed +a church, a merchant's store, a post-office; we were plainly +approaching some village of importance; and on the right hand the +chestnuts, larches, and ashes which filled every hollow, and covered +every rolling slope, gave sufficient indication that we were +approaching the castle. + +[Sidenote: The garden at Dunvegan.] + +In the centre of these woods we turned up a narrow road to the right +along which ran a wall, and stopped at a narrow postern door. Here +Malcolm rang a bell--the modern convenience grating somewhat on my +preconceived notions of an approach to the old keep; if he had blown +a horn I daresay I should have felt better satisfied--and in due time +we were admitted by a trim damsel. The bell was bad, but the +brilliant garden into which we stepped was worse--soft level lawns, a +huge star of geraniums, surrounded at proper distances by half-moons +and crescents of calceolarias rimmed with lobelias. The garden was +circled by a large wall, against which fruit-trees were trained. In +thinking of Dunvegan my mind had unconsciously become filled with +desolate and Ossianic images, piled and hoary rocks, the thistle +waving its beard in the wind, flakes of sea spray flying over +all--and behold I rang a bell as if I were in Regent Street, and by a +neat damsel was admitted into a garden that would have done no +discredit to Kensington! After passing through the garden we entered +upon a space of wild woodland, containing some fine timber, and +romance began to revive. Malcolm then led me to an outhouse, and +pointed out a carved stone above the doorway, on which were quartered +the arms of the Macleods and Macdonalds. "Look there," said he, +"Macleod has built the stone into his barn which should have been +above his fire-place in his dining-room." + +"I see the bull's head of Macleod and the galley of Macdonald--were +the families in any way connected?" + +"Oftener by a bloody dirk than by a gold marriage ring. But with all +their quarrellings they intermarried more than once. Dunvegan was +originally a stronghold of the Macdonald." + +"Indeed! and how did the Macleods get possession?" + +[Sidenote: The sinking of the barge.] + +"I'll tell you that," said Malcolm. "Macdonald of Dunvegan had no +son, but his only daughter was married to Macleod of Harris, and a +young chief was growing up in Macleod's castle. The Macdonalds, +knowing that when the old man was dead, they would have no one to +lead them to battle, were pondering whom they should elect as chief; +and, at the same time, Macleod's lady was just as anxiously pondering +by what means her son should sit in Dunvegan. Well, while all this +thinking and scheming was going on secretly in Skye and Harris, +Macdonald, wishing to visit Macleod, ordered his barge and rowers to +be in readiness, and pushed off. Macleod, hearing that his +father-in-law was coming, went out in his barge to meet him half-way, +and to escort him to his castle with all honour. Macleod's barge was +bigger and stronger than Macdonald's, and held a greater number of +rowers; and while his men were pulling, the chief sat in the stern +steering, and his wife sat by his side. When they got into +mid-channel a heavy mist came down, but still the men pulled, and +still Macleod steered. All at once Macleod found that he was running +straight on his father-in-law's barge, and just when he had his hand +on the helm to change the course and avoid striking, his wife gripped +him hard and whispered in his ear, 'Macleod, Macleod, there's only +that barge betwixt you and Dunvegan.' Macleod took the hint, steered +straight on, struck and sunk Macdonald's barge in the mist, and +sailed for Dunvegan, which he claimed in the name of his son. That +is the way, as the old people tell, that Macleod came into possession +here." + +Then we strolled along the undulating paths, and at a sudden turn +there was the ancient keep on its rock, a stream brawling down close +at hand, the tide far withdrawn, the long shore heaped with dulse and +tangle, and the sea-mews above the flag-staff, as the jackdaws fly +above the cathedral towers in England. It was gray as the rock on +which it stood--there were dark tapestries of ivy on the walls, but +at a first glance it was disappointingly modern-looking. I thought +of the mighty shell of Tantallon looking towards the Bass, and waving +a matted beard of lichens in the sea wind, and began to draw +disadvantageous comparisons. The feeling was foolishness, and on a +better acquaintance with the building it wore off. Dunvegan is +inhabited, and you cannot have well-aired sheets, a well-cooked +dinner, and the venerableness of ruin. Comfort and decay are never +companions. + +[Sidenote: Dunvegan.] + +Dunvegan reminds one of a fragment of an old ballad, encumbered with +a modern editor's introductory chapter, historical disquisitions, +critical comments, explanatory and illustrative notes, and glossarial +index. The dozen or so of rude stanzas--a whole remote passionate +world dwelling in them as in some wizard's mirror--is by far the most +valuable portion of the volume, although, in point of bulk, it bears +no proportion to the subsidiary matter which has grown around it. +Dunvegan is perhaps the oldest inhabited building in the country, but +the ancient part is of small extent. One portion of it, it is said, +was built in the ninth century. A tower was added in the fifteenth, +another portion in the sixteenth, and the remainder by different +hands, and at irregular intervals since then. No inconsiderable +portion is unquestionably modern. The old part of the castle looks +toward the sea, and entrance is obtained by a steep and narrow +archway--up which, perhaps, came Macleod of Harris after he sunk the +barge of his father-in-law in the misty Minch. In a crevice in the +wall, which forms one side of this entrance, a well was recently +discovered; it had been built up--no man knows for how long--and when +tasted, the water was found perfectly sweet and pure. In the old +days of strife and broil it may have cooled many a throat thirsty +with siege. The most modern portion of the building, I should fancy, +is the present frontage, which, as you approach it by the bridge +which solidly fills up the ravine, is not without a certain grandeur +and nobility of aspect. The rock on which the castle stands is +surrounded on three sides by the sea; and fine as the old pile looked +at ebb of tide, one could fancy how much its appearance would be +improved with all that far-stretching ugliness of sand and tangle +obliterated, and the rock swathed with the azure and silence of +ocean. To sleep in a bed-room at Dunvegan in such circumstances, +must be like sleeping in a bed-room in fairy-land. You might hear a +mermaid singing beneath your window, and looking out into the +moonlight, behold, rising from the glistening swells, the perilous +beauty of her breasts and hair. + +[Sidenote: The Macleod portraits.] + +After viewing the castle from various points, we boldly advanced +across the bridge and rang the bell. After waiting some little time, +we were admitted by a man who--the family at the time being from +home--seemed the only person in possession. He was extremely polite, +volunteered to show us all over the place, and regretted that in the +prolonged absence of his master the carpets and furniture in the +"drawing-room" had been lifted. The familiar English _patois_ +sounded strange in the castle of a Macleod! On his invitation we +entered an unfurnished hall with galleries running to left and right, +and on the wooden balustrades of one of these galleries the great +banner of Macleod was dispread--a huge white sheet on which the arms +and legend of the house were worked in crimson. Going up stairs, we +passed through spacious suites of rooms, carpetless, and with the +furniture piled up in the centre and covered with an awning--through +every window obtaining a glimpse of blue Loch and wild Skye headland. +In most cases in the rooms the family pictures were left hanging, +some fine, others sorry daubs enough, yet all interesting as +suggesting the unbroken flow of generations. Here was Rory More, who +was knighted in the reign of James VI. Here was the Macdonald lady, +whose marriage with the Macleod of that day was the occasion of the +arms of the families being united on the sculptured stone which we +saw built above the door of the barn outside. Here was a +haughty-looking young man of twenty-five, and yonder the same man at +sixty, grim, wrinkled, suspicious-looking--resembling the earlier +portrait only in the pride of eye and lip. Here were Macleod +beauties who married and became mothers in other houses; yonder were +beauties from other castles who became mothers here, and grew +gray-haired and died, leaving a reminiscence of their features in the +family for a generation or two. Here was the wicked Macleod, yonder +the spendthrift in whose hands the family wealth melted, and over +there the brave soldier standing with outstretched arm, elephants and +Indian temples forming an appropriate background. The rooms were +spacious, every window affording a glorious sea view; but from their +unfurnished and dismantled condition there arose a sort of Ossianic +desolation, which comfortless as it must have been to a permanent +dweller, did not fail to yield a certain gloomy pleasure to the +imagination of the visitor of an hour. + +[Sidenote: The Macleod dungeons.] + +Passing up and down stairs in the more ancient portion of the castle, +the man in possession showed us the dungeons in which the Macleods +immured their prisoners. I had fancied that these would have been +scooped out of the rock on which the castle stood. Whether such +existed I cannot say; but by candle-light I peered into more than one +stony closet let into the mighty wall--the entrance of which the +garments of the lady must have swept every night as she went to +bed--where the captured foemen of the family were confined. Perhaps +the near contiguity of the prisoner, perhaps the sweeping of garments +past the dungeon door, perhaps the chance-heard groan or clank of +manacle, constituted the exquisite zest and flavour of revenge. Men +keep their dearest treasures near them; and it might be that the +neighbourhood of the wretch he hated--so near that the sound of revel +could reach him at times--was more grateful to Macleod than his +burial in some far-away vault, perhaps to be forgotten. Who knows! +It is difficult to creep into the hearts of those old sea-kings. If +I mistake not, one of the dungeons is at present used as a wine +cellar. So the world and the fashion of it changes! Where the +Macleod of three centuries ago kept his prisoner, the Macleod of +to-day keeps his claret. From which of its uses the greatest amount +of satisfaction has been derived would be a curious speculation. + +[Sidenote: The fairy room.] + +By a narrow spiral stair we reached the most interesting apartment in +Dunvegan--the Fairy Room, in which Sir Walter Scott slept once. This +apartment is situated in the ancient portion of the building, it +overlooks the sea, and its walls are of enormous thickness. From its +condition I should almost fancy that no one has slept there since Sir +Walter's time. In it, at the period of my visit, there was neither +bedstead nor chair, and it seemed a general lumber room. The walls +were hung with rusty broadswords, dirks, targes, pistols, Indian +helmets; and tunics of knitted steel were suspended on frames, but so +rotten with age and neglect that a touch frayed them as if they had +been woven of worsted. There were also curved scimitars, and +curiously-hafted daggers, and two tattered regimental flags--that no +doubt plunged through battle smoke in the front of charging +lines--and these last I fancied had been brought home by the soldier +whose portrait I had seen in one of the modern rooms. Moth-eaten +volumes were scattered about amid a chaos of rusty weapons, cruses, +and lamps. In one corner lay a huge oaken chest with a chain wound +round it, but the lid was barely closed, and through the narrow +aperture a roll of paper protruded docketed in clerkly and and with +faded ink--accounts of ---- from 1715 till some time at the close of +the century--in which doubtless some curious items were imbedded. On +everything lay the dust and neglect of years. The room itself was +steeped in a half twilight. The merriest sunbeam became grave as it +slanted across the corroded weapons in which there was no answering +gleam. Cobwebs floated from the corners of the walls--the spiders +which wove them having died long ago of sheer age. To my feeling it +would be almost impossible to laugh in the haunted chamber, and if +you did so you would be startled by a strange echo as if something +mocked you. There was a grave-like odour in the apartment. You +breathed dust and decay. + +[Sidenote: The fairy flag.] + +Seated on the wooden trunk round which the chain was wound, while +Malcolm with his hand thrust in the hilt of a broadsword, was +examining the notches on its blade, I inquired, + +"Is there not a magic flag kept at Dunvegan? The flag was the gift +of a fairy, if I remember the story rightly." + +"Yes," said Malcolm, making a cut at an imaginary foeman, and then +hanging the weapon up on the wall; "but it is kept in a glass case, +and never shown to strangers, at least when the family is from home." + +"How did Macleod come into possession of the flag, Malcolm?" + +"Well, the old people say that one of the Macleods fell in love with +a fairy, and used to meet her on the green hill out there. Macleod +promised to marry her; and one night the fairy gave him a green flag, +telling him that, when either he or one of his race was in distress, +the flag was to be waved, and relief would be certain. Three times +the flag might be waved; but after the third time it might be thrown +into the fire, for the power would have gone all out of it. I don't +know, indeed, how it was, but Macleod deserted the fairy and married +a woman." + +"Is there anything astonishing in that? Would you not rather marry a +woman than a fairy yourself." + +"Maybe, if she was a rich one like the woman Macleod married," said +Malcolm with a grin. "But when the fairy heard of the marriage she +was in a great rage whatever. She cast a spell over Macleod's +country, and all the women brought forth dead sons, and all the cows +brought forth dead calves. Macleod was in great tribulation. He +would soon have no young men to fight his battles, and his tenants +would soon have no milk or cheese wherewith to pay their rents. The +cry of his people came to him as he sat in his castle, and he waved +the flag, and next day over the country there were living sons and +living calves. Another time, in the front of a battle, he was sorely +pressed, and nigh being beaten, but he waved the flag again, and got +the victory, and a great slaying of his enemies." + +"Then the flag has not been waved for the third and last time?" + +"No. At the time of the potato failure, when the people were +starving in their cabins, it was thought that he should have waved it +and stopped the rot. But the flag stayed in its case. Macleod can +only wave it once now; and I'm sure he's like a man with his last +guinea in his pocket--he does not like to spend it. But maybe, sir, +you would like to climb up to the flag-staff and see the view." + +We then left the haunted chamber, passed through the dismantled room +in which the portraits hung, and ascended the narrow spiral +stair--the walls of which, whether from sea damp, or from a +peculiarity of the lime used in building, were covered with a +glistering scurf of salt--and finally emerged on the battlemented +plateau from which the flagstaff sprang. The huge mast had fallen a +month or two previously, and was now spliced with rope and propped +with billets of wood. A couple of days before the catastrophe, a +young fellow from Cambridge, Malcolm told me, had climbed to the +top--lucky for the young fellow it did not fall then, else he and +Cambridge had parted company for ever. From our airy perch the +outlook was wonderfully magnificent. From the breast of the hill +which shut out everything in one direction, there rolled down on the +castle billow on billow of many-coloured foliage. The garden through +which we had passed an hour before was but a speck of bright colour. +The little toy village sent up its pillars of smoke. There was the +brown stony beach, the boats, the ranges of nets, the sinuous +snake-like Loch, and the dark far-stretching promontories asleep on +the sleekness of summer sea. With what loveliness of shining blue +the sea flowed in everywhere, carrying silence and the +foreign-looking bird into inland solitudes, girdling with its glory +the rock on which the chief's castle had stood for ten centuries, and +at the door of the shepherd's shealing calling on the brown children +with the voices of many wavelets, to come down, and play with them on +crescents of yellow sand! + +Driving homeward I inquired, "Does the Laird live here much?" "No, +indeed," said Malcolm; "he lives mainly in London." + +[Sidenote: Dunvegan.] + +And thereupon I thought how pleasant it must be for a man to escape +from the hollow gusty castle with its fairy flag which has yet to be +waved once, its dungeons, its haunted chambers, its large gaunt +rooms, with portraits of men and women from whom he has drawn his +blood, its traditions of revenge and crime--and take up his abode in +some villa at breezy Hampstead, or classic Twickenham, or even in +some half-suburban residence in the neighbourhood of Regent's Park. +The villa at Hampstead or Twickenham is neat and trim, and when you +enter on residence, you enter without previous associations. It is +probably not so old as yourself. The walls and rooms are strange, +but you know that you and they will become pleasantly acquainted by +and by. Dark family faces do not lower upon you out of the past; the +air of the room in which you sit is not tainted with the smell of +blood spilt hundreds of years ago. You and your dwelling are not the +sole custodiers of dreadful secrets. The shadows of the fire-light +on the twilight walls do not take shapes that daunt and affright. +Your ancestors no longer tyrannise over you. You escape from the +gloomy past, and live in the light and the voices of to-day. You are +yourself--you are no longer a link in a blood-crusted chain. You +enter upon the enjoyment of your individuality, as you enter upon the +enjoyment of a newly-inherited estate. In modern London you drink +nepenthe, and Dunvegan is forgotten. Were I the possessor of a +haunted, worm-eaten castle, around which strange stories float, I +should fly from it as I would from a guilty conscience, and in the +whirl of vivid life lose all thoughts of my ancestors. I should +appeal to the present to protect me from the past. I should go into +Parliament and study blue-books, and busy myself with the better +regulation of alkali works, and the drainage of Stoke Pogis. No +ancestor could touch me _then_. + +[Sidenote: Donald Gorm.] + +"It's a strange old place, Dunvegan," said Malcolm, as we drove down +by the Fairy Bridge, "and many strange things have happened in it. +Did you ever hear, sir, how Macdonald of Sleat--Donald Gorm, or Blue +Donald, as he was called--stayed a night with Macleod of Dunvegan at +a time when there was feud between them?" + +"No: but I shall be glad to hear the story now." + +"Well," Malcolm went on, "on a stormy winter evening, when the walls +of Dunvegan were wet with the rain of the cloud and the spray of the +sea, Macleod, before he sat down to dinner, went out to have a look +at the weather. 'A giant's night is coming on, my men,' he said when +he came in, 'and if Macdonald of Sleat were at the foot of my rock +seeking a night's shelter, I don't think I could refuse it.' He then +sat down in the torch-light at the top of the long table, with his +gentlemen around him. When they were half through with their meal a +man came in with the news that the barge of Macdonald of Sleat--which +had been driven back by stress of weather on its way to Harris--was +at the foot of the rock, and that Macdonald asked shelter for the +night for himself and his men. 'They are welcome,' said Macleod; +'tell them to come in.' The man went away, and in a short time +Macdonald, his piper, and his body guard of twelve, came in wet with +the spray and rain, and weary with rowing. Now on the table there +was a boar's head--which is always an omen of evil to a +Macdonald--and noticing the dish, Donald Gorm with his men about him +sat at the foot of the long table, beneath the salt, and away from +Macleod and the gentlemen. Seeing this, Macleod made a place beside +himself, and called out, 'Macdonald of Sleat, come and sit up here!' +'Thank you,' said Donald Gorm, 'I'll remain where I am; but remember +that wherever Macdonald of Sleat sits that's the head of the table.' +[Sidenote: Donald Gorm's dirk.] So when dinner was over the gentlemen +began to talk about their exploits in hunting, and their deeds in +battle, and to show each other their dirks. Macleod showed his, +which was very handsome, and it was passed down the long table from +gentleman to gentleman, each one admiring it and handing it to the +next, till at last it came to Macdonald, who passed it on, saying +nothing. Macleod noticed this, and called out, 'Why don't you show +your dirk, Donald; I hear it's very fine?' Macdonald then drew his +dirk, and holding it up in his right hand, called out, 'Here it is, +Macleod of Dunvegan, and in the best hand for pushing it home in the +four and twenty islands of the Hebrides.' Now Macleod was a strong +man, but Macdonald was a stronger, and so Macleod could not call him +a liar; but thinking he would be mentioned next, he said, 'And where +is the next best hand for pushing a dirk home in the four and twenty +islands?' '_Here_,', cried Donald Gorm, holding up his dirk in his +left hand, and brandishing it in Macleod's face, who sat amongst his +gentlemen biting his lips with vexation. So when it came to +bed-time, Macleod told Macdonald that he had prepared a chamber for +him near his own, and that he had placed fresh heather in a barn for +the piper and the body guard of twelve. Macdonald thanked Macleod, +but remembering the boar's head on the table, said he would go with +his men, and that he preferred for his couch the fresh heather to the +down of the swan. 'Please yourself, Macdonald of Sleat,' said +Macleod, as he turned on his heel. + +[Sidenote: Donald Gorm's threat.] + +"Now it so happened that one of the body guard of twelve had a +sweetheart in the castle, but he had no opportunity of speaking to +her. But once when she was passing the table with a dish she put her +mouth to the man's ear and whispered, 'Bid your master beware of +Macleod. The barn you sleep in will be red flame at midnight and +ashes before the morning.' The words of the sweetheart passed the +man's ear like a little breeze, but he kept the colour of his face, +and looked as if he had heard nothing. So when Macdonald and his men +got into the barn where the fresh heather had been spread for them to +sleep on, he told the words which had been whispered in his ear. +Donald Gorm then saw the trick that was being played, and led his men +quietly out by the back door of the barn, down to a hollow rock which +stood up against the wind, and there they sheltered themselves. By +midnight the sea was red with the reflection of the burning barn, and +morning broke on gray ashes and smouldering embers. The Macleods +thought they had killed their enemies; but fancy their astonishment +when Donald Gorm with his body guard of twelve marched past the +castle down to the foot of the rock, where his barge was moored, with +his piper playing in front--'Macleod, Macleod, Macleod of Dunvegan, I +drove my dirk into your father's heart, and in payment of last +night's hospitality I'll drive it to the hilt in his son's yet.'" + +"Macleod of Dunvegan must have been a great rascal," said I; "and I +hope he got his deserts." + +"I don't know, indeed," said Malcolm; "but if Donald Gorm caught him +he could hardly miss." He then added, as if in deprecation of the +idea that any portion of ignominy was attachable to him, "I am not +one of the Dunvegan Macleods; I come from the Macleods of Raasay." + + + + +_DUNTULM._ + +[Sidenote: A rainy day.] + +The Landlord's house had been enveloped for several days in misty +rain. It did not pour straight down, it did not patter on door and +window, it had no action as it has in the south,--which made it all +the more tormenting, for in action there is always some sort of +exhilaration; in any case you have the notion that it will wear +itself out soon, that "it is too hot work to last long, Hardy." An +immense quantity of moisture was held in the atmosphere, and it +descended in a soft, silent, imperceptible drizzle. It did not seem +so very bad when you looked out on it from the window, but if you +ventured on the gravel you were wet to the skin in a trice. White +damp vapours lay low on the hills across the Loch; white damp vapours +lay on the rising grounds where the sheep fed; white damp vapours hid +the tops of the larches which sheltered the house from the south-west +winds. Heaven was a wet blanket, and everything felt its influence. +During the whole day Maida lay dreaming on the rug before the fire. +The melancholy parrot moped in its cage, and at intervals--for the +sake of variety merely--attacked the lump of white sugar between the +wires, or suspended itself, head downwards, and eyed you askance. +The horses stamped and pawed in their stables. The drenched peacock, +which but a few days before was never weary displaying his starry +tail, read one a lesson on the instability of human glory. The +desolate sea lapping the weedy piers of Tyre; Napoleon at St Helena, +his innumerable armies, the thunders of his cannon that made capitals +pale, faded away, perished utterly like a last year's dream, could +not have been more impressive. It sat on the garden seat, a mere +lump of draggled feathers, and as gray as a hedge-sparrow. The +Landlord shut himself up in his own room, writing letters against the +departure of the Indian mail. We read novels, and yawned, and made +each other miserable with attempts at conversation--and still the +clouds hung low on hill, and rising ground, and large plantation, +like surcharged sponges; and still the drizzle came down mercilessly, +noiselessly, until the world was sodden, and was rapidly becoming +sponge-like too. On the fourth day we went upstairs, threw ourselves +on our beds dead beat, and fell asleep, till we were roused by the +gong for dinner. Thrusting my face hurriedly into a basin of cold +water, tidying dishevelled locks, I got down when the soup was being +taken away, and was a good deal laughed at. Somehow the spirits of +the party seemed lighter; the despotism of rain did not weigh so +heavily on them; I felt almost sportively inclined myself; and just +at the conclusion of dessert, when wine had circulated once or twice, +there was a flush of rosy light on the panes. I went at once to the +window, and there was the sun raying out great lances of splendour, +and armies of fiery mists lifting from the hills and streaming +upwards, glorious as seraph bands, or the transfigured spirits of +martyrdom. The westward-ebbing loch was sleek gold, the wet trees +twinkled, every puddle was sun-gilt. I looked at the barometer and +saw the mercury rising like hope in a man's breast when fortune +smiles on him. The curtains were drawn back to let the red light +fully into the room. "I like to see that fiery smoke on the hills," +said the Landlord, "it's always a sign of fine weather setting in. +Now it won't do for you fellows to lie up here like beached boats +doing nothing. You must be off after tiffin to-morrow. I'll give +you letters of introduction, a dog-cart and a man, and in a week or +so come back and tell me what you think of Duntulm and Quirang. You +must rough it you know. You mustn't be afraid of a shower, or of +getting your feet wetted in a bog." + +[Sidenote: Departure from the Landlord's.] + +And so next day after tiffin the Landlord sent us off into the wilds, +as a falconer might toss his hawk into the air. + +The day was fine, the heat was tempered by a pleasant breeze, great +white clouds swam in the blue void, and every now and again a shower +came racing across our path with a sunbeam at its heel. We drove +past the village, past the huts that ran along the top of the +cultivated hill-side, dropped down on Skeabost, and the stream with +the island of graves, and in due time reached the solitary +school-house at the junction of the roads. Turning to the left here, +we drove along the east shore of Loch Snizort, up stages of easy +ascent, and then, some four or five miles on, left the Parliamentary +Road and descended on Kingsburgh. I pointed out to Fellowes the +ruins of the old house, spoke to him of the Prince, Flora Macdonald, +Dr Johnson, and Boswell. After sauntering about there for a quarter +of an hour, we walked down to the present house with its gables +draped with ivies, and its pleasant doors and windows scented with +roses and honey-suckles. To the gentleman who then occupied the farm +we bore a letter from the Landlord, but, on inquiring, found that he +had gone south on business a couple of days previously. [Sidenote: +Kingsburgh.] This gentleman was a bachelor, the house was tenanted by +servants only, and of course at Kingsburgh we could not remain. This +was a disappointment; and as we walked back to the dog-cart, I told +my companion of a pleasant ten days I had wasted there three or four +summers since. I spoke to him of the Kingsburgh of that time--the +kindly generous Christian Highland gentleman; of his open door and +frank greeting, warm and hospitable; of his Christianity, as open and +hospitable as his door; of the plenteous meats and drinks, and the +household pieties which ever seemed to ask a blessing. I spoke of +the pleasant family, so numerous, so varied; the grandmother, made +prisoner to an easy-chair, yet never fretful, never morose; who, on +the lip of ninety, wore the smile of twenty-five; who could look up +from her Bible--with which she was familiar as with the way to her +bedroom--to listen to the news of the moment, and to feel interested +in it; who, with the light of the golden city in her eyes, could +listen and enter into a girl's trouble about her white frock and her +first dance. There is nothing keeps so well as a good heart; nothing +which time sweetens so to the core. I spoke of Kingsburgh himself, +guileless, chivalrous, hospitable; of his sisters, one a widow, one a +spinster; of his brave soldier nephew from India; of his pretty +nieces, with their English voices and their English wild-rose +bloom--who loved the heather and the mist, and the blue Loch with the +gulls sweeping over it, but him most of all; of his sons, deep in the +Gorilla Book, and to whose stories, and the history of whose +adventures and exploits grandmamma's ears were ever open. I spoke +too of the guests that came and went during my stay--the soldier, the +artist, the mysterious man, who, so far as any of us knew, had +neither name, occupation, nor country, who was without parents and +antecedents--who was himself alone; of the games of croquet on the +sunny lawn, of the pic-nics and excursions, of the books read in the +cool twilight of the moss-house, of the smoking parliament held in +the stables on rainy days, of the quiet cigar in the open air before +going to bed. 'Twas the pleasantest fortnight I ever remember to +have spent; and before I had finished telling my companion all about +it we had taken our seats in the dog-cart, and were pretty well +advanced on the way to Uig. + +[Sidenote: On the way to Uig.] + +Uig is distant from Kingsburgh about five miles; the road is high +above the sea, and as you drive along you behold the northern +headlands of Skye, the wide blue Minch, and Harris, rising like a +cloud on the horizon; and if the day is fine, you will enjoy the +commerce of sea and sky, the innumerable tints thrown by the clouds +on the watery mirror, the mat of glittering light spread beneath the +sun, the gray lines of showers on the distant promontories, the +tracks of air currents on the mobile element between. The clouds +pass from shape to shape--what resembles a dragon one moment +resembles something else the next; the promontory which was obscure +ten minutes ago is now yellow-green in sunlight; the watery pavement +is tesselated with hues, but with hues that continually shift and +change. In the vast outlook there is utter silence, but no rest. +What with swimming vapour, passing Proteus-like from form to +form--obscure showers that run--vagrant impulses of wind--sunbeams +that gild and die in gilding--the vast impressionable mimetic floor +outspread,--the sight you behold when you toil up the steep road from +Kingsburgh to Uig is full of motion. There is no rest in nature, +they say; and the clouds are changing like opinions and kingdoms, and +the bodies and souls of men. Matter is a stream that flows, a fire +that burns. By a cunninger chemistry than ours, the atoms that +composed the body of Adam could be arrested somewhere yet. + +[Sidenote: The inn at Uig.] + +Just when you have reached the highest part of the road you come in +view of the Bay of Uig. You are high above it as you drive or walk +along, the ground is equally high on the other side, and about the +distance of a mile inland, on a great sandy beach, the tide is +rolling in long white lines that chase each other. On the deep water +outside the tidal lines a yacht is rocking; there is a mansion-house +with a flag-staff on the shore, and at the top of the bay are several +houses, a church, and a school-house, built of comfortable stone and +lime. When the Minch is angry outside, washing the headlands with +spray, Uig is the refuge which the fisherman and the coaster seek. +When once they have entered its rocky portals they are safe. The +road now descends towards the shore; there is an inn midway, +low-roofed, dimly-lighted, covered with thatch--on the whole perhaps +the most unpromising edifice in the neighbourhood. Here we pulled +up. Already we had driven some twenty-five miles, and as we wished +to push on to Duntulm that evening, we were anxious to procure a +fresh horse. The keen air had whetted our appetites, and we were +eager for dinner, or what substitute for dinner could be provided. +Our driver unharnessed the horse, and we entered a little room, +spotlessly clean, however, and knocked with our knuckles on the deal +table. When the red-haired handmaiden entered, we discovered that +the Uig bill of fare consisted of bread and butter, cheese, whisky, +milk, and hard-boiled eggs--and a very satisfactory bill of fare we +considered it too. There is no such condiment as hunger honourably +earned by exercise in the open air. When the viands were placed +before us we attacked them manfully. The bread and butter +disappeared, the hard-boiled eggs disappeared, we flinched not before +the slices of goats'-milk cheese; then we made equal division of the +whisky, poured it into bowls of milk, and drank with relish. While +in the middle of the feast the landlord entered--he wore the kilt, +the only person almost whom I had seen wearing it in my sojourn in +the island--to make arrangements relative to the fresh horse. He +admitted that he possessed an animal, but as he possessed a gig and +eke a driver, it was his opinion that the three should go together. +To this we objected, stating that as we already had a vehicle and a +driver, and as they were in no wise tired, such a change as he +suggested would be needless. We told him also that we meant to +remain at Duntulm for one night only, and that by noon of the +following day we would be back at his hostelry with his horse. The +landlord seemed somewhat moved by our representations, and just when +victory was hanging in the balance the brilliant idea struck my +companion that he should be bribed with his own whisky. At the rap +on the deal table the red-haired wench appeared, the order was given, +and in a trice a jorum of mountain dew was produced. This decided +matters, the landlord laid down the arms of argument, and after we +had solemnly drunk each other's health he went out for the fresh +horse, and in a quarter of an hour we were all right, and slowly +descending the steep hill-road to Uig. + +[Sidenote: The road to Duntulm.] + +We drove through the village, where a good deal of building seemed +going on, and then began to climb the hill-road that rose beyond it. +Along the hill-side this road zig-zagged in such a curious manner, +ran in such terraces and parallel lines, that the dog-cart +immediately beneath you, and into which you could almost chuck a +biscuit--the one machine heading east the other west--would take ten +minutes before it reached the point to which you had obtained. At +last we reached the top of the wavy ascent, passed through a mile or +two of moory wilderness, in which we met a long string of women +bringing home creels of peats, and then in the early sunset descended +the long hill-side which led to Kilmuir. Driving along we had +Mugstot pointed out to us--a plain white dwelling on our left in +which Macdonald lived after he had vacated Duntulm, and while +Armadale was yet building. About this place, too, the Parliamentary +Road stopped. No longer could we drive along smoothly as on an +English turnpike. The pathway now was narrow and stony, and the +dog-cart bumped and jolted in a most distressing manner. During the +last hour, too, the scenery had changed its character. We were no +longer descending a hill-side on which the afternoon sun shone +pleasantly. Our path still lay along the sea, but above us were high +cliffs with great boulders lying at their feet; beneath us, and +sloping down to the sea level, boulders lay piled on each other, and +against these the making tide seethed and fretted. The sun was +setting on the Minch, and the irregular purple outline of Harris was +distinctly visible on the horizon. For some time back we had seen no +house, nor had our path been crossed by a single human being. The +solitariness and desolation of the scenery affected one. Everything +around was unfamiliar and portentous. The road on which we drove was +like a road in the "Faery Queen," along which a knight, the sunset +dancing on his armour, might prick in search of perilous adventure. +The chin of the sun now rested on the Minch, the overhanging cliffs +were rosy, and the rocky road began to seem interminable. At last +there was a sudden turn, and there, on a little promontory, with +shattered wall and loophole against the red light, stood Duntulm--the +castle of all others that I most wished to see. + +[Sidenote: A hospitable reception.] + +Going down the rocky road, the uncomfortable idea crept into our +minds that Duntulm, to whom we bore a letter of introduction from the +Landlord, might--like the owner of Kingsburgh--have gone to the south +on business. We could hardly have returned to Uig that night, and +this thought made yet more rigid the wall of rosy cliff above us, and +yet more dreary the seethe of the Minch amongst the broken boulders +beneath. As suspense was worse than certainty, we urged on the Uig +horse, and in a short time, with the broken castle behind us, drew up +at the house. Duntulm had seen us coming, and when we alighted he +was at the door, his face hospitable as a fire in winter time, and +his outstretched hand the best evidence of good wishes. In a moment +the bald red cliffs and the homeless seething of the Minch among the +broken stones faded out of my memory. We mentioned our names, and +proffered the letter of introduction. "There is no need," said he, +as he thrust the epistle into his pocket, "civility before ceremony. +Having come you are of course my guests. Come in. The letter will +tell me who you are soon enough." And so we were carried into the +little parlour till our bedrooms were got ready, and then we went +up-stairs, washed our hands and faces, changed our clothes, and came +down for tea. When we entered the parlour, the tea-urn was hissing +on the table, and with our host sat a photographer--bearded as all +artists at the present day are--who had been engaged during the +afternoon on Flora Macdonald's grave. + +When tea was over we were carried into another room where were +materials placed for the brewing of punch. Through the window I +beheld spectral castle, the sea on which the light was dying, the +purple fringe of Harris on the horizon. And seated there, in the +remotest corner of Skye, amongst people whom I had never before seen, +girt by walls of cliffs and the sounding sea, in a region, too, in +which there was no proper night, I confess to have been conscious of +a pleasant feeling of strangeness, of removal from all customary +conditions of thought and locality, which I like at times to recall +and enjoy over again. Into this feeling the strange country through +which I had that day driven, the strange room in which I sat, the +strange faces surrounding me, the strange talk, all entered; yet I am +almost certain that it was heightened to no inconsiderable extent by +the peculiar spirit bottle on the table. This bottle was pale green +in colour, was composed of two hollow hemispheres like a sand-glass, +the mouthpiece surmounting the upper hemisphere of course; and from +the upper hemisphere to the lower sprang four hollow arms, through +which the liquor coursed, giving the bottle a curiously square +appearance. I had never seen such a bottle before, and I suppose +till I go back to Duntulm I am not likely to see its like. Its shape +was peculiar, and that peculiarity dove-tailed into the peculiarity +of everything else. We sat there till the light had died out on the +sea, and the cloud had come down on Harris, and then the candles were +brought in. + +[Sidenote: Donald Gorm.] + +But the broken tower of Duntulm still abode in my memory, and I began +to make inquiries concerning it. I was told that it was long the +seat of the Macdonalds, but that after the family had been driven out +of it by the ghost of Donald Gorm, they removed to Mugstot. "Donald +Gorm!" I said; "were they driven out by the restless spirit of the +Donald who flouted Macleod at his own table at Dunvegan--who, when he +was asked to show his dirk, held it up in the torch-light in the face +of Macleod and of his gentlemen, with the exclamation, 'Here it is, +Macleod of Dunvegan, and in the best hand for pushing it home in the +four and twenty islands of the Hebrides?'" "They were driven away by +the spirit of the same Donald," said our host. "That chieftain had +been stricken by a lingering yet mortal illness, and removed to +Edinburgh, and placed himself under the care of the leeches there. +His body lay on a sick-bed in Edinburgh, but his spirit roamed about +the passages and galleries of the castle. The people heard the +noises, and the slamming of doors, and the waving of tartans on the +staircases, and did not know that it was the spirit of their sick +master that troubled them. It was found out, however. The servants +were frightened out of their wits by the unearthly voices, and the +sounds of weeping, the waving of shadowy tartans, and the wringing of +shadowy hands, and declared that they would no longer abide in the +castle. At last a young man, from Kilmuir over there, said that if +they would provide him with a sword and a Bible, and plenty to eat +and drink, he would sit up in the hall all night and speak to the +apparition. His offer was accepted, and he sat down to supper in the +great hall with his sword drawn and his Bible open on the table +before him. At midnight he heard doors open and close, and the sound +of footsteps on the stairs, and before he knew where he was there was +Donald Gorm, dressed in tartan as if for feast or battle, standing on +the floor and looking at him. 'What do you want with me, Donald?' +said the young man. 'I was in Edinburgh last night,' said the +spirit, 'and I am in my own castle to-night. Don't be afraid, man; +there is more force in the little pebble which you chuck away from +you with your finger and thumb than there is in my entire body of +strength. Tell Donald Gorm Og--("Donald's son, you know," +interpolated the photographer)--tell Donald Gorm Og to stand up for +the right against might, to be generous to the multitude, to have a +charitable hand stretched out to the poor. Woe's me! woe's me! I +have spoken to a mortal, and must leave the castle to-night,' and so +the ghost of Donald vanished, and the young man was left sitting in +the hall alone. Donald died in Edinburgh and was buried there; but +after his death, as during his life, his spirit walked about here +until the family was compelled to leave. It was a fine place once, +but it has been crumbling away year by year, and is now broken and +hollow like a witch's tooth. The story I have told you is devoutly +believed by all the fishermen, herdsmen, and milkmaids in the +neighbourhood. I think Mr Maciver, the clergyman at Kilmuir, is the +only person in the neighbourhood who has no faith in it." This ghost +story the photographer capped by another, and when that was finished +we went to bed. + +[Sidenote: Flora Macdonald's grave.] + +Next morning we went out to inspect the old castle, and found it a +mere shell. Compared with its appearance the night before, when it +stood in relief against the red sky, it was strangely unimpressive; a +fragment of a tower and a portion of flanking wall stood erect; there +were traces of building down on the slope near the sea, but all the +rest was a mere rubble of fallen masonry. It had been despoiled in +every way; the elements had worn and battered it, the people of the +district had for years back made it a quarry, and built out of it +dwellings, out-houses, and dikes--making the past serve the purposes +of the present. Sheep destined for the London market were cropping +the herbage around its base--suggesting curious comparisons, and +bringing into keener contrast antiquity and to-day. While we were +loitering about the ruins the photographer came up, and under his +guidance we went to visit Kilmuir churchyard, in which Flora +Macdonald rests. We went along the stony road down which we had +driven the night previously--the cliffs lately so rosy, gray enough +now, and the seethe of the fresh sea amongst the boulders and shingle +beneath rather exhilarating than otherwise. After a walk of about a +couple of miles we left the road, climbed up a grassy ascent, and +found the churchyard there, enclosed by a low stone wall. Everything +was in hideous disrepair. The gate was open, the tomb-stones were +broken and defaced, and above the grave of the heroine nettles were +growing more luxuriously than any crop I had yet had the good fortune +to behold in the island. Skye has only one historical grave to +dress--and she leaves it so. On expressing our surprise to the +photographer, he told us that a London sculptor passing that way, and +whose heart burned within him at the sight, had offered at several +dinner-tables in the district to execute a bronze medallion of the +famous lady, gratis, provided his guests would undertake to have it +properly placed, and to a have fitting inscription carved upon the +pedestal. "The proposal was made, I know," said the photographer, +"for the sculptor told me about it himself. His proposal has not +been taken up, nor is it likely to be taken up now. The country +which treats the grave of a heroine after that fashion is not worthy +to have a heroine. Still,"--he went eyeing the place critically, +with his head a little to one side--"it makes a picturesque +photograph as it stands--perhaps better than if it were neat and +tidy." We plucked a nettle from the grave and then returned to +Duntulm to breakfast. + +[Sidenote: Quirang.] + +Shortly after breakfast our dog-cart was at the door, and followed by +Duntulm and the photographer in a similar machine, we were on our way +to Quirang. A drive of a couple of hours brought us to the base of +the singular mountain. Tilting our vehicles, leaving the horses to +roam about picking the short grass, and carrying with us materials +for luncheon on the crest, we began the ascent. The day was fine, +the sky cloudless, and in an hour we were toiling past the rocky +spire of the needle, and in fifteen minutes thereafter, we reached +the flat green plateau on the top. Here we lunched and sang songs, +and made mock heroic speeches in proposing each other's health. I +had ascended the Quirang before in rain, and wind, and vapour, and +could hardly recognise it now under the different atmospherical +conditions. Then every stone was slippery, every runnel a torrent, +the top of the needle lost in the flying mist, everything looking +spectral, weird, and abnormal. On the present occasion, we saw it in +fair sunlight; and what the basalt columns, the shattered precipices, +the projecting spiry rocks lost in terror they gained in beauty. +Reclining on the soft green grass--strange to find grass so girdled +by fantastic crags--we had, through fissures and the rents of ancient +earthquake, the loveliest peeps of the map-like under world swathed +in faint sea azure. An hour, perhaps, we lay there; and then began +the long descent. When we reached the dog-carts we exchanged a +parting cup, and then Duntulm and the photographer returned home, and +we hied on to Uig. + +Arriving at Uig we dined--the bill of fare identical with that on the +preceding day; the hard-boiled eggs, only a shade harder boiled +perhaps; and then having settled with the kilted landlord--the charge +wondrously moderate--we got out our own horse, and with the setting +sun making splendid the Minch behind us, we started for Portree. It +was eleven P.M. before we reached the little town, the moon was +shining clearly, a stray candle or two twinkling in the houses, and +when we reached the hotel door the building was lighted up--it had +been a fair day, the prices for cattle were good, and over whisky +punch farmer and drover were fraternising. + +Next morning, in the soft sky was the wild outline of the Cuchullins, +with which we were again to make acquaintance. Somehow these hills +never weary, you never become familiar with them, intimacy can no +more stale them than it could the beauty of Cleopatra. From the +hotel door I regarded them with as much interest as when, from the +deck of the steamer off Ardnamurchan ten years ago, I first beheld +them with their clouds on the horizon. While at breakfast in the +public room, farmer and drover dropped in--the more fiery-throated +drinking pale ale instead of tea. After breakfast we were again in +the dog-cart driving leisurely toward Sligachan--the wonderful +mountains beyond gradually losing tenderness of morning hue and +growing worn and hoary, standing with sharper edges against the +light, becoming rough with rocky knob and buttress, and grayly +wrinkled with ravines. When we reached the inn we found it full of +company, bells continually jangling, half a dozen machines at the +door, and a party of gentlemen in knickerbockers starting with rods +and fishing-baskets. Here we returned the dog-cart to the landlord, +and began to address ourselves to the desolate glen stretching +between the inn and Camasunary. + +[Sidenote: Glen Sligachan.] + +In Glen Sligachan, although you lose sight of the Cuchullins proper, +you are surrounded by their outlying and far-radiating spurs. The +glen is some eight miles in length, and is wild and desolate beyond +conception. Walking along, too, the reticulations of the hills are +picked out with that pale greenish tint, which I had noted as +characteristic of the hills seen from Lord Macdonald's deer forest, +and which gives one the idea of the overflow of chemical fluids, of +metallic corrosions and discolorations. There is no proper path, and +you walk in the loose debris of torrents; and in Glen Sligachan, as +in many other parts of Skye, the scenery curiously repels you, and +drives you in on yourself. You have a quickened sense of your own +individuality. The enormous bulks, their gradual recedings to +invisible crests, their utter movelessness, their austere silence, +daunt you. You are conscious of their presence, and you hardly care +to speak lest you be overheard. You can't laugh. You would not +crack a joke for the world. Glen Sligachan would be the place to do +a little bit of self-examination in. There you would have a sense of +your own meannesses, selfishnesses, paltry evasions of truth and +duty, and find out what a shabby fellow you at heart are--and looking +up to your silent father-confessors, you would find no mercy in their +grim faces. I do not know what effect mountains have on the people +who live habitually amongst them, but the stranger they make serious +and grave at heart. Through this glen we trudged silently enough, +and when two-thirds of the distance had been accomplished, it was +with a feeling of relief that a lake was descried ahead. The sight +of anything mobile, of an element that could glitter and dimple and +dance, took away from the sense of the stony eternities, gray and +wrinkled as with the traces of long-forgotten passion, listening for +ever, dumb for ever. After rounding the lake, which plashed merrily +on its margin, and clambering over a long waste of boulder, we saw as +we ascended a low flank of Blaavin, the Bay of Camasunary, the house, +and the very boat which M'Ian had borrowed on the day we went to +visit Loch Coruisk, below us. The tobacco-less man was nowhere +visible, and I marvelled whether his messenger had yet returned from +Broadford. + +[Sidenote: Kilmaree.] + +When we got to the top of the hill we had to descend the slope to +Kilmaree; and as on my return from Loch Coruisk I had come down +pleasantly under the guidance of M'Ian, I fancied, naturally enough, +that I could act as guide on the present occasion. But there is a +knack in descending hills as there is in everything else. First of +all, I lost the narrow footpath at the top; then as we were bound to +reach Loch Eishart, and as Loch Eishart lay below us distinctly +visible, I led directly for it; but somehow we were getting +continually on the wrong bank of a pestilent stream, which, through +chasm and ravine, found its way to the sea by apparently the most +circuitous of courses. This stream we forded a dozen times at the +least, and sometimes in imminent danger of a ducking. It was now +late in the afternoon, and the weather had changed. The tops of the +hills began to be lost in mist, and long lines of sea fog to creep +along the lower grounds. There was at intervals a slow drizzle of +rain. Fetching a cunning circuit, as I supposed, we found the +inevitable stream again in our front, and got across it with +difficulty--happily for the last time. After we had proceeded about +a hundred yards we came upon the lost pathway, and in fifteen minutes +thereafter we were standing upon the shore of the Loch watching the +flying scud of Atlantic mist, and the green waves rolling underneath +with their white caps on. + +[Sidenote: The wood-choppers.] + +The question now arose--By what means could we reach Mr M'Ian? There +was no ferry at Kilmaree, but sundry boats were drawn up on the +shore, and a couple were bobbing on the restless water at the stony +pier. There were the boats certainly enough, but where were the +boatmen? In the neighbourhood men could surely be obtained who, for +a consideration, would take us across. We directed our steps to the +lodge at Kilmaree, which seemed untenanted, and after some little +trouble penetrated into the region of the offices and outhouses. +Here we found a couple of men chopping sticks, and to them my +companion--who as a man of business and learned in the law was the +spokesman on such occasions--addressed himself. "You want to go over +to Mr M'Ian's to-night?" said the elder, desisting from his task, and +standing up with his axe in his hand. "Yes, we are particularly +anxious to get across. Can you take us?" "I don't know; you see we +are no ferrymen, an' if we take you across we must leave our work." +"Of course you must; but we'll pay you for your trouble." Here the +two men exchanged a sentence or two of Gaelic, and then the elder +wood-chopper asked, "Do you know Mr M'Ian?" "Oh, yes, we know him +very well." "Does he expect you this night?" "No; but we are +anxious to see him, and he will be glad to see us." "I'm no sure we +can take you across," said the man hesitatingly; "you see the master +is from home, an' the wind is rising, an' we're no ferrymen, an' +we'll need to borrow a boat, an'"--here he hesitated still more--"it +would cost you something." "Of course it will. What will you +expect." "Wad you think ten shillings too much?" "No, we'll give +you ten shillings," said Fellowes, clinching the bargain. "And," +said I, coming in like a swift charge of lancers on a +half-disorganised battalion, and making victory complete, "we'll give +you a glass of spirits at the house, too, when you get across." The +men then threw down their axes, put on their jackets, which hung on +nails on the walls, and talking busily in Gaelic, led the way to the +little stony pier where the boats were moored. + +[Sidenote: On Loch Eishart.] + +"There's a gale rising," said one of the men, as he pulled in a boat +to the pier by a rope, "an' it'll no be easy taking you across, and +still harder to get back ourselves." As, however, to this expression +of opinion we made no response, the men busied themselves with +getting the boat to rights, testing the rollock pins, rolling in +stones for ballast, examining the sail and ropes, and such like +matters. In a short time we took our seats, and then the men pulled +slowly out to sea in the opposite direction from Mr M'Ian's house, in +order to catch the wind, which was blowing freshly inland. The +course of the boat was then changed, the oars shipped, the sail +shaken out, and away we went through the green seas with long +lurches, the foam gathering up high at the bows, hissing along the +sides, and forming a long white wake behind. The elder man sat with +the rope of the sail in his hand, and taking a shrewd squint at the +weather at intervals. When not so engaged, he was disposed to be +talkative. "He's a fine gentleman, Mr M'Ian, a vera fine gentleman; +an' vera good to the poor." "I understand," I said, "that he is the +most generous of mankind." "He is that; he never lets a poor man go +past his door without a meal. Maybe, sir, ye'll be a friend o' his?" +"Yes, both of us are friends of his, and friends of his son's too." +"Maybe ye'll be a relation of his?--he has many relations in the +south country." "No," I said, "no relation, only a friend. Do you +smoke?" "Oh, yes, but I have forgot my spleuchan." "I can provide +you with tobacco," I said, and so when his pipe was lighted he became +silent. + +[Sidenote: Mr M'Ian and the boatmen.] + +We were now two-thirds across, and the white watery mists hung low on +the familiar coast as we approached. Gradually the well-known +objects became defined in the evening light--the clumps of +birch-wood, the huts seated on the shore, the house, the cliffs +behind on which the clouds lay half-way down. When we drew near the +stony quay we noticed that we were the subjects of considerable +speculation. It was but seldom that a boat stood across from the +Strathaird coast, and by our glass we could see a group of the +men-servants standing at the corner of the black kitchen watching our +movements, and Mr M'Ian himself coming out with his telescope. When +the keel grated on the pebbles we got out. "Now, my men," said +Fellowes, "come up to the house and have your promised glass of +spirits!" To our astonishment the men declined; they could not wait, +they were going back immediately. "But you must come," said my +companion, who acted as purser, "for before I can pay you I must get +Mr M'Ian to change me a sovereign. Come along." We climbed up to +the house, and were welcomed by Mr M'Ian, father and son, in the +ivy-covered porch. "By the way," said Fellowes, "I wish you to +change me a sovereign, as we have ten shillings to pay these men." +"Did the scoundrels charge that sum for bringing you over? It's +extortion; five shillings is quite enough. Let me go and speak to +them." "But," remonstrated Fellowes, "we don't consider the charge +immoderate: we made the bargain with them: and so anxious were we to +be here that we would willingly have paid them double." "Don't talk +to me," cried M'Ian, as he put on his hat and seized his stick. +"Why, you rascals, did you charge these gentlemen ten shillings for +taking them across the Loch? You know you are well enough paid if +you get half." "Sir," said the elder man respectfully, while both +touched their bonnets, "we'll just take what you please; just +anything you like, Mr M'Ian." "Don't you see the mischief you do and +the discredit you bring on the country by this kind of thing? Every +summer the big lying blackguard _Times_ is crammed with complaints of +tourists who have been cheated by you and the like of you--although I +don't believe half the stories. These fools"--here the old gentleman +made reference to us by a rapid backward chuck of his thumb--"may go +home to the south and write to the newspapers about you." "The +bargain the gentlemen made was ten shillings," said the man, "but if +you think we have asked too much we'll take six. But it's for your +sake we'll take it, not for theirs." "They're honest fellows these," +cried the old gentleman, as he poured the coins into the palm of the +elder man; "Alick, bring them out a dram." The dram, prefaced by a +word or two of Gaelic, to which Mr M'Ian nodded, was duly swallowed, +and the men, touching their bonnets, descended to their boat. The +old gentleman led the way into the house, and we had no sooner +reached the porch than my companion remembered that he had left +something, and ran down to fetch it. He returned in a little while, +and in the course of the evening he gave me to understand that he had +seen the boatmen, and fully implemented his promise. + +[Sidenote: Lamb-branding.] + +The wind had changed during the night, and next morning broke forth +gloriously--not a speck of vapour on the Cuchullins; the long stretch +of Strathaird wonderfully distinct; the Loch bright in sunlight. +When we got down to breakfast we found Mr M'Ian alone. His son, he +said, had been on the hill since four o'clock in the morning +gathering the lambs together, and that about noon he and his +assistants would be branding them at the fank. When breakfast was +over,--Fellowes, having letters to write, remained in-doors,--I and +the old gentleman went out. We went up the glen, and as we drew near +the fank we saw a number of men standing about, their plaids thrown +on the turfen walls, with sheep-dogs couched thereupon; a thick +column of peat-smoke rising up, smelt easily at the distance of half +a mile; no sheep were visible, but the air was filled with +bleatings,--undulating with the clear plaintive trebles of +innumerable ewes, and the hoarser _baa_ of tups. When we arrived we +found the narrow chambers and compartments at one end of the fank +crowded with lambs, so closely wedged together that they could hardly +move, and between these chambers and compartments temporary barriers +erected, so that no animal could pass from one to the other. The +shepherds must have had severe work of it that morning. It was as +yet only eleven o'clock, and since early dawn they and their dogs had +coursed over an area of ten miles, sweeping every hill face, visiting +every glen, and driving down rills of sheep toward this central spot. +Having got the animals down, the business of assortment began. The +most perfect ewes--destined to be the mothers of the next brood of +lambs on the farm--were placed in one chamber; the second best, whose +fate it was to be sold at Inverness, were placed in a congeries of +compartments, the one opening into the other; the inferior +qualities--_shots_, as they are technically called--occupied a place +by themselves: these also to be sold at Inverness, but at lower +prices than the others. The fank is a large square enclosure; the +compartments into which the bleating flocks were huddled occupied +about one half of the walled-in space, the remainder being perfectly +vacant. One of the compartments opened into this space, but a +temporary barrier prevented all egress. Just at the mouth of this +barrier we could see the white ashes and the dull orange glow of the +peat-fire in which some half-dozen branding irons were heating. When +everything was prepared two or three men entered into this open +space. One took his seat on a large smooth stone by the side of the +peat-fire, a second vaulted into the struggling mass of heads and +fleeces, a third opened the barrier slightly, lugged out a struggling +lamb by the horns, and consigned it to the care of the man seated on +the smooth stone. This worthy got the animal dexterously between his +legs, so that it was unable to struggle, laid its head down on his +thigh, seized from the orange glow of the smouldering peat-fire one +of the red-hot heating irons, and with a hiss, and a slight curl of +smoke, drew it in a diagonal direction across its nose. Before the +animal was sufficiently branded the iron had to be applied twice or +thrice. It was then released, and trotted bleating into the open +space, perhaps making a curious bound on the way as if in bravado, or +shaking its head hurriedly as if snuff had been thrown into its eyes. +All day this branding goes on. The peat-fire is replenished when +needed; another man takes his seat on the smooth stone; by two +o'clock a string of women bring up dinner from the house, and all the +while, young M'Ian sits on the turfen wall, note-book in hand, +setting down the number of the lambs and their respective qualities. +Every farmer has his own peculiar brand, and by it he can identify a +member of his stock if it should go astray. The brand is to the +farmer what a trade mark is to a manufacturer. These brands are +familiar to the drovers even as the brands of wine and cigars are +familiar to the connoisseurs in these articles. The operation looks +a cruel one, but it is not perfectly clear that the sheep suffer much +under it. While under the iron they are perfectly quiet,--they +neither bleat nor struggle, and when they get off they make no sign +of discomfort save the high bound or the restless shake of the head +already mentioned--if indeed these are signs of discomfort--a +conclusion which no sheep farmer will in anywise allow. In a minute +or so they are cropping herbage in the open space of the fank, or if +the day is warm, lying down in the cool shadows of the walls as +composedly as if nothing had happened. + +Leaning against the fank walls we looked on for about an hour, by +which time a couple of hundred lambs had been branded, and then we +went up the glen to inspect a mare and foal of which Mr M'Ian was +specially proud. Returning in the direction of the house, the old +gentleman pointed out what trenching had been done, what walls had +been built in my absence, and showed me on the other side of the +stream what brushwood he meant to clear next spring for potatoes, +what fields he would give to the people for their crops, what fields +he would reserve for his own use. Flowing on in this way with scheme +and petty detail of farm work, he suddenly turned round on me with a +queer look in his face. "Isn't it odd that a fellow like me, +standing on the brink of the grave, should go pottering about day +after day thinking of turnips and oats, tups and ewes, cows and +foals? The chances are that the oats I sow I shall never live to +reap--that I shall be gone before the blossom comes on my potatoes." + +[Sidenote: Mr M'Ian on death.] + +The strangeness of it had often struck me before, but I said nothing. + +"I suppose it is best that I should take an interest in these +things," went on the old gentleman. "Death is so near me that I can +hear him as if it were through a crazy partition. I know he is +there. I can hear him moving about continually. My interest in the +farm is the partition that divides us. If it were away I should be +with him face to face." + +Mr M'Ian was perhaps the oldest man in the island, and he did not +dislike talking about his advanced age. A man at fifty-five, +perhaps, wishes to be considered younger than he really is. The man +above ninety has outlived that vanity. He is usually as proud of the +years he has numbered as the commander of the battles he has won, or +the millionaire of the wealth he has acquired. In respect of his +great age, such a one is singular amongst his fellows. After a +little pause Mr M'Ian flowed on: + +"I remember very well the night the century came in. My regiment was +then lying in the town of Galway in Ireland. We were all at supper +that evening at the quarters of Major M'Manus, our commanding +officer. Very merry we were, singing songs and toasting the belles +we knew. Well, when twelve o'clock struck the major rose and +proposed in a flowing bowl the health of the stranger--the nineteenth +century--coupled with the hope that it would be a better century than +the other. I'm not sure that it has been a whit better, so far at +least as it has gone. For thirty years I have been the sole survivor +of that merry table." + +"Sixty-five years is a long time to look back, Mr M'Ian." + +The old gentleman walked on laughing to himself. "What fools men +are--doctors especially! I was very ill shortly after with a liver +complaint, and was sent to Edinburgh to consult the great doctors and +professors there. They told me I was dying; that I had not many +months to live. The fools! they are dead, their sons are dead, and +here I am, able to go about yet. I suppose they thought that I would +take their stuffs." + +By this time we had reached the house. Mr M'Ian left his white hat +and staff in the porch: he then went to the cupboard and took out a +small spirit case in which he kept bitters cunningly compounded. He +gave Fellowes and myself--Fellowes had finished his letters by this +time--a tiny glassful, took the same amount himself. We then all +went out and sat down on a rocky knoll near the house which looked +seaward, and talked about Sir John Moore and Wellington till dinner +time. + +[Sidenote: Departure from Mr M'Ian's.] + +We stayed with the M'Ians for a couple of days, and on the third we +drove over to Ardvasar to catch the steamer there that afternoon on +its way to Portree. + +As we drove slowly up the glen, my companion said, "That old +gentleman is to my mind worth Blaavin, Coruisk, Glen Sligachan, and +all the rest of it. In his own way he is just as picturesque and +strange as they are. When he goes, the island will have lost one of +its peculiar charms." + +"He is a thorough Islesman," said I; "and for him Blaavin forms as +appropriate a background as the desert for the Arab, or the prairie +for the Pawnee Indian. When he dies it will be like the dying of the +last eagle. He is about the end of the old stock. The younger +generation of Skyemen will never be like their fathers. They have +more general information than their elders, they have fewer +prejudices, they are more amenable to advice, much less stubborn and +self-willed--but they are by comparison characterless. In a few +years, when they will have the island in their own hands, better +sheep will be produced I have no doubt, finer qualities of wool will +be sent south, grand hotels will be erected here and there--but for +all that Skye will have become tame: it will have lost that +unpurchaseable something--human character; and will resemble Blaavin +shorn of its mist-wreaths." + +[Sidenote: Armadale Castle.] + +When we reached the top of the glen, and dropped down on the +Parliamentary Road near the lake of water lilies, we held our way to +the right, toward the point of Sleat. We passed the farm of Knock, +the white outhouses, the church and school-house, the old castle on +the shore, and driving along, we could pleasantly depasture our eyes +on the cultivated ground, with a picturesque hut perched here and +there; the towering masses of the Knoydart hills and the Sound of +Sleat between. Sleat is the best wooded, the sunniest, and most +carefully cultivated portion of the island; and passing along the +road the traveller is struck with signs of blithe industry and +contentment. As you draw near Armadale Castle you can hardly believe +that you are in Skye at all. The hedges are as trim as English +hedges, the larch plantations which cover the faces of the low hills +that look towards the sea are not to be surpassed by any larch +plantations in the country. The Armadale home farm is a model of +neatness, the Armadale porter-lodges are neat and white; and when, +through openings of really noble trees, you obtain a glimpse of the +castle itself, a handsome modern-looking building rising from sweeps +of closely-shaven lawn, you find it hard to believe that you are +within a few miles of the moory desolation that stretches between +Isle Oronsay and Broadford. Great lords and great seats, independent +of the food they provide the imagination, are of the highest +practical uses to a country. From far Duntulm Macdonald has come +here and settled, and around him to their very tops the stony hills +laugh in green. Great is the power of gold. Drop a sovereign into +the hat of the mendicant seated by the wayside and into his face you +bring a pleasant light. Bestow on land what gold can purchase, +Labour, and of the stoniest aridity you make an emerald. + +[Sidenote: Waiting the steamer.] + +Ardvasar is situated about the distance of a mile from the Armadale +plantations, and counts perhaps some twenty houses. A plain inn +stands by the wayside, where refreshments may be procured; there is a +merchant's shop filled with goods of the most miscellaneous +description; in this little place also resides a most important +personage--the agent of the Messrs Hutcheson, who is learned in the +comings and goings of the steamers. On our arrival we learned from +the agent that the steamer on the present occasion would be unusually +late, as she had not yet been sighted between Ardnamurchan and Eig. +In all probability she would not be off Ardvasar till ten P.M. It is +difficult to kill time anywhere; but at this little Skye clachan it +is more difficult than almost anywhere else. We fed the horse, and +returned it and the dog-cart to Mr M'Ian. We sat in the inn and +looked aimlessly out of the window; we walked along the ravine, and +saw the stream sleeping in brown pools, and then hurrying on in tiny +waterfalls; we watched the young barbarians at play in the wide green +in front of the houses; we lounged in the merchant's shop; we climbed +to the top of eminences and looked seaward, and imagined fondly that +we beheld a streak of steamer smoke on the horizon. The afternoon +wore away, and then we had tea at the inn. By this the steamer had +been visible for some little time, and had gone in to Eig. After tea +we carried our traps down to the stony pier and placed them in the +boat which would convey us to the steamer when she lay to in the bay. +Thereafter we spent an hour in watching men blasting a huge rock in a +quarry close at hand. We saw the train laid and lighted, the men +scuttling off, and then there was a dull report, and the huge rock +tumbled quietly over in ruins. When we got back to the pier, +passengers were gathering: drovers with their dogs--ancient women in +scarlet plaids and white caps, going on to Balmacara or Kyle--a +sailor, fresh from China, dressed in his best clothes, with a +slate-coloured parrot in a wicker cage, which he was conveying to +some young people at Broadford. On the stony pier we waited for a +considerable time, and then Mr Hutcheson's agent, accompanied by some +half dozen men, came down in a hurry; into the boat we were all +bundled, drovers, dogs, ancient women, sailor, parrot, and all, the +boat shoved off, the agent stood up in the bow, the men bent to their +oars, and by the time we were twenty boat-lengths from the pier the +_Clansman_ had slid into the bay opposite the castle and lay to, +letting off volumes of noisy steam. + +[Sidenote: The Clansman.] + +When the summer night was closing the _Clansman_ steamed out of +Armadale Bay. Two or three ladies were yet visible on the deck. +Wrapped in their plaids, and with their dogs around them, drovers +were smoking amidships; sportsmen in knickerbockers were smoking on +the hurricane deck; and from the steerage came at intervals a burst +of canine thunder from the leashes of pointers and setters +congregated there. As the night fell the air grew cold, the last +lady disappeared, the sportsmen withdrew from their airy perches, +amidships the pipe of the drover became a point of intense red. In +the lighted cabin gentlemen were drinking whisky punch, and +discussing, as their moods went, politics, the weather, the +fluctuations in the price of stock, and the condition of grouse. +Among these we sat; and my companion fell into conversation with a +young man of an excited manner and a restless eye. I could see at a +glance that he belonged to the same class as my tobacco-less friend +of Glen Sligachan. On Fellowes he bestowed his entire biography, +made known to him the name of his family--which was, by the way, a +noble one--volunteered the information that he had served in the +Mediterranean squadron, that he had been tried by a court martial for +a misdemeanour of which he was entirely guiltless, and had through +the testimony of nefarious witnesses been dismissed the service. +While all this talk was going on the steward and his assistants had +swept away the glasses from the saloon table, and from the oddest +corners and receptacles were now drawing out pillows, sheets, and +blankets. In a trice everything became something else; the sofas of +the saloon became beds, the tables of the saloon became beds, beds +were spread on the saloon floor, beds were extemporised near the +cabin windows. When the transformation had been completed, and +several of the passengers had coiled themselves comfortably in their +blankets, the remainder struggling with their boots, or in various +stages of dishabille, the ex-naval man suddenly called out "Steward!" + +[Sidenote: The ex-naval man.] + +That functionary looked in at the saloon door in an instant. + +"Bring me a glass of brandy and water." + +"It's quite impossible, Mr ----," said the steward; "the spirit-room +is shut for the night. Besides, you have had a dozen glasses of +brandy and water to-day already. You had better go to bed, sir." + +"Didn't I tell you," said the ex-naval man, addressing Fellowes, who +had by this time got his coat and vest off; "didn't I tell you that +the whole world is in a conspiracy against me? It makes a dead set +at me. That fellow now is as great a foe of mine as was the +commodore at Malta." + +Fellowes made no reply, and got into bed. I followed his example. +The ex-naval man sat gloomily alone for a while, and then with the +assistance of the steward he undressed and clambered into a cool +berth beside one of the cabin windows. Thereafter the lights were +turned low. + +I could not sleep, however; the stifling air of the place, in which +there lived a faint odour of hot brandy and water, and the constant +throb throb of the engines, kept me awake. I turned from one side to +the other, till at last my attention was attracted by the movements +of my strange friend opposite. He raised his head stealthily and +took covert survey of the saloon; then he leant on his elbow; then he +sat upright in his berth. That feat accomplished, he began to pour +forth to some imaginary auditor the story of his wrongs. + +He had not gone on long when a white night-capped head bounced up in +a far corner of the dim saloon. "Will you be good enough," said the +pale apparition in a severe voice, "to go to sleep? It's monstrous, +sir, that you should disturb gentlemen at this hour of the night by +your nonsensical speeches." + +At the sight and the voice the ex-naval man sank into his berth as +suddenly as an alarmed beaver sinks into his dam, and there was +silence for a time. + +Shortly, from the berth, I saw the ex-naval man's head rising as +stealthily as the head of a blackcock above a bunch of rushes. Again +he sat up in bed, and again to the same invisible auditor he confided +his peculiar griefs. + +"Confound you, sir." "What do you mean, sir?" and at the half-dozen +white apparitions confronting him the ex-naval man again dived. + +In about ten minutes the head opposite began again to stir. Never +from ambush did Indian warrior rise more noiselessly than did the +ex-naval man from his blankets. He paused for a little on his elbow, +looked about him cautiously, got into a sitting position, and began a +third harangue. + +"What the devil!" "This is intolerable!" "Steward, steward!" "Send +the madman on deck;" and the saloon rose _en masse_ against the +disturber of its rest. The steward came running in at the outcry, +but the ex-naval man had ducked under like a shot, and was snoring +away in simulated slumber as if he had been the Seven Sleepers rolled +into one. + +That night he disturbed our rest no more, and shortly after I fell +asleep. + +A fierce trampling on deck, and the noise of the crane hoisting the +cargo from the deep recesses of the hold awoke me. I dressed and +went above. The punctual sun was up and at his work. We were off a +strip of sandy beach, with a row of white houses stretching along it, +and with low rocky hills behind the houses. Some half-dozen +deeply-laden shore boats were leaving the side of the steamer. Then +a cow was brought forward, a door was opened in the bulwarks, and the +animal quietly shoved out. Crummie disappeared with a considerable +plunge, and came to the surface somewhat scant of breath, and with +her mind in a state of utter bewilderment. A boat was in readiness; +by a deft hand a coil of rope was fastened around the horns, the +rowers bent to their task, and Crummie was towed ashore in triumph, +and on reaching it seemed nothing the worse of her unexpected plunge +forth. + +The noisy steam was then shut off; from the moving paddles great +belts of pale-green foam rushed out and died away far astern; the +strip of beach, the white houses with the low rocky hills behind, +began to disappear, and the steamer stood directly for Portree, which +place was reached in time for breakfast. We then drove to the +Landlord's, and on alighting I found my friend John Penruddock +marching up and down on the gravel in front of the house. + + + + +_JOHN PENRUDDOCK._ + +Penruddock was rather a hero of mine. He was as tall, muscular, and +broad-shouldered as the men whom Mr Kingsley delights to paint, and +his heart was as tender as his head was shrewd. A loquacious knave +could not take him in, and from his door a beggar would not be sent +empty away. The pressure of his mighty hand when he met you gave you +some idea of what the clenched fist would be with its iron ridge of +knuckles. He was the healthiest-minded man I have ever met in my +walk through life. He was strong yet gentle, pious yet without the +slightest tincture of cant or dogmatism; and his mind was no more +infested with megrims, or vanity, or hypochondriasis, or +sentimentality, than the wind-swept sky of June with vapours. He was +loyal and affectionate to the backbone: he stuck to his friends to +the last. Pen was like the run of ordinary mortals while your day of +prosperity remained, but when your night of difficulty fell he came +out like a lighthouse, and sent you rays of encouragement and help. + +[Sidenote: John Penruddock.] + +Pen had farms in Ireland as well as in Skye, and it was when on a +visit to him in Ulster some years since that I became acquainted with +his homely but enduring merits. For years I had not seen such a man. +There was a reality and honest stuff in him, which in living with him +and watching his daily goings on revealed itself hour by hour, quite +new to me. The people I had been accustomed to meet, talk with, live +with, were different. The tendency of each of these was towards art +in one form or other. And there was a certain sadness somehow in the +contemplation of them. They fought and strove bravely; but like the +Old Guard at Waterloo, it was brave fighting on a lost field. After +years of toil there were irremediable defects in that man's picture; +fatal flaws in that man's book. In all their efforts were failure +and repulse, apparent to some extent to themselves, plain enough to +the passionless looker-on. That resolute, hopeless climbing of +heaven was, according to the mood, a thing to provoke a jest or a +sigh. With Penruddock all was different. What he strove after he +accomplished. He had a cheerful mastery over circumstances. All +things went well with him. His horses ploughed for him, his servants +reaped for him, his mills ground for him, successfully. The very +winds and dews of heaven were to him helps and aids. Year after year +his crops grew, yellowed, were cut down and gathered into barns, and +men fed thereupon; and year after year there lay an increasing +balance at his banker's. This continual, ever-victorious activity +seemed strange to me--a new thing under the sun. We usually think +that poets, painters, and the like, are finer, more heroical, than +cultivators of the ground. But does the production of a questionable +book really surpass in merit the production of a field of +unquestionable turnips? Perhaps in the severe eyes of the gods the +production of a wooden porringer, water-tight, and fit for househould +uses, is of more account than the rearing of a tower of Babel, meant +to reach to heaven. Alas! that so many must work on these Babel +towers; cannot help toiling on them to the very death, though every +stone is heaved into its place with weariness and mortal pain; though +when the life of the builder is wasted out on it, it is fit +habitation for no creature, can shelter no one from rain or snow--but +towering in the eyes of men a _Folly_ (as the Scotch phrase it) after +all. + +I like to recall my six weeks' sojourn in sunny Ulster with my +friend. I like to recall the rows of whity-green willows that +bordered the slow streams; the yellow flax fields with their azure +flowers, reminding one of the maidens in German ballads; the flax +tanks and windmills; the dark-haired girls embroidering muslins +before the doors, and stealing the while the hearts of sheepish +sweethearts leaning against the cottage walls, by soft blarney and +quick glances; the fields in which a cow, a donkey, half a dozen +long-legged porkers--looking for all the world like pigs on +stilts--cocks and hens, ducks and geese promiscuously fed; and, above +all, I like to recall that somnolent Sunday afternoon in the little +uncomfortably-seated Presbyterian church, when--two-thirds of the +congregation asleep, the precentor soundest of all, and the good +clergyman illustrating the doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints +by a toddler at its mother's knee attempting to walk, falling and +bumping its forehead, getting picked up, and in a little while, +although the bump had grown to the size of an egg, spurring and +struggling to get to the floor once again--my eye wandered to the +open church door, and in the sunshine saw a feeding bee fold its +wings on a flower and swing there in the wind, and I forgot for a +while drawling shepherd and slumbering flock. These are trifles, but +they are pleasant trifles. Staying with Pen, however, an event of +importance did occur. + +It was arranged that we should go to the fair at Keady; but Pen was +obliged on the day immediately preceding to leave his farm at +Arranmore on matter of important business. It was a wretched day of +rain, and I began to tremble for the morrow. After dinner the storm +abated, and the dull dripping afternoon set in. While a distempered +sunset flushed the west the heavy carts from the fields came rolling +into the courtyard, the horses fetlock-deep in clay and steaming like +ovens. Then, at the sound of the bell, the labourers came, wet, +weary, sickles hanging over their arms, yet with spirits merry +enough. These the capacious kitchen received, where they found +supper spread. It grew dark earlier than usual, and more silent. +The mill-wheel rushed louder in the swollen stream, and lights began +to glimmer here and there in the dusty windows. Penruddock had not +yet come; he was not due for a couple of hours. Time began to hang +heavily; so slipping to bed I solved every difficulty by falling +soundly asleep. + +The lowing of cattle, the bleating of sheep, the barking of dogs, and +the loud voices of men in the courtyard beneath, awoke me shortly +after dawn. In the silence that followed I again fell asleep, and +was roused at last by the clangour of the breakfast bell. When I got +up the sun was streaming gloriously through the latticed window; +heaven was all the gayer and brighter for yesterday's gloom and sulky +tears, and the rooks were cawing and flapping cheerfully in the trees +above. When I entered the breakfast-room Pen was already there, and +the tea-urn was bubbling on the table. + +[Sidenote: On the way to the fiar.] + +At the close of the meal Tim brought the dog-cart to the door. Pen +glanced at his watch. "We have hit the time exactly, and will arrive +as soon as Mick and the cattle." There was an encouraging chir-r-r, +a flick of the whip, and in a trice we were across the bridge and +pegging along the highway at a great pace. + +After proceeding about a mile, we turned into a narrow path which +gradually led us up into a wild irregular country. Corn-fields, +flax-tanks, and sunny pasture lands, dotted with sheep, were left +behind as up-hill we tugged, and reached at last a level stretch of +purple moor and black peat bog. Sometimes for a mile the ground was +black with pyramids of peat; at other times the road wriggled before +us through a dark olive morass, enlivened here and there with patches +of treacherous green; the sound of our wheels startling into flight +the shy and solitary birds native to the region. Ever and anon, too, +when we gained sufficient elevation, we could see the great waves of +the landscape rolling in clear morning light away to the horizon; +each wave crested with farms and belts of woodland, and here and +there wreaths of smoke rising up from hollows where towns and +villages lay hid. After a while the road grew smoother, and afar the +little town of Keady sparkled in the sun, backed by a range of +smelting furnaces, the flames tamed by the sunlight, making a +restless shimmer in the air, and blotting out everything beyond. +Beneath, the high road was covered with sheep and cows, and vehicles +of every description, pushing forward to one point; the hill paths +also which led down to it were moving threads of life. On the brow +of the hill, just before we began to descend, John pulled up for a +moment. It was a pretty sight. [Sidenote: The fair at Keady.] A few +minutes' drive brought us into Keady, and such a busy scene I had +never before witnessed. The narrow streets and open spaces were +crowded with stalls, cattle, and people, and the press and confusion +was so great that our passage to the inn where our machine was to be +put up was matter of considerable difficulty. Men, stripped to +trousers and shirt, with red hair streaming in the wind, rushed +backwards and forwards with horses, giving vent at the same time to +the wildest vociferations, while clumps of sporting gentlemen, with +straws in their mouths, were inspecting, with critical eyes, the +points of the animals. Travelling auctioneers set up their little +carts in the streets, and with astonishing effrontery and power of +lung harangued the crowd on the worth and cheapness of the articles +which they held in their hands. Beggars were very plentiful--disease +and deformity their stock-in-trade. Fragments of humanity crawled +about upon crutches. Women stretched out shrunken arms. Blind men +rolled sightless eyeballs, blessing the passenger when a copper +tinkled in their iron jugs--cursing yet more fervently when +disappointed in their expectation. In one place a melancholy acrobat +in dirty tights and faded tinsel was performing evolutions with a +crazy chair on a bit of ragged carpet; he threw somersaults over it; +he embraced it firmly, and began spinning along the ground like a +wheel, in which performance man and chair seemed to lose their +individuality and become one as it were; and at the close of every +feat he stood erect with that indescribable curve of the right hand +which should always be followed by thunders of applause, the clown +meanwhile rolling in ecstasies of admiration in the sawdust. Alas! +no applause followed the exertions of the artist. The tights were +getting more threadbare and dingy. His hollow face was covered with +perspiration, and there was but the sparsest sprinkling of halfpence. +I threw him a shilling, but it rolled among the spectators' feet, and +was lost in the dust. He groped about in search of it for some +little time, and then came back to his carpet and his crazy chair. +Poor fellow! he looked as if he were used to that kind of thing. +There were many pretty faces among the girls, and scores of them were +walking about in holiday dresses--rosy-faced lasses, with black hair, +and blue eyes shadowed by long dark eyelashes. How they laughed, and +how sweetly the brogue melted from their lips in reply to the ardent +blarney of their sweethearts. At last we reached an open square, or +cross, as it would be called in Scotland, more crowded, if possible, +than the narrow streets. Hordes of cattle bellowed here. Here were +sheep from the large farms standing in clusters of fifties and +hundreds; there a clump of five or six, with the widow in her clean +cap sitting beside them. Many an hour ago she and they started from +the turf hut and the pasture beyond the hills. Heaven send her a +ready sale and good prices! In the centre of this open space great +benches were erected, heaped with eggs, butter, cheeses, the +proprietors standing behind anxiously awaiting the advances of +customers. One section was crowded with sweetmeat stalls, much +frequented by girls and their sweethearts. Many a rustic compliment +there had for reply a quick glance or a scarlet cheek. Another was +devoted to poultry; geese stood about in flocks; bunches of hens were +scattered on the ground, their legs tied together; and turkeys, +enclosed in wicker baskets, surveyed the scene with quick eyes, their +wattles all the while burning with indignation. On reaching the inn +which displayed for ensign a swan with two heads afloat on an azure +stream, we ordered dinner at three o'clock, and thereafter started on +foot to where Penruddock's stock was stationed. It was no easy +matter to force a path; cows and sheep were always getting in the +way. Now and then an escaped hen would come clucking and flapping +among our feet, and once a huge bull, with horns levelled to the +charge, came dashing down the street, scattering everything before +him. Finally, we reached the spot where Mick and his dogs were +keeping watch over the cows and sheep. + +"Got here all safe, Mick, I see." + +"All safe, sir, not a quarter o' an hour ago." + +"Well, I have opened my shop. We'll see how we get on." + +[Sidenote: Bargain-making.] + +By this time the dealers had gathered about, and were closely +examining the sheep, and holding whispered consultations. At length +an excited-looking man came running forward; plunging his hand into +his breeches pocket, he produced therefrom half-a-crown, which he +slapped into Penruddock's hand, at the same time crying out +"Ten-and-six a head." "Fifteen," said John, returning the coin. +"Twelve shillings," said the man, bringing down the coin with +tremendous energy; "an' may I niver stir if I'll give another +farthin' for the best sheep in Keady." "Fifteen," said John, +flinging the half-crown on the ground; "and I don't care whether you +stir again or not." By this time a crowd had gathered about, and the +chorus began. "There isn't a dacenter man than Mr Penruddock in the +market. I've known him iver since he came to the counthry." "Shure +an' he is," began another; "he's a jintleman ivery inch. He always +gives to the poor man a bit o' baccy, or a glass. Ach, Mr Loney, +he's not the one to ax you too high a price. Shure, Mr Penruddock, +you'll come down a six-pence jist to make a bargain." "Is't Mr Loney +that's goin' to buy?" cried a lame man from the opposite side, and in +the opposite interest. "There isn't sich a dealer in county Monaghan +as Mr Loney. Of coorse you'll come down something, Mr Penruddock." +"He's a rich one, too, is Mr Loney," said the lame man, sidling up to +John, and winking in a knowing manner, "an' a power o' notes he has +in his pocket-book." Mr Loney, who had been whispering with his +group a little apart, and who had again made an inspection of the +stock, returned the second time to the charge. "Twelve-an'-six," +cried he, and again the half-crown was slapped into Penruddock's +palm. "Twelve-an'-six, an' not another farthin' to save my soul." +"Fifteen," said John, returning the half-crown with equal emphasis; +"you know my price, and if you won't take it you can let it stand." +The dealer disappeared in huge wrath, and the chorus broke out in +praises of both. By this time Mr Loney was again among the sheep; it +was plain his heart was set upon the purchase. Every now and then he +caught one, got it between his legs, examined the markings on its +face, and tested the depth and quality of its wool. He appeared for +the third time, while the lame man and the leader of the opposing +chorus seemed coming to blows, so zealous were they in the praises of +their respective heroes. "Fourteen," said Mr Loney, again producing +the half-crown, spitting into his hand at the same time, as much as +to say, he would do the business now. "Fourteen," he cried, crushing +the half-crown into Penruddock's hand, and holding it there. +"Fourteen, an' divil a rap more I'll give." "Fourteen," said John, +as if considering, then throwing back the coin, "Fourteen-and-six, +and let it be a bargain." + +"Didn't I say," quoth John's chorus leader, looking round him with an +air of triumph, "didn't I say that Mr Penruddock's a jintleman? Ye +see how he drops the sixpence. I niver saw him do a mane thing yet. +Ach, he's the jintleman ivery inch, an' that's saying a dale, +considerin' his size." + +"Fourteen-and-six be it then," said the dealer, bringing down the +coin for the last time. "An' if I take the lot you'll give me two +pounds in t' myself?" + +"Well, Loney; I don't care although I do," said Penruddock, pocketing +the coin at last. A roll of notes was produced, the sum counted out, +and the bargain concluded. The next moment Loney was among the +sheep, scoring some mark or other on their backs with a piece of red +chalk. Penruddock scattered what spare coppers he possessed among +the bystanders, and away they went to sing the praises of the next +bargain-maker. + +Pen turned to me laughing. "This is a nice occupation for a +gentleman of respectable birth and liberal education, is it not?" + +"Odd. It is amusing to watch the process by which your sheep are +converted into bank-notes. Does your friend, Mr Loney, buy the +animals for himself?" + +"Oh, dear, no. We must have middlemen of one kind or another in this +country. Loney is commissioned to purchase, and is allowed so much +on the transaction." + +By this time a young handsome fellow pushed his horse through the +crowd and approached us. "Good morning," cried he to Penruddock. +"Any business doing?" + +"I have just sold my sheep." + +"Good price?" + +"Fair. Fourteen and six." + +"Ah, not so bad. These cattle, I suppose, are yours? We must try if +we can't come to a bargain about them." Dismounting, he gave his +horse in keeping to a lad, and he and John went off to inspect the +stock. + +Business was proceeding briskly on all sides. There was great +higgling as to prices, and shillings and half-crowns were tossed in a +wonderful manner from palm to palm. Apparently, nothing could be +transacted without that ceremony, whatever it might mean. Idlers +were everywhere celebrating the merits and "dacency" of the various +buyers and sellers. Huge greasy leather pocket-books, of undoubted +antiquity, were to be seen in many a hand, and rolls of bank-notes +were deftly changing owners. The ground, too, was beginning to +clear, and purchasers were driving off their cattle. Many of the +dealers who had disposed of stock were taking their ease in the inns. +You could see them looking out of the open windows; and occasionally +a man whose potations had been early and excessive went whooping +through the crowd. In a short time John returned with his friend. + +"Captain Broster," said John, presenting him, "has promised to dine +with us at three. Sharp at the hour, mind, for we wish to leave +early." + +"I'll be punctual as clockwork," said the captain, turning to look +after his purchases. + +[Sidenote: The Welsh forgemen.] + +We strolled up and down till three o'clock, and then bent our steps +to the inn, where we found Broster waiting. In honour to his guests +the landlord himself brought in dinner, and waited with great +diligence. When the table was cleared we had punch and cigars, and +sat chatting at the open window. The space in front was tolerably +clear of cattle now, but dealers were hovering about, standing in +clumps, or promenading in parties of twos and threes. But at this +point a new element had entered into the scene. It was dinner hour, +and many of the forgemen from the furnaces above had come down to see +what was going on. Huge, hulking, swarthy-featured fellows they +were. Welshmen, chiefly, as I was afterwards told, who, confident in +their strength, were at no pains to conceal their contempt for the +natives. They, too, mingled in the crowd, but the greater number +leaned lazily against the houses, smoking their short pipes, and +indulging in the dangerous luxury of "chaffing" the farmers. Many a +rude wit-combat was going on, accompanied by roars of laughter, +snatches of which we occasionally heard. Broster had been in the +Crimea, was wounded at Alma, recovered, went through all the work and +privation of the first winter of the siege, got knocked up, came home +on sick leave, and having had enough of it, as he frankly confessed, +took the opportunity on his father's death, which happened then, to +sell out and settle as a farmer on a small property to which he fell +heir. He chatted about the events of the war in an easy familiar +way, quietly, as if the whole affair had been a game at football; and +when courage, strength, and splendid prospects were changed by unseen +bullet, or grim bayonet stab, into a rude grave on the bleak plateau, +the thing was mentioned as a mere matter of course! Sometimes a +comrade's fate met with an expression of soldierly regret, slight and +indifferent enough, yet with a certain pathos which no high-flown +oration could reach. For the indifferent tone seemed to acquiesce in +destiny, to consider that disappointment had been too common in the +life of every man during the last six thousand years to warrant any +raving or passionate surprise at this time of day; that in any case +our ordinary pulse and breath beat our march to the grave; passion +the double-quick; and when it is all over, there is little need for +outcry and the shedding of tears over the eternal rest. [Sidenote: +The scuffle in the inn.] In the midst of his talk voices rose in one +of the apartments below; the noise became altercation, and +immediately a kind of struggling or dragging was heard in the flagged +passage, and then a tipsy forgeman was unceremoniously shot out into +the square, and the inn door closed with an angry bang. The +individual seemed to take the indignity in very good part; along he +staggered, his hands in his pockets, heedless of the satirical gibes +and remarks of his companions, who were smoking beneath our windows. +Looking out, we could see that his eyes were closed, as if he scorned +the outer world, possessing one so much more satisfactory within +himself. As he went he began to sing from sheer excess of happiness, +the following stanza coming distinctly to our ears:-- + + "When I was a chicken as big as a hen, + My mother 'ot me, an' I 'ot her agen; + My father came in for to see the r-r-rrow, + So I lifted my fist, an' I 'ot him a clow." + + +"I hope that fellow won't come to grief," said Broster, as the +forgeman lurched through a group of countrymen intent on a bargain, +and passed on without notice or apology, his eyes closed, and singing +as before-- + + "Ses my mother, ses she, There's a Peeler at hand." + + +[Sidenote: The fair fight.] + +"By Jove, he's down at last, and there'll be the devil to pay!" We +looked out, the forgeman was prone in the dust, singing, and +apparently unconscious that he had changed his position. A party of +farmers were standing around laughing; one of them had put out his +foot and tripped the forgeman as he passed. The next moment a +bare-armed black-browed hammersmith strode out from the wall, and, +without so much as taking the pipe from his mouth, felled the dealer +at a blow, and then looked at his companions as if wishing to be +informed if he could do anything in the same way for them. The blow +was a match dropped in a powder magazine. Alelu! to the combat. +There were shouts and yells. Insult had been rankling long in the +breasts of both parties. Old scores had to be paid off. From every +quarter, out of the inns, leaving potheen and ale, down the streets +from among the cattle, the dealers came rushing to the fray. The +forgemen mustered with alacrity, as if battle were the breath of +their nostrils. In a few seconds the square was the scene of a +general _mêlée_. The dealers fought with their short heavy sticks; +the forgemen had but the weapons nature gave, but their arms were +sinewed with iron, and every blow told like a hammer. These last +were overpowered for a while, but the alarm had already spread to the +furnaces above, and parties of twos and threes came at a run, and +flung themselves in to the assistance of their companions. Just at +this moment a couple of constables pressed forward into the yelling +crowd. A hammersmith came behind one, and seizing his arms, held +him, despite his struggles, firmly as in a vice. The other was +knocked over and trampled under foot. "Good heavens, murder will be +done," cried Broster, lifting his heavy whip from the table; "we must +try and put an end to this disgraceful scene. Will you join me?" +"With heart and soul," said Penruddock, "and there is no time to be +lost. Come along." At the foot of the stair we found the landlord +shaking in every limb. He had locked the door, and was standing in +the passage with the key in his hand. "M'Queen, we want out; open +the door." + +"Shure, jintlemen, you're not goin' just now. You'll be torn to +paces if you go." + +"If you won't open the door, give me the key, and I'll open it +myself." + +[Sidenote: Black Jem.] + +The landlord passively yielded. Broster unlocked the door, and flung +the key down on the flagged passage. "Now, my lads," cried he to +half-a-dozen countrymen who were hanging-on spectators on the skirts +of the combat, and at the same time twisting his whip-lash tightly +round his right hand till the heavy-leaded head became a formidable +weapon, a blow from which would be effective on any skull of ordinary +susceptibility; "Now, my lads, we are resolved to put an end to this; +will you assist us?" The captain's family had been long resident in +the county, he was himself personally known to all of them, and a +cheerful "Ay, ay," was the response. "Penruddock, separate them when +you can, knock them over when you can't, Welshman or Irishman, it's +quite the same." So saying, in we drove. Broster clove a way for +himself, distributing his blows with great impartiality, and knocking +over the combatants like nine-pins. We soon reached the middle of +the square, where the fight was hottest. The captain was swept away +in an eddy for a moment, and right in front of Penruddock and myself +two men were grappling on the ground. As they rolled over, we saw +that one was the hammersmith who had caused the whole affray. We +flung ourselves upon them, and dragged them up. The dealer, with +whom I was more particularly engaged, had got the worst of it, and +plainly wasn't sorry to be released from the clutches of his +antagonist. With his foe it was different. His slow sullen blood +was fairly in a blaze, and when Pen pushed him aside, he dashed at +him and struck him a severe blow on the face. In a twinkling +Penruddock's coat was off, while the faintest stream of blood +trickled from his upper lip. "Well, my man," said he, as he stood up +ready for action, "if that's the game you mean to play at, I hope to +give you a bellyful before I've done." "Seize that man, knock him +over," said Broster; "you're surely not going to fight _him_, +Penruddock, it's sheer madness; knock him over." "I tell you what it +is," said Penruddock, turning savagely, "you shan't deprive me of the +luxury of giving this fellow a sound hiding." Broster shrugged his +shoulders, as if giving up the case. By this time the cry arose, +"Black Jem's goin' to fight the gentleman;" and a wide enough ring +was formed. [Sidenote: The fight.] Many who were prosecuting small +combats of their own desisted, that they might behold the greater +one. Broster stood beside John. "He's an ugly mass of strength," +whispered he, "and will hug you like a bear; keep him well off, and +remain cool for Heaven's sake." "Ready?" said John, stepping +forward. "As a lark i' the mornin'," growled Jem, as he took up his +ground. The men were very wary--Jem retreating round and round, John +advancing. Now and then one or other darted out a blow, but it was +generally stopped, and no harm done. At last the blows went home; +the blood began to rise. The men drew closer, and struck with +greater rapidity. They are at it at last, hammer and tongs. No +shirking or flinching now. Jem's blood was flowing. He was +evidently getting severely punished. He couldn't last long at that +rate. He fought desperately for a close, when a blinding blow full +in the face brought him to the earth. He got up again like a madman, +the whole bull-dog nature of him possessed and mastered by brutal +rage. He cursed and struggled in the arms of his supporters to get +at his enemy, but by main force they held him back till he recovered +himself. "He'll be worked off in another round," I heard Broster +whisper in my ear. Ah! here they come! I glanced at Pen for a +moment as he stood with his eye on his foe. There was that in his +face that boded no good. The features had hardened into iron +somehow; the pitiless mouth was clenched, the eye cruel. A hitherto +unknown part of his nature revealed itself to me as he stood +there--perhaps unknown to himself. God help us, what strangers we +are to ourselves! In every man's nature there is an interior +unexplored as that of Africa, and over that region what wild beasts +may roam! But they are at it again; Jem still fights for a close, +and every time his rush is stopped by a damaging blow. They are +telling rapidly; his countenance, by no means charming at the best, +is rapidly transforming. Look at that hideously gashed lip! But he +has dodged Penruddock's left this time, and clutched him in his +brawny arms. Now comes the tug of war, skill pitted against skill, +strength against strength. They breathe for a little in each other's +grip, as if summoning every energy. They are at it now, broad chest +to chest. Now they seem motionless, but by the quiver of their +frames you can guess the terrific strain going on. Now one has the +better, now the other, as they twine round each other, lithe and +supple as serpents. Penruddock yields! No! That's a bad dodge of +Jem's. By Jove he loses his grip. All is over with him. Pen's brow +grows dark; the veins start out on it; and the next moment Black Jem, +the hero of fifty fights, slung over his shoulder, falls heavily to +the ground. + +[Sidenote: Retreat of the hammermen.] + +At his fall a cheer rose from the dealers. "You blacksmith fellows +had better make off," cried Broster; "your man has got the thrashing +he deserves, and you can carry him home with you. I am resolved to +put a stop to these disturbances--there have been too many of late." +The furnacemen hung for a moment irresolute, seemingly half-inclined +to renew the combat, but a formidable array of cattle-dealers pressed +forward and turned the scale. They decided on a retreat. Black Jem, +who had now come to himself, was lifted up, and, supported by two +men, retired toward the works and dwellings on the upper grounds, +accompanied by his companions, who muttered many a surly oath and vow +of future vengeance. + +When we got back to the inn, Pen was very anxious about his face. He +washed, and carefully perused his features in the little +looking-glass. Luckily, with the exception of the upper lip slightly +cut by Jim's first blow, no mark of the combat presented itself. At +this happy result of his investigations he expressed great +satisfaction--Broster laughing the meanwhile, and telling him that he +was as careful of his face as a young lady. + +The captain came down to see us off. The fair was over now, and the +little streets were almost deserted. The dealers--apprehensive of +another descent from the furnaces--had hurried off as soon as their +transactions could in any way permit. Groups of villagers, however, +were standing about the doors discussing the event of the day; and +when Penruddock appeared he became, for a quarter of an hour, an +object of public interest for the first time in his life, and so far +as he has yet lived for the last; an honour to which he did not seem +to attach any particular value. + +We shook hands with the captain; then, at a touch of the whip, the +horse started at a gallant pace, scattering a brood of ducks in all +directions; and in a few minutes Keady--with its whitewashed houses +and dark row of furnaces, tipped with tongues of flame, pale and +shrunken yet in the lustre of the afternoon, but which would rush out +wild and lurid when the evening fell--lay a rapidly dwindling speck +behind. + +[Sidenote: John Penruddock.] + +I am induced to set down this business of the Irish market and market +fight in order that the reader may gather some idea of the kind of +man Penruddock was. He was not particularly witty, although on +occasion he could say a good and neat thing enough; on no subject was +he profoundly read; I don't think that he ever attempted to turn a +stanza, even when a boy and in love; he did not care for art; he was +only conscious of a blind and obscure delight in music, and even for +_that_ the music had to be of the simplest kind--melody, not harmony. +He had his limitations, you see: but as a man I have seldom met his +equal. He was sagacious, kindly, affectionate, docile, patient, and +unthinking of self. There was a peculiar deference in his ordinary +manner, as if he were continually in the presence of a lady. Above +all things, he was sincere, and you trusted Pen when you came to know +him as implicitly as you would a law of nature. If you were out in a +small boat in a storm with him; if you were ascending or descending a +steep rocky hill-face with him, and got giddy on his hands; if you +were in the heart of a snow-storm on the hills with him, when all +traces of the road were lost, and the cold began to make thick your +blood with the deadly pleasure of sleep--in such circumstances you +found out what he was: cool, courageous, helpful; full of resource, +with a quick brain, an iron nerve, a giant's strength. To the +possessor of such solid worth and manhood your merely brilliant +talker, your epigrammatist, your sayer of smart things, is +essentially a poor creature. What is wit?--a sounding brass and a +tinkling cymbal. What is epigram? Penruddock did not paint pictures +or write poems; it was his business "to make good sheep," as the Skye +people say, and magnificent sheep he did make. + +Pen had an ideal sheep in his mind, and to reach that ideal he was +continually striving. At the yearly winnowings of his stock he +selected his breeding ewes with the utmost care, and these ewes, +without spot or blemish, he crossed with wonderfully-horned and +far-brought rams, for which he sometimes paid enormous prices--so at +least his neighbours said. His sheep he bred in Skye for the most +part, and then he sent them over to Ulster to fatten. There, on +pasture and turnips, they throve amazingly, all their good points +coming into prominence, all their bad points stealing modestly into +the shade. At markets, Penruddock's sheep always brought excellent +prices, and his lot was certain to be about the best shown. + +Pen and the Landlord had business relations. In partnership, they +brought over meal from Ireland, they speculated in turnips, they +dealt in curious manures which were to the sour Skye soil what +plum-pudding is to a charity boy: above all, he was confederate in a +scheme of emigration which the Landlord had concocted, and was in the +course of carrying out. Pen's visit at this time was purely a +business one: he wished to see me, but that was far from his sole +motive in coming--so he frankly said. But I did not care for that; I +was quite able to bear the truth, and was glad to have him on any +conditions. + + + + +_A SMOKING PARLIAMENT._ + +[Sidenote: The opposite side of the street.] + +One morning after our return, when breakfast was over, the Landlord, +followed by Maida, carried the parrot into the sunshine in front of +the house, and, sitting down on one of the iron seats, lighted a +cheroot. As there was nothing on the cards on that special morning, +we all followed him, and, lifting his cheroot-case, helped ourselves. +The morning was warm and pleasant; and as no one had anything +particular to say, we smoked in silence and were happy. The only one +who was occupied was Fellowes. A newspaper had reached him by post +the evening before, and with its pages he was now busy. Suddenly he +burst out laughing, and read out from a half column of _facetiæ_ how +an Irishman was anxious to discover the opposite side of the street, +and making inquiries at the passengers, was kept knocking about from +one side of the thoroughfare to the other, like a ball in a +racket-court. Pat was told that the opposite side of the street was +"over there;" and when he got "over there," to his sore bewilderment +he discovered that the opposite side of the street, as if on purpose +to torment him, had slipped anchor and flitted away to the side on +which he had been making inquiries a few moments previously. We all +laughed at Pat's intellectual perplexity; and shutting up the paper +Fellowes maintained, in the light cynical vein so common at present, +that the hunt after the opposite side of the street was no bad image +of the hunt after truth. "Truth is always 'over there,'" he said; +"and when you get 'over there,' running extreme peril from cab and +dray in crossing, you find that it has gone back to the place from +which you started. And so a man spends his life in chasing, and is +as far on at the end of it as he was at the beginning. No man ever +yet reached truth, or the opposite side of the street." + +"What creatures those Irish are, to be sure!" said the Landlord, as +he knocked a feather of white ash from the tip of his cheroot; "it +would be a dull world without them. In India, a single Irishman at a +station is enough to banish blue devils. The presence of an Irishman +anywhere keeps away low spirits, just as a cat in a house keeps away +rats and mice. Every station should wear an Irishman, as an amulet +against despondency." + +"I have lived a good deal both in Ireland and the Highlands," said +Pen, "and the intellectual differences between the two races have +often struck me as not a little curious. They are of the same stock +originally, antiquarians say; and yet Ireland is a land of Goshen, +overflowing with the milk and honey of humour, whereas in every +quality of humour the Highlands are as dry as the Sahara. Jokes +don't usually come farther north than the Grampians. One or two are +occasionally to be found in Ross-shire over there; but they are far +from common, and their appearance is chronicled in the local prints +just as the appearance of the capercailzie is chronicled. No joke +has yet been found strong-winged enough to cross the Kyles. That's +odd, is it not?" + +[Sidenote: Highland wit.] + +"But have not the Highlanders wit?" + +"Oh yes, plenty of it, but rather of the strenuous than of the +playful kind; their wit is born for the most part of anger or +contempt. 'There she goes,' sneered the Englishman, as Duncan +marched past in his tartans at a fair.' 'There she lies,' retorted +Duncan, as he knocked the scorner over at a blow. 'Coming from Hell, +Lauchlan,' quoth the shepherd, proceeding on a sacrament Sunday to +the Free Church, and meeting his friend coming from the Church of the +Establishment. 'Better than going to it, Rory,' retorted Lauchlan, +as he passed on. Of that kind of rapid and sufficient retort, of the +power of returning a blow swiftly and with interest, the Highlander +is not in the least deficient. But he differs from the Irishman in +this--that he has no eye for the pleasantly droll side of things; he +has no fun in him, no sense of the genially comic. He laughs, but +there is generally a touch of scorn in his laughter, and it is almost +always directed against a man or a thing. The Irishman's humorous +sense puts a stitch in the torn coat, ekes the scanty purse, boils +the peas with which he is doomed to limp graveward. The bested +Highlander can draw no amelioration of condition from such a source. +The two races dine often scantily enough, but it is only the Irishman +that can sweeten his potatoes with point. 'They talk of hardships,' +said the poor Irish soldier as he lay down to sleep on the deck of +the transport--'They talk of hardships; but bedad this is the hardest +ship I ever was in in my life.' No Highlander would have said +_that_. And I believe that the joke made the hard plank all the +softer to the joker." + +"And how do you account for this difference?" + +"I can't account for it. The two races springing from the same +stock, I rather think it is _un_accountable; unless, indeed, it be +traceable to climatic influence,--the soft, green, rainy Erin +producing riant and ebullient natures; the bare, flinty Highlands, +hard and austere ones. There is one quality, however, in which your +Highlander can beat the world, with the exception, perhaps, of the +North American Indian." + +[Sidenote: Pride of the Highlander.] + +"What quality is that?" + +"The quality of never exhibiting astonishment. The Highlander would +as soon think of turning his back on his foe as of expressing +astonishment at anything. Take a Highland lad from the wilds of Skye +or Harris and drop him in Cheapside, and he will retain the most +perfect equanimity. He will have no word of marvel for the crowds +and the vehicles; the Thames Tunnel will not move him; he will look +on St Paul's without flinching. The boy may have only ridden in a +peat-cart; but he takes a railway, the fields, hedges, bridges, and +villages spinning past, the howling gloom of the tunnels, the speed +that carries him in an hour over a greater extent of country than he +ever beheld in his life even from his highest hill-top, as the merest +matter of course, and unworthy of special remark." + +"But the boy will be astonished all the same?" + +"Of course he is. The very hair of his soul is standing on end with +wonder and terror, but he will make no sign; he is too proud. Will +he allow the Sassenach to triumph over him? If he did, he would not +be his father's son. He will not admit that earth holds anything +which he has not measured and weighed, and with which he is not +perfectly familiar. When Chingachgook groans at the stake in the +hearing of his tormentors, the Highlander will express surprise." + +"This disinclination to express astonishment, if it does exist to the +extent you say amongst the Highlanders, must arise from a solitary +mode of living. People up in these Western Islands live on the +outskirts of existence, so to speak; and the knowledge that a big, +bustling, important world exists beyond their horizon 'intensifies +their individualism,' as the poet said the bracing air of old St +Andrews intensified his. They are driven in on themselves; they are +always standing in an attitude of mental self-defence; they become +naturally self-contained and self-sustained." + +[Sidenote: Chaff.] + +"To some extent what you say is true; but the main reason of the +Highlander's calmness and self-command in the presence of new and +wonderful objects is pride. To express astonishment at the sight of +an object implies previous ignorance of that object; and no +Highlander worthy of the name will admit that he is ignorant of +anything under the sun. To come back, however, to what we were +speaking about a little while ago,--the differences between the +Highlanders and the Irish--the light-hearted Irishman delights to +'chaff' and to be 'chaffed;' the intenser and more serious-hearted +Highlander can neither do the one nor endure the other. The bit of +badinage which an Irishman will laugh at and brush carelessly aside, +stings the Highlander like a gadfly. When the Highlander is fencing, +the button is always coming off his foil, and the point is in your +arm before you know where you are. If you enter into a gay +wit-combat with a Highlander, it is almost certain to have a serious +ending--just as the old Highland wedding-feasts, beginning with +pledged healths and universal three-times-three, ended in a brawl and +half-a-dozen men dirked." + +"Chaff, in common with shoddy, the adulteration of food, and the +tailor-sweating system, is the product of an over-ripe civilisation. +It is the glimmer on the head of the dead cod-fish--putridity become +phosphorescent. It can only thrive in large cities. It is the +offspring of impudence and loquacity. I am not astonished that the +Highlander cannot endure it; it is out of his way altogether. He no +more can use it as a weapon of offence or defence than David could +wear the armour of Saul. Chaff grows in the crowded street, not in +the wilderness. It is the one thing we have brought into perfection +in these later days. It is a weed that grows lustily, because it is +manured with our vices and our decomposed faiths. I don't think the +worse of the Highlander because he cannot chaff or endure being +chaffed. A London cabman would slang Socrates into silence in a +quarter of an hour." + +"I suppose," said the Landlord, "when the Skye railway is finished we +poor Highlanders will get our jokes from the South, as we get our tea +and sugar. It's a pity the Board of Directors did not mention that +special import in their prospectus. The shares might have gone off +more rapidly, Pen!" + +[Sidenote: Distrust of nature.] + +"By the by," said Fellowes, turning to me, "you were speaking the +other day of the curious distrust of Nature, which you consider the +soul of all Celtic poetry and Celtic superstition, and you were +inclined to attribute that distrust and fear to the austerities of +climate and physical conformation, to the rain-cloud, and the +precipice, the sea-foam, and the rock. I agree with you so far; but +I think you lay too much stress on climatic influences and the +haggardness of landscape. That quick sense of two powers--of Nature +and Humanity, of man and a world outside of man--is the root of all +poetry." + +"Of course it is. To the Celt, Nature is malign, evil-disposed, +cruel; and his poetry is dreary as the strain of the night wind. To +a Wordsworth, on the other hand, Nature is merciful and tranquil, +deep-thoughted and calm; and as a consequence his poetry is temperate +and humane, cool as a summer evening after the sun has set, and--with +all reverence be it spoken--sometimes tiresomely hortatory." + +"Preaching is generally dull work, I fear; and Nature's sermons, even +when reported by Wordsworth, are as dull as some other sermons which +I have heard and read." + +"But what I was going to say was, that the sense of malevolence in +Nature which you claim as the central fact of Celtic song and +superstition, is not so much the result of harsh climates and wild +environments as it is a stage in the mental progress of a race. At +one stage of progress, all races fear Nature alike. The South-Sea +Islander, whose bread-fruit falls into his mouth, fears Nature just +as much as the Greenlander, who hunts the white bear on the iceberg +and spears the walrus in the foam. When once man has got the upper +hand of Nature, when he has made her his slave, when her winds sit in +his sails and propel his ships, when she yields him iron whereby she +is more firmly bound to his service, when she gives him coal +wherewith to cook food and to mitigate the rigours of her +winters--when man has got that length, the aboriginal fear dies out +of his heart, the weird Celtic bard goes, and Wordsworth comes. Even +in the Lowlands, scraps of verses still exist--relics of long past +time, and shuddering yet with an obsolete terror--which are as full +of a sense of the malevolence of Nature as any Highland song or tune +you could produce." + +"Let me hear one or two." + +"Well, here is one which has been occasionally quoted, and which you +have in all likelihood come across in your reading:-- + + 'Says Tweed to Till, + What gars ye rin sae still? + Says Till to Tweed, + Though ye rin wi' speed, + An' I rin slaw, + For ae man that ye droon, + I droon twa.'" + + +"Yes, it is very striking, and hits the nail on the head exactly. +Sir Walter quotes it somewhere, I think. I have little doubt that +these rhymes suggested to Scott his Voices of the River in the 'Lay,' +which is not that of the kelpie, a creature _in_ the river, but of +the river itself, in spiritual personation." + +[Sidenote: "The dowie Dean."] + +"That may be, or it may not. But nowhere, that I know of, does that +sense of an evil will, and an alienation from man in nature, find a +profounder and more tragic, if withal a playful, half-humorous +expression than in this curious little Border fragment, unless, +indeed, it be beaten by this from Forfarshire. Of the Dean stream, +wherein, while it was yet golden time with me, I slew many a fine +trout, there existed then a local rhyme of much less artistic and +literary completion than that relating the colloquy between Till and +Tweed, but, as I think, in its rudeness if anything even more +gruesome and grim-- + + 'The dowie Dean, + It rins it lean, + An' every seven year it gets ean.'" + + +"What a hideous _patois_," quoth the Landlord, "your Forfarshire +people must talk! I can't say I understand a word of your rhymes. +Perhaps you will be good enough to translate." + +Fellowes laughed. "I'll do my best,-- + + 'The dowie (quietly dismal) Dean, + It rins it lean, (its lane, lone, solitary,) + An' every seven year it gets ean, (ane, one.)' + +There it is now, in Scotch and English, for you. What specially +strikes me in this rhyme is its quiet power of awe, its reflex of the +passionless calm, which, in scorn of contrast with the 'fever and +fret' and flux of human feeling, is the specially frightful thing in +Nature. No need for the Dean to trouble itself to employ kelpies: it +runs quietly, gloomily on, feeding its fine red trout, and sure that +by the serene law of the case when the hour comes the man will, and +will drop to his moist doom, with no trouble given. 'It gets ean' +when the said 'ean' is due; and never having been disappointed, it +runs on 'dowie,' and not disturbing itself, as certain of its food in +season. This it plainly reckons on, somewhat as year after year we +look for strawberries and new potatoes. Then, the 'It rins it lean' +by itself, solitary, sullen, morose, as it were, and in the deeps of +its moody pools, meditating periodical unsocial mischiefs, past and +to come. For haggard, imaginative suggestion, unless it be in the +'Twa Corbies,' I don't know where we can quite equal this. Beside +this primal poetry of man's spiritual instinct of terror our later +verse-developments are the merest nothings." + +While I kept repeating over to myself the rude triplet which was new +to me, and creeping as best I could into its fell significance, Pen +said-- + +"And I suppose, in point of fact, that your gloomy hermit and +murderer of a stream did get 'ean' every seven years. Don't you +think only 'ean' in seven years a somewhat scant allowance? Most +streams are as well supplied, I rather think." + +"This septennial victim was in my boyhood considered by the natives +as the toll exacted by, and fated due of the river; and I have heard +the old people reckon back, over 'Jock Tamson that was drowned i' the +year ----, coming hame fou frae the fair;' 'Wull Smith,' fou of +course, also, who, fresh from 'the spring roup of grass parks at the +Hatton in the year ----,' was unexpectedly treated to more water than +he needed for his purposes of grog; and so on. The old inhabitant +would then conclude with a grave--'It's weel kent the burn's nae +canny;' and a confident prediction, with half a shudder in his voice, +that 'ye'll see it winna be lang noo till it maun get anither.' Any +sceptic was at once silenced with--'Weel-a-weel--say yer say o't the +noo, and jist bide till ye see. But dinna ye be daunerin' doon 't +yersel', neist nicht ye're fou, or maybe, my braw man, _ye'll no +see_. I'm no saying but ye'll mak' a bonny corp, giff ye downa swall +wi' the burn-water, yer stamack nae bein' used to't.'" + +"Your theory is correct," said the Landlord, turning to Fellowes, +"that the fear of Nature is common to all races, and that as each +race advances in civilisation the terror dies out. The kelpie, for +instance, always lives near a ford--bridge the stream, and the kelpie +dies. Build a road across a haunted hill, and you banish the fairies +of the hill for ever. The kelpie and the fairy are simply spiritual +personations of very rude and common dangers--of being carried away +by the current when you are attempting to cross a river--of being +lost when you are taking a short cut across hills on which there is +no track. Abolish the dangers, and you at the same time abolish +those creatures, Fear and Fancy." + +"Rhymes like these are the truest antiques, the most precious +articles of _virtu_. What is the brooch or ring that the fair woman +wore, the brogues in which the shepherd travelled, the sword or +shield with which the warrior fought, compared with a triplet like +that, which is really an authentic bit of the terror that agitated +human hearts long ago?" + +[Sidenote: The Skye railway.] + +But while we were discussing the Dean flowing on solitarily, every +gurgle silenced with expectation as the hour drew near when its seven +years' hunger would be appeased, Pen and the Landlord had drifted +away to the subject of the Skye railway--this summer and the last a +favourite subject of discussion in the Island. + +"You are a great friend of the railway?" + +"Of course I am," said the Landlord. "I consider the locomotive the +good wizard of our modern day. Its whistle scares away filth, +mendicancy, and unthrift; ignorance and laziness perish in the glare +of its red eyes. I have seen what it has done for the Hindoo, and I +know what it will do for the Islesman. We hold India by our railways +to-day rather than by our laws or our armies. The swart face of the +stoker is the first sign of the golden age that has become visible in +my time." + +"What benefits do you expect the railway will bring with it to Skye?" + +"It will bring us in closer contact with the South. By the aid of +the railway we shall be enabled to send our stock to the southern +markets more rapidly, more cheaply, and in better condition, and as a +consequence we will obtain better prices. By aid of the railway the +Islands will be opened up, our mineral treasures will be laid bare, +our marbles will find a market, the Skye apple and the Skye +strawberry will be known in Covent Garden, our fisheries will +flourish as they have never flourished before. The railway will +bring southern capital to us, and humane southern influences. The +railway will send an electric shock through the entire Island. +Everybody's pulse will be quickened; the turf-hut will disappear; and +the Skyeman will no longer be considered a lazy creature: which he is +not--he only seems so because he has never found a proper field for +the display of his activities. There are ten chances to one that +your Skye lad, if left in Skye, will remain a fisherman or a +shepherd; but transplant him to Glasgow, Liverpool, or London, and he +not unfrequently blossoms into a merchant prince. There were quick +and nimble brains under the shock heads of the lads you saw at my +school the other day, and to each of these lads the railway will open +a career great or small, or, at all events, the chance of one." + +[Sidenote: The emigrants.] + +When the Landlord had ceased speaking, a boy brought the post-bag and +laid it down on the gravel. It was opened, and we got our +letters--the Landlord a number of Indian ones. These he put into his +coat pocket. One he tore open and read. "Hillo, Pen!" he cried, +when he got to the end, "my emigrants are to be at Skeabost on +Thursday; we must go over to see them." Then he marched into the +house, and in a little time thereafter our smoking parliament +dissolved. + + + + +_THE EMIGRANTS._ + +[Sidenote: Emigration.] + +The English emigrant is prosaic; Highland and Irish emigrants are +poetical. How is this? The wild-rose lanes of England, one would +think, are as bitter to part from, and as worthy to be remembered at +the antipodes, as the wild coasts of Skye or the green hills of +Ireland. Oddly enough, poet and painter turn a cold shoulder on the +English emigrant, while they expend infinite pathos on the emigrants +from Erin or the Highlands. The Highlander has his Lochaber-no-more, +and the Irishman has the Countess of Gifford's pretty song. The ship +in the offing, and the parting of Highland emigrants on the +sea-shore, has been made the subject of innumerable paintings; and +yet there is a sufficient reason for it all. Young man and maid are +continually parting; but unless the young man and maid are lovers, +the farewell-taking has no attraction for the singer or the artist. +Without the laceration of love, without some tumult of sorrowful +emotion, a parting is the most prosaic thing in the world; with these +it is perhaps the most affecting. "Good-bye" serves for the one; the +most sorrowful words of the poet are hardly sufficient for the other. +Rightly or wrongly, it is popularly understood that the English +emigrant is not mightily moved by regret when he beholds the shores +that gave him birth withdrawing themselves into the dimness of the +far horizon,--although, if true, why it should be so? and if false, +how it has crept into the common belief? are questions not easy to +answer. If the Englishman is obtuse and indifferent in this respect, +the Highlander is not. He has a cat-like love for locality. He +finds it as difficult to part from the faces of the familiar hills as +from the faces of his neighbours. In the land of his adoption he +cherishes the language, the games, and the songs of his childhood; +and he thinks with a continual sadness of the gray-green slopes of +Lochaber, and the thousand leagues of dim, heart-breaking sea tossing +between them and him. + +The Celt clings to his birthplace, as the ivy nestles lovingly to its +wall; the Saxon is like the arrowy seeds of the dandelion, that +travel on the wind and strike root afar. This simply means that the +one race has a larger imagination than the other, and an intenser +feeling of association. Emigration is more painful to the Highlander +than it is to the Englishman--this poet and painter have +instinctively felt--and in wandering up and down Skye you come in +contact with this pain, either fresh or in reminiscence, not +unfrequently. Although the member of his family be years removed, +the Skyeman lives in him imaginatively--just as the man who has +endured an operation is for ever conscious of the removed limb. And +this horror of emigration--common to the entire Highlands--has been +increased by the fact that it has not unfrequently been a forceful +matter, that potent landlords have torn down houses and turned out +the inhabitants, have authorised evictions, have deported the +dwellers of entire glens. That the landlords so acting have not been +without grounds of justification may in all probability be true. The +deported villagers may have been cumberers of the ground, they may +have been unable to pay rent, they may have been slowly but surely +sinking into pauperism, their prospect of securing a comfortable +subsistence in the colonies may be considerable, while in their own +glens it maybe nil,--all this may be true; but to have your house +unroofed before your eyes, and made to go on board a ship bound for +Canada, even although the passage-money be paid for you, is not +pleasant. An obscure sense of wrong is kindled in heart and brain. +It is just possible that what is for the landlord's interest may be +for yours also in the long run; but you feel that the landlord has +looked after his own interest in the first place. He wished you +away, and he has got you away; whether you will succeed in Canada is +matter of dubiety. The human gorge rises at this kind of forceful +banishment--more particularly the gorge of the banished! + +When Thursday came, the Landlord drove us over to Skeabost, at which +place, at noon, the emigrants were to assemble. He told me on the +way that some of the more sterile portions of his property were +over-populated, and that the people there could no more prosper than +trees that have been too closely planted. He was consequently a +great advocate of emigration. He maintained that force should never +be used, but advice and persuasion only; that when consent was +obtained, there should be held out a helping hand. It was his idea +that if a man went all the way to Canada to oblige you, it was but +fair that you should make his journey as pleasant as possible, and +provide him employment, or, at all events, put him in the way of +obtaining it when he got there. In Canada, consequently, he +purchased lands, made these lands over to a resident relative, and to +the charge of that relative, who had erected houses, and who had +trees to fell, and fields to plough, and cattle to look after, he +consigned his emigrants. He took care that they were safely placed +on shipboard at Glasgow or Liverpool, and his relative was in waiting +when they arrived. When the friendly face died on this side of the +Atlantic, a new friendly face dawned on them on the other. With only +one class of tenant was he inclined to be peremptory. He had no wish +to disturb in their turf hut the old man and woman who had brought up +a family; but when the grown-up son brought home a wife to the same +hut, he was down upon them, like a severing knife, at once. The +young people could not remain there; they might go where they +pleased; he would rather they would go to Canada than anywhere, but +out of the old dwelling they must march. And the young people +frequently jumped at the Landlord's offer--labour and good wages +calling sweetly to them from across the sea. The Landlord had +already sent out a troop of emigrants, of whose condition and +prospects he had the most encouraging accounts, both from themselves +and others, and the second troop were that day to meet him at +Skeabost. + +[Sidenote: The emigrants.] + +When we got to Skeabost there were the emigrants, to the number +perhaps of fifty or sixty, seated on the lawn. They were dressed as +was their wont on Sundays, when prepared for church. The men wore +suits of blue or gray kelt, the women were wrapped for the most part +in tartan plaids. They were decent, orderly, intelligent, and on the +faces of most was a certain resolved look, as if they had carefully +considered the matter, and had made up their minds to go through with +it. They were of every variety of age too; the greater proportion +young men who had long years of vigorous work in them, who would fell +many a tree, and reap many a field before their joints stiffened: +women, fresh, comely, and strong, not yet mothers, but who would be +grandmothers before their term of activity was past. In the party, +too, was a sprinkling of middle-aged people, with whom the world had +gone hardly, and who were hoping that Canada would prove kinder than +Skye. They all rose and saluted the Landlord respectfully as we +drove down toward the house. The porch was immediately made a hall +of audience. The Landlord sat in a chair, Pen took his seat at the +table, and opened a large scroll-book in which the names of the +emigrants were inscribed. One by one the people came from the lawn +to the porch and made known their requirements:--a man had not yet +made up his passage-money, and required an advance; a woman desired a +pair of blankets; an old man wished the Landlord to buy his cow, +which was about to calve, and warranted an excellent milker. With +each of these the Landlord talked sometimes in Gaelic, more +frequently in English; entered into the circumstances of each, and +commended, rebuked, expostulated, as occasion required. When an +emigrant had finished his story, and made his bargain with the +Landlord, Pen wrote the conditions thereof against his or her name in +the large scroll-book. The giving of audience began about noon, and +it was evening before it was concluded. By that time every emigrant +had been seen, talked with, and disposed of. For each the way to +Canada was smoothed, and the terms set down by Pen in his +scroll-book; and each, as he went away was instructed to hold himself +in readiness on the 15th of the following month, for on that day they +were to depart. + +When the emigrants were gone we smoked on the lawn, with the moon +rising behind us. Next morning our party broke up. Fellowes and the +Landlord went off in the mail to Inverness; the one to resume his +legal reading there, the other to catch the train for London. Pen +went to Bracadale, where he had some business to transact preparatory +to going to Ireland, and I drove in to Portree to meet the +southward-going steamer, for vacation was over, and my Summer in Skye +had come to an end. + + + + +_HOMEWARDS._ + +Life is pleasant, but unfortunately one has got to die; vacation is +delightful, but unhappily vacations come to an end. Mine had come to +an end; and sitting in the inn at Portree waiting for the +southward-going steamer, I began to count up my practical and ideal +gains, just as in dirty shillings and half-crowns a cobbler counts up +his of a Saturday night. + +[Sidenote: Practical and ideal gains.] + +In the first place, I was a gainer in health. When I came up here a +month or two ago I was tired, jaded, ill at ease. I put spots in the +sun, I flecked the loveliest blue of summer sky with bars of +darkness. I felt the weight of the weary hours. Each morning called +me as a slave-driver calls a slave. In sleep there was no +refreshment, for in dream the weary day repeated itself yet more +wearily. I was nervous, apprehensive of evil, irritable--ill, in +fact. Now I had the appetite of an ostrich, I laughed at dyspepsia; +I could have regulated my watch by my pulse; and all the dusty, +book-lettered, and be-cobwebbed chambers of my brain had been tidied +and put to rights by the fairies Wonder, Admiration, Beauty, +Freshness. Soul and body were braced alike--into them had gone +something of the peace of the hills and the strength of the sea. I +had work to do, and I was able to enjoy work. Here there was one +gain, very palpable and appreciable. Then by my wanderings up and +down, I had made solitude for ever less irksome, because I had +covered the walls of my mind with a variety of new pictures. The +poorest man may have a picture-gallery in his memory which he would +not exchange for the Louvre. In the picture-gallery of my memory +there hung Blaavin, the Cuchullins, Loch Coruisk, Dunsciach, Duntulm, +Lord Macdonald's deer-forest, Glen Sligachan, and many another place +and scene besides. Here was a gain quite as palpable and appreciable +as the other. The pictures hung in the still room of memory, and to +them I could turn for refreshment in dull or tedious hours; and +carrying that still room with its pictures about with me wherever I +went, I could enter and amuse myself at any time--whether waiting at +a station for a laggard train, or sitting under a dull preacher on a +hot Sunday afternoon. Then, again I had been brought in contact with +peculiar individuals, which is in itself an intellectual stimulus, in +so far as one is continually urged to enter into, explore, and +understand them. What a new variety of insect is to an entomologist, +that a new variety of man is to one curious in men, who delights to +brood over them, to comprehend them, to distinguish the shades of +difference that exist between them, and, if possible, sympathetically +to be them. This sympathy enables a man in his lifetime to lead +fifty lives. I don't think in the south I shall ever find the +counterparts of John Kelly, Lachlan Roy, or Angus-with-the-dogs. I +am certain I shall never encounter a nobler heart than that which has +beat for so long a term in the frame of Mr M'Ian, nor a wiser or +humaner brain than the Landlord's. Even to have met the tobacco-less +man was something on which speculation could settle. Then, in the +matter of gain, one may fairly count up the being brought into +contact with songs, stories, and superstitions; for through means of +these one obtains access into the awe and terror that lay at the +heart of that ancient Celtic life which is fast disappearing now. +Old songs illustrate the spiritual moods of a people, just as old +weapons, agricultural implements, furniture, and domestic dishes, +illustrate the material conditions. I delighted to range through +that spiritual antiquarian museum, and to take up and examine the +bits of human love, and terror, and hate, that lay fossilised there. +All these things were gains: and waiting at Portree for the steamer, +and thinking over them all, I concluded that my Summer in Skye had +not been misspent; and that no summer can be misspent anywhere, +provided the wanderer brings with him a quick eye, an open ear, and a +sympathetic spirit. It is the cunningest harper that draws the +sweetest music from the harp-string; but no musician that ever played +has exhausted all the capacities of his instrument--there is more to +take for him who can take. + +[Sidenote: The steamer.] + +The _Clansman_ reached Portree Bay at eleven P.M., and I went on +board at once and went to bed. When I awoke next morning, the +engines were in full action, and I could hear the rush of the water +past my berth. When I got on deck we were steaming down the Sound of +Raasay; and when breakfast-time arrived, it needed but a glance to +discover that autumn had come and that the sporting season was +well-nigh over. A lot of sheep were penned up near the bows, +amidships were piles of wool, groups of pointers and setters were +scattered about, and at the breakfast-table were numerous sportsmen +returning to the south, whose conversation ran on grouse-shooting, +salmon-fishing, and deer-stalking. While breakfast was proceeding +you saw everywhere sun-browned faces, heard cheery voices, and +witnessed the staying of prodigious appetites. Before these stalwart +fellows steaks, chops, platefuls of ham and eggs disappeared as if by +magic. The breakfast party, too, consisted of all orders and degrees +of men. There were drovers going to, or returning from markets; +merchants from Stornoway going south; a couple of Hebridean +clergymen, one of whom said grace; several military men of frank and +hearty bearing; an extensive brewer; three members of Parliament, who +had entirely recovered from the fatigues of legislation; and a tall +and handsome English Earl of some repute on the turf. Several +ladies, too, dropped in before the meal was over. We were all +hungry, and fed like Homer's heroes. The brewer was a valiant +trencher-man, and the handsome Earl entombed cold pie to an extent +unprecedented in my experience. The commissariat on board the +Highland steamers is plentiful and of quality beyond suspicion; and +the conjunction of good viands, and appetites whetted by the +sea-breeze, results in a play of knife and fork perfectly wonderful +to behold. When breakfast was over we all went up stairs; the +smoking men resorted to the hurricane deck, the two clergymen read, +the merchants from Stornoway wandered uneasily about as if seeking +some one to whom they could attach themselves, and the drovers smoked +short pipes amidships, and talked to the passengers there, and when +their pipes were out went forward to examine the sheep. The morning +and forenoon wore away pleasantly--the great ceremony of dinner was +ahead, and drawing nearer every moment--that was something--and then +there were frequent stoppages, and the villages on the shore, the +coming and going of boats with cargo and passengers, the throwing out +of empty barrels here, the getting in of wool there, were incidents +quite worthy of the regard of idle men leading for the time being a +mere life of the senses. We stopped for a couple of hours in +Broadford Bay--we stopped at Kyleakin--we stopped at Balmacara; and +the long looked-for dinner was served after we had past Kyle-Rhea, +and were gliding down into Glenelg. For some little time previously +savoury steams had assailed our nostrils. We saw the stewards +descending into the cabin with covered dishes, and at the first sound +of the bell the hurricane deck, crowded a moment before, was left +entirely empty. The captain took his seat at the head of the table +with a mighty roast before him, the clergyman said grace--somewhat +lengthily, I fear, in the opinion of most--the covers were lifted +away by deft waiters, and we dined that day at four as if we had not +previously breakfasted at eight, and lunched at one. Dinner was +somewhat protracted; for as we had nothing to do after the ladies +went, we sat over cheese and wine, and then talk grew animated over +whisky-punch. When I went on deck again we had passed Knock, and +were steaming straight for Armadale. The Knoydart hills were on the +one side, the low shores of Sleat, patched here and there by strips +of cultivation, on the other; and in a little we saw the larch +plantations of Armadale, and the castle becoming visible through the +trees on the lawn. + +[Sidenote: Loch Nevis.] + +In autumn the voyage to the south is lengthened by stoppages, and +frequently the steamer has to leave her direct course and thread long +inland running lochs to take wool on board. These stoppages and +wanderings out of the direct route would be annoying if you were +hurrying south to be married, or if you were summoned to the deathbed +of a friend from whom you had expectations; but as it is holiday with +you, and as every divergence brings you into unexpected scenery, they +are regarded rather as a pleasure than anything else. At Armadale we +stayed for perhaps half an hour, and then struck directly across the +Sound of Sleat, and sailed up the windings of Loch Nevis. When we +reached the top there was an immense to do-on the beach; some three +or four boats laden with wool were already pulling out towards the +steamer, which immediately lay to and let off noisy steam; men were +tumbling bales of wool into the empty boats that lay at the stony +pier, and to the pier laden carts were hurrying down from the +farm-house that stood remote. The wool boats came on either side of +the steamer; doors were opened in the bulwarks, to these doors steam +cranes were wheeled, and with many a shock of crank and rattle of +loosened chain, the bales were hoisted on deck and consigned to the +gloomy recesses of the hold. As soon as a boat was emptied, a laden +one pulled out to take its place; the steam cranes were kept +continually jolting and rattling, and in the space of a couple of +hours a considerable amount of business had been done. On the +present occasion the transference of wool from the boats to the hold +of the steamer occupied a longer time than was usual; sunset had come +in crimson and died away to pale gold and rose, and still the laden +boats came slowly on, still storms of Gaelic execration surged along +the sides of the ship, and still the steam cranes were at their noisy +work. The whole affair, having by this time lost all sense of +novelty, was in danger of becoming tiresome, but in the fading light +the steward had lighted up the saloon into hospitable warmth and +glow, and then the bell rang for tea. In a moment all interest in +the wool boats had come to an end, the passengers hurried below, and +before the tinklings of cup and saucer had ceased, the last bale of +wool had been transferred from the boats alongside to the hold, and +the _Clansman_ had turned round, and was softly gliding down Loch +Nevis. + +[Sidenote: Arisaig.] + +A lovely, transparent autumn night arched above us, a young moon and +single star by her side, when we reached Arisaig. By this time the +ladies had retired, and those of the gentlemen who remained on deck +were wrapped in plaids, each shadowy figure brought out more keenly +by the red tip of a cigar. The entrance into Arisaig is difficult, +and the _Clansman_ was put on half steam. The gentlemen were +requested to leave the hurricane-deck, and there the captain +stationed himself, while a couple of men were sent to the bows, and +three or four stationed at the wheel. Slowly the large vessel moved +onward, with low black reefs of rocks on either side, like smears of +dark colour, but perfectly soft and tender in outline; and every here +and there we could see the dark top of a rock peering out of the dim +sea like a beaver's head. From these shadowy reefs, as the vessel +moved on, the sea-birds were awaked from their slumbers, and +strangely sweet, and liquid as flute-notes, were their cries and +signals of alarm. Every now and again, too, with a sort of weary +sigh, a big wave came heaving in, and broke over the dark reefs in +cataracts of ghostly silver; and in the watery trouble and movement +that followed, the moon became a well of moving light, and the star a +quivering sword-blade. The captain stood alone on the hurricane +deck, the passengers leaned against the bulwarks watching rock and +sea, and listening to the call and re-call of disturbed mews, when +suddenly there was a muffled shout from the outlook at the bows, the +captain shouted "Port! port! hard!" and away went the wheel spinning, +the stalwart fellows toiling at the spokes, and the ship slowly +falling off. After a little while there was another noise at the +bows, the captain shouted "Starboard!" and the wheel was rapidly +reversed. We were now well up the difficult channel; and looking +back we could see a perfect intricacy of reefs and dim single rocks +behind, and a fading belt of pallor wandering amongst them, which +told the track of the ship--a dreadful place to be driven upon on a +stormy night, when the whole coast would be like the mouth of a +wounded boar--black tusks and churning foam. After a while, however, +a low line of coast became visible, then a light broke upon it; and +after a few impatient turns of the paddles we beheld a dozen boats +approaching, with lights at their bows. These were the Arisaig +boats, laden with cargo. At sight of them the captain left the +hurricane deck, the anchor went away with a thundering chain, the +passengers went to bed, and, between asleep and awake, I could hear +half the night the trampling of feet, the sound of voices, and the +jolt of the steam-cranes, as the Arisaig goods were being hoisted on +deck and stowed away. + +[Sidenote: Ardnamurchan.] + +I was up early next morning. The sky was clear, the wind blowing on +shore, and the bright, living, rejoicing sea came seething in on the +rocky intricacies through which we slowly sailed. Skye was perfectly +visible, the nearer shores dark and green; farther back the dim +Cuchullins, standing in the clouds. Eig rose opposite, with its +curiously-shaped sciur; Muck lay ahead. The _Clansman_ soon reached +the open sea, and we began to feel the impulse of the Atlantic. By +the time the passengers began to appear on deck the ship was lurching +heavily along towards the far-stretching headland of Ardnamurchan. +It was difficult to keep one's feet steady--more difficult to keep +steady one's brain. Great glittering watery mounds came heaving on, +to wash with unavailing foam the rocky coast; and amongst these the +steamer rolled and tossed and groaned, its long dark pennon of smoke +streaming with the impulse of the sea. The greater proportion of the +passengers crawled amidships--beside the engines and the cook's +quarters, which were redolent with the scent of herrings frying for a +most unnecessary breakfast--for there the motion was least felt. To +an unhappy landsman that morning the whole world seemed topsy-turvy. +There was no straight line to be discovered anywhere; everything +seemed to have changed places. Now you beheld the steersman against +the sky on the crest of an airy acclivity, now one bulwark was buried +in surge, now the other, and anon the sheep at the bows were brought +out against a foamy cataract. But with all this turmoil and dancing +and rolling, the _Clansman_ went swiftly on, and in due time we were +off the Ardnamurchan lighthouse. Here we rolled and tossed in an +unpleasant manner,--the smitten foam springing to the top of the +rocks and falling back in snowy sheets,--and seemed to make but +little progress. Gradually, however, the lighthouse began to draw +slowly behind us, slowly we rounded the rocky buttress, slowly the +dark shores of Mull drew out to sea, and in a quarter of an hour, +with dripping decks and giddy brains, we had passed from the great +bright heave and energy of the Atlantic to the quiet waters of Loch +Sunart; and, sheltered by Mull, were steaming towards Tobermory. + +The first appearance of Tobermory is prepossessing; but further +acquaintance is if possible to be eschewed. As the _Clansman_ steams +into the bay, the little town, with its half circle of white houses, +backed by hill terraces on which pretty villas are perched, and +flanked by sombre pine plantations, is a pleasant picture, and takes +heart and eye at once. As you approach, however, your admiration is +lessened, and when you go ashore quite obliterated. It has a "most +ancient and fish-like smell," and all kinds of refuse float in the +harbour. Old ocean is a scavenger at Tobermory, and is as dirty in +his habits as Father Thames himself. The houses look pretty and +clean when seen from the steamer's deck, but on a nearer view they +deteriorate and become squalid, and several transform themselves into +small inns, suggestive of the worst accommodation and the fiercest +alcohol. The steamer is usually detained at Tobermory for a couple +of hours, and during all that time there is a constant noise of +lading and unlading. You become tired of the noise and tumult, and +experience a sense of relief when steam is got up again, and with +much backing and turning and churning of dirty harbour water into +questionable foam, the large vessel works its way through the +difficult channel, and slides calmly down the Sound of Mull. + +[Sidenote: The Sound of Mull.] + +Gliding down that magnificent Sound, the "Lord of the Isles" is in +your memory, just as the "Lady of the Lake" is in your memory at Loch +Katrine. The hours float past in music. All the scenes of the noble +poem rise in vision before you. You pass the entrance to the +beautiful Loch Aline; you pass Ardtornish Castle on the Morven shore, +where the Lords of the Isles held their rude parliaments and +discussed ways and means; while opposite, Mull draws itself grandly +back into lofty mountains. Further down you see Duart Castle, with +the rock peering above the tide, on which Maclean exposed his wife--a +daughter of Argyle's--to the throttling of the waves. After passing +Duart, Mull trends away to the right, giving you a space of open +sun-bright sea, while on the left the Linnhe Loch stretches toward +Fort-William and Ben Nevis. Straight before you is the green +Lismore--long a home of Highland learning--and passing it, while the +autumn day is wearing towards afternoon, you reach Oban, sheltered +from western waves by the island of Kerrera. + +[Sidenote: The passengers.] + +The longest delay during the passage is at Oban, but then we had +dinner there, which helped to kill the time in a pleasant way. The +_Clansman_ had received a quantity of cargo at Tobermory, at Loch +Aline a flock of sheep were driven on board, goods were taken in +plentifully at other places in the Sound at which we touched, and +when we had received all the stuffs waiting for us at Oban, the +vessel was heavily laden. The entire steerage deck was a bellowing +and bleating mass of black cattle and sheep, each "parcel" divided +from the other by temporary barriers. The space amidships was a +chaos of barrels and trunks and bales of one kind or another, and +amongst these the steerage passengers were forced to dispose +themselves. Great piles of wooden boxes containing herring were laid +along the cabin deck, so that if a man were disposed to walk about it +behoved him to take care of his footsteps. But who cared! We were +away from Oban now, the wind was light, the sun setting behind us, +and the bell ringing for tea. It was the last meal we were to have +together, and through some consciousness of this the ice of reserve +seemed to melt, and the passengers to draw closer to each other. The +Hebridean clergymen unbent; the handsome earl chatted to his +neighbours as if his forehead had never known the golden clasp of the +coronet; the sporting men stalked their stags over again; the members +of Parliament discussed every subject except the affairs of the +nation; the rich brewer joked; the merchants from Stornoway laughed +immoderately; while the cattle-dealers listened with awe. Tea was +prolonged after this pleasant fashion, and then, while the Stornoway +merchants and the cattle-dealers solaced themselves with a tumbler of +punch, the majority of the other passengers went up stairs to the +hurricane deck to smoke. What a boon is tobacco to the modern +Englishman! It stands in place of wife, child, profession, and the +interchange of ideas. With a pipe in your mouth indifference to your +neighbour is no longer churlish, and silent rumination becomes the +most excellent companionship. The English were never very great +talkers, but since Sir Walter Raleigh introduced the Virginian weed +they have talked less than ever. Smoking parliaments are always +silent--and as in silence there is wisdom, they are perhaps more +effective than the talking ones. Mr Carlyle admired those still +smoke-wreathed Prussian assemblies of Frederick's, and I am +astonished that he does not advocate the use of the weed in our +English Witenagemote. Slowly the night fell around the smokers, the +stars came out in the soft sky, as the air grew chill, and one by one +they went below. Then there was more toddy-drinking, some playing at +chess, one or two attempts at letter-writing, and at eleven o'clock +the waiters cleared the tables, and began to transform the saloon +into a large sleeping apartment. + +[Sidenote: The Mull of Cantyre.] + +I climbed up to my berth and fell comfortably asleep. I must have +been asleep for several hours, although of the lapse of time I was of +course unconscious, when gradually the horror of nightmare fell upon +me. This horror was vague and formless at first, but gradually it +assumed a definite shape. I was Mazeppa, they had bound me on the +back of the desert-born, and the mighty brute, maddened with pain and +terror, was tearing along the wilderness, crashing through forests, +plunging into streams, with the howling of wolves close behind and +coming ever nearer. At last, when the animal cleared a ravine at a +bound, I burst the bondage of my dream. For a moment I could not +understand where I was. The sleeping apartment seemed to have fallen +on one side, then it righted itself, but only to fall over on the +other, then it made a wild plunge forward as if it were a living +thing and had received a lash. The ship was labouring heavily, I +heard the voices of the sailors flying in the wind, I felt the shock +of solid, and the swish of broken seas. In such circumstances sleep, +for me at least, was impossible, so I slipped out of bed, and, +steadying myself for a favourable moment, made a grab at my clothes. +With much difficulty I dressed, with greater difficulty I got into my +boots, and then I staggered on deck. Holding on by the first +support, I was almost blinded by the glare of broken seas. From a +high coast against which the great waves rushed came the steady glare +of a lighthouse, and by that token I knew we were "on" the Mull of +Cantyre. The ship was fuming through a mighty battle of tides. +Shadowy figures of steerage passengers were to be seen clinging here +and there. One--a young woman going to Glasgow as a housemaid, as +she afterwards told me--was in great distress, was under the +impression that we were all going to the bottom, and came to me for +comfort. I quieted her as best I could, and procured her a seat. +Once when the ship made a wild lurch, and a cloud of spray came +flying over the deck, she exclaimed to a sailor who was shuffling +past wearing a sou'-wester and canvas overalls, "O sailor, is't ever +sae bad as this?" "As bad as this," said the worthy, poising himself +on the unsteady deck, "as bad as this! Lod, ye sud jist a seen oor +last vi'age. There was only three besides mysel o' the ship's crew +able to haud on by a rape." Delivering himself of this scrap of +dubious comfort, the sailor shuffled onward. Happily the turmoil was +not of long duration. In an hour we had rounded the formidable Mull, +had reached comparatively smooth water, and with the lights of +Campbelton behind the pallid glare of furnaces seen afar on the +Ayrshire coast, and the morning beginning to pencil softly the east, +I went below again, and slept till we reached Greenock. + + + + +_GLASGOW._ + +The idea of Glasgow in the ordinary British mind is probably +something like the following:--"Glasgow, believed by the natives to +be the second city of the empire, is covered by a smoky canopy +through which rain penetrates, but which is impervious to sunbeam. +It is celebrated for every kind of industrial activity: it is fervent +in business six days of the week, and spends the seventh in hearing +sermon and drinking toddy. Its population consists of a great +variety of classes. The 'operative,' quiet and orderly enough while +plentifully supplied with provisions, becomes a Chartist when hungry, +and extracts great satisfaction in listening to orators--mainly from +the Emerald Isle--declaiming against a bloated aristocracy. The +'merchant prince,' known to all ends of the earth, and subject +sometimes to strange vagaries; at one moment he is glittering away +cheerily in the commercial heaven, the next he has disappeared, like +the lost Pleiad, swallowed up of night for ever. The history of +Glasgow may be summed up in one word--cotton; its deity, gold; its +river, besung by poets, a sewer; its environs, dust and ashes; the +_gamin_ of its wynds and closes less tinctured by education than a +Bosjesman; a creature that has never heard a lark sing save perhaps +in a cage outside a window in the sixth story, where a consumptive +seamstress is rehearsing the 'Song of the Shirt,' 'the swallows with +their sunny backs' omitted." Now this idea of Glasgow is entirely +wrong. It contains many cultivated men and women. It is the seat of +an ancient university. Its cathedral is the noblest in Scotland; and +its statue of Sir John Moore the finest statue in the empire. It is +not in itself an ugly city, and it has many historical associations. +Few cities are surrounded by prettier scenery; and of late years it +has produced two books--both authors dead now--one of which mirrors +the old hospitable, social life of the place, while the other +pleasantly sketches the interesting localities in its neighbourhood. +Dr Strang, in his "Clubs of Glasgow," brings us in contact with the +old jolly times; and Mr Macdonald, in his "Rambles round Glasgow," +visits, stick in hand, every spot of interest to be found for miles +around, knows every ruin and its legend, can tell where each unknown +poet has lived and died, and has the martyrology of the district at +his fingers' ends. So much for the books; and now a word or two +concerning their authors. + +[Sidenote: Dr Strang.] + +Dr Strang was long chamberlain to the city of Glasgow; for more than +half a century he saw it growing around him, increasing in +population, wealth, and political importance, as during the same +period no other British city had increased; and as he knew everything +concerning that growth, he not unnaturally took in it the deepest +pride. He could remember the old times, the old families, the old +buildings, the old domestic habits; and when well-stricken in years, +it pleased him to recall the matters which he remembered, and to +contrast them with what he saw on every side. I think that on the +whole he preferred the old Glasgow of his boyhood to the new Glasgow +of his age. All his life he had a turn for literature; in his +earlier day he had written stories and sketches, in which he mirrored +as vividly as he could the older aspects of the city; and as, along +with this turn for writing, he had that antiquarian taste which has +been a characteristic of almost every distinguished Scotsman since +Sir Walter, while his years and his official position gave him +opportunities of gratifying it, he knew Glasgow almost as well as the +oldest inhabitant, who has been a bailie and cognisant of all +secrets, knows his native village. He was an admirable _cicerone_; +his mind was continually pacing up and down the local last century, +knowing every person he met as he knew his contemporary +acquaintances; and when he spoke of the progress of Glasgow, he spoke +proudly, as if he were recounting the progress of his own son. +[Sidenote: Glasgow clubs.] During the last years of his life, it +struck him that he might turn his local knowledge to account. The +Doctor was a humorist; he was fond of anecdote, had a very proper +regard for good eating and drinking; he remembered regretfully the +rum-punch of his youth, and he was deeply versed in the histories of +the Glasgow Clubs. In a happy hour, it occurred to him that if he +told the story of those clubs--described the professors, the +merchants, the magistrates, the local bigwigs, the clergymen, the +rakes, who composed their memberships--he would go to the very core +and essence of old Glasgow Society; while in the course of his work +he would find opportunities of using what antiquarian knowledge he +had amassed concerning old houses, old social habits, the state of +trade at different periods, and the like. The idea was a happy one; +the Doctor set to work valiantly, and in course of time in a spacious +volume, with suitable index and appendix, the "Clubs of Glasgow" was +before the world. Never, perhaps, has so good a book been so badly +written. The book is interesting, but interesting in virtue of the +excellence of the material, not of the literary execution. Yet, on +the whole, it may fairly be considered sufficient. You open its +pages, and step from the Present into the Past. You are in the +Trongate, through which Prince Charles has just ridden. You see +Virginian merchants pacing to and fro with scarlet cloaks and +gold-headed sticks; you see belle and beau walk a minuet in the Old +Assembly-Room; you see flushed Tom and Jerry lock an asthmatic +"Charlie" in his sentry-box, and roll him down a declivity into the +river--all gone long ago, like the rum-punch which they brewed, like +the limes with which they flavoured it! + +[Sidenote: Hugh Macdonald.] + +Mr Macdonald is Dr Strang's antithesis, and yet his complement. The +one worked in antiquarianism and statistics; the other in +antiquarianism and poetry. The one loved the old houses, the old +hedges, the old churchyards within the city; the other loved these +things without the city and miles away from it--and so between them +both we have the district very fairly represented. Mr Macdonald was +a man of genius, a song-writer, an antiquary, a devout lover of beast +and bird, of snowdrop and lucken-gowan, of the sun setting on +Bothwell Bank, of the moon shining down on Clydesdale barley fields. +He was in his degree one of those poets who have, since Burns's time, +made nearly every portion of Scotland vocal. Just as Tannahill has +made Gleniffer hills greener by his songs, as Thorn of Inverury has +lent a new interest to the banks of the Dee, as Scott Riddell has +added a note to the Border Minstrelsy, has Mr Macdonald taken poetic +possession of the country around Glasgow. Neither for him nor for +any of his compeers can the title of great poet be claimed. These +men are local poets; but if you know and love the locality, you +thankfully accept the songs with which they have associated them. If +the scenery of a shire is gentle, it is fitting that the poet of the +shire should possess a genius to match. Great scenes demand great +poems; simple scenes, simple ones. Coleridge's hymn in the Vale of +Chamouni is a noble performance, but out of place if uttered in a +Lanarkshire glen where sheep are feeding, and where you may search +the horizon in vain for an elevation of five hundred feet. Mr +Macdonald could not have approached Coleridge's hymn had he been +placed in Chamouni; but he has done justice to the scenery that +surrounded him--made the ivies of Crookston more sombre with his +verse, and yet more splendid the westward-running Clyde in which the +sun is setting. + +He was one of those, too--of whom Scotchmen are specially proud--who, +born in humble circumstances, and with no aid from college, and often +but little from school, do achieve some positive literary result, and +recognition more or less for the same. He was born in one of the +eastern districts + +of Glasgow, lived for some time in the Island of Mull, in the house +of a relative--for, as his name imports, he was a pure Celt--and from +his sires he drew song, melancholy, and superstition. The +superstition he never could completely shake off. He could laugh at +a ghost story, could deck it out with grotesque or humorous +exaggeration; but the central terror glared upon him through all +disguises, and, hearing or relating, his blood was running chill the +while. Returning to his native city, he was entered an apprentice in +a public manufactory, and here it was--fresh from ruined castle, mist +folding on the Morven Hills, tales told by mountain shepherd or +weather-beaten fisherman of corpse lights glimmering on the sea; with +English literature in which to range and take delight in golden +shreds of leisure; and with everything, past Highland experience and +present dim environment, beginning to be overspread by the "purple +light of love"--that Mr Macdonald became a poet. Considering the +matter now, it may be said that his circumstances were not +unfavourable to the development of the poetic spirit. [Sidenote: +Glasgow poets.] Glasgow at the period spoken of could boast of her +poets. Dugald Moore was writing odes to "Earthquake" and "Eclipse," +and getting quizzed by his companions. Motherwell, the author of +"Jeanie Morrison," was editor of the _Courier_, and in its columns +fighting manfully against Reform. Alexander Rodger, who disgusted +Sir Walter by the publication of a wicked and witty welcome--singular +in likeness and contrast to the Magician's own--on the occasion of +the visit of his gracious Majesty George IV. to Edinburgh, was +filling the newspapers of the west with satirical verses, and getting +himself into trouble thereby. Nay, more, this same Alexander Rodger, +either then or at a later period, held a post in the manufactory in +which Mr Macdonald was apprentice. Nor was the eye without +education, or memory without associations to feed upon. Before the +door of this manufactory stood Glasgow Green, the tree yet putting +forth its leaves under which Prince Charles stood when he reviewed +his shoeless Highland host before marching to Falkirk. Near the +window, and to be seen by the boy every time he lifted his head from +work, flowed the Clyde, bringing recollections of the red ruins of +Bothwell Castle, where the Douglases dwelt, and the ivy-muffled walls +of Blantyre Priory where the monks prayed; carrying imagination with +it as it flowed seaward to Dumbarton Castle, with its Ossianic +associations, and recalling, as it sank into ocean, the night when +Bruce from his lair in Arran watched the beacon broadening on the +Carrick shore. And from the same windows, looking across the stream, +he could see the long straggling burgh of Rutherglen, with the church +tower which saw the bargain struck with Menteith for the betrayal of +Wallace, standing eminent above the trees. And when we know that the +girl who was afterwards to become his wife was growing up there, +known and loved at the time, one can fancy how often his eyes dwelt +on the little town, with church tower and chimney, fretting the +sky-line. And when he rambled--and he always _did_ +ramble--inevitably deeper impulses would come to him. Northward from +Glasgow a few miles, at Rob Royston, where Wallace was betrayed, +lived Walter Watson, whose songs have been sung by many who never +heard his name. Seven miles southward from the city lay Paisley in +its smoke, and beyond that, Gleniffer Braes--scarcely changed since +Tannahill walked over them on summer evenings. [Sidenote: A poetic +education.] South-east stretched the sterile district of the Mearns, +with plovers, and heather, and shallow, glittering lakes; and beyond, +in a green crescent embracing the sea, lay a whole Ayrshire, fiery +and full of Burns, every stock and stone passionate with him, his +daisy blooming in every furrow, every stream as it ran seaward +mourning for Highland Mary--and when night fell, in every tavern in +the county the blithest lads in Christendie sitting over their cups, +and flouting the horned moon hanging in the window pane. And then, +to complete a poetic education, there was Glasgow herself--black +river flowing between two glooms of masts--the Trongate's all-day +roar of traffic, and at night the faces of the hurrying crowds +brought out keenly for a moment in the light of the shop windows--the +miles of stony streets, with statues in the squares and open +spaces--the grand Cathedral, filled once with Popish shrines and +rolling incense, on one side of the ravine, and on the other, John +Knox on his pillar, impeaching it with outstretched arm that clasps a +Bible. And ever as the darkness came, the district north-east and +south of the city was filled with shifting glare and gloom of furnace +fires; instead of night and its privacy, the splendour of towering +flame brought to the inhabitants of the eastern and southern streets +a fluctuating scarlet day, piercing nook and cranny as searchingly as +any sunlight--making a candle needless to the housewife as she darned +stockings for the children, and turning to a perfect waste of charm, +the blush on a sweetheart's cheek. With all these things around him, +Mr Macdonald set himself sedulously to work, and whatever may be the +value of his poetic wares, plenty of excellent material lay around +him on every side. + +[Sidenote: Hugh Macdonald.] + +To him all these things had their uses. He had an excellent literary +digestion, capable of extracting nutriment from the toughest +materials. He assiduously made acquaintance with English literature +in the evenings, gradually taking possession of the British +essayists, poets, and historians. During this period, too, he +cherished republican feelings, and had his own speculations +concerning the regeneration of the human race. At this time the +splendid promise of Chartism made glorious the horizon, and +Macdonald, like so many of his class, conceived that the "five pints" +were the _avant-couriers_ of the millennium. For him, in a very +little while, Chartism went out like a theatrical sun. He no longer +entertained the idea that he could to any perceptible extent aid in +the regeneration of the race. Indeed, it is doubtful whether, in his +latter days, he cared much whether the race would ever be +regenerated. Man was a rascal, had ever been a rascal, and a rascal +he would remain till the end of the chapter. He was willing to let +the world wag, certified that the needful thing was to give regard to +his own private footsteps. His own personal hurt made him forget the +pained world. He was now fairly embarked on the poetic tide. His +name, appended to copies of verses, frequently appeared in the local +prints, and gained no small amount of local notice. At intervals +some song-bird of his brain of stronger pinion or gayer plumage than +usual would flit from newspaper to newspaper across the country; nay, +several actually appeared beyond the Atlantic, and, not unnoticed by +admiring eyes, perched on a broadsheet here and there, as they made +their way from the great cities towards the Western clearings. All +this time, too, he was an enthusiastic botanist in book and field, a +lover of the open country and the blowing wind, a scorner of fatigue, +ready any Saturday afternoon when work was over for a walk of twenty +miles, if so be he might look on a rare flower or an ivied ruin. And +the girl living over in Rutherglen was growing up to womanhood, each +charm of mind and feature celebrated for many a year in glowing +verse; and her he, poet-like, married--the household plenishing of +the pair, love and hope, and a disregard of inconveniences arising +from straitened means. The happiest man in the world--but a widower +before the year was out! With his wife died many things, all buried +in one grave. Republican dreamings and schemes for the regeneration +of the world faded after that. Here is a short poem, full of the +rain cloud and the yellow leaf, which has reference to his feelings +at the time-- + + Gorgeous are thy woods, October! + Clad in glowing mantles sear; + Brightest tints of beauty blending + Like the west, when day's descending, + Thou'rt the sunset of the year. + + "Fading flowers are thine, October! + Droopeth sad the sweet blue-bell; + Gone the blossoms April cherish'd-- + Violet, lily, rose, all perish'd-- + Fragrance fled from field and dell. + + "Songless are thy woods, October! + Save when redbreast's mournful lay + Through the calm gray morn is swelling, + To the list'ning echoes telling + Tales of darkness and decay. + + "Saddest sounds are thine, October! + Music of the falling leaf + O'er the pensive spirit stealing, + To its inmost depths revealing: + 'Thus all gladness sinks in grief.' + + "I do love thee, drear October! + More than budding, blooming Spring-- + Hers is hope, delusive smiling, + Trusting hearts to grief beguiling; + Mem'ry loves thy dusky wing. + + "Joyous hearts may love the summer, + Bright with sunshine, song, and flower; + But the heart whose hopes are blighted, + In the gloom of woe benighted, + Better loves thy kindred bower. + + "'Twas in thee, thou sad October! + Death laid low my bosom flower. + Life hath been a wintry river, + O'er whose ripple gladness never + Gleameth brightly since that hour. + + "Hearts would fain be with their treasure, + Mine is slumb'ring in the clay; + Wandering here alone, uncheery, + Deem 't not strange this heart should weary + For its own October day." + + +The greater proportion of Mr Macdonald's poems first saw the light in +the columns of the _Glasgow Citizen_, then, as now, conducted by Mr +James Heddenvick, an accomplished journalist, and a poet of no mean +order. The casual connexion of contributor and editor ripened into +friendship, and in 1849, Mr Macdonald was permanently engaged as Mr +Hedderwick's sub-editor. He was now occupied in congenial tasks, and +a gush of song followed this accession of leisure and opportunity. +Sunshine and the scent of flowers seemed to have stolen into the +weekly columns. You "smelt the meadow" in casual paragraph and in +leading article. The _Citizen_ not only kept its eye on Louis +Napoleon and the Czar, it paid attention to the building of the +hedge-sparrow's nest, and the blowing of the wild flower as well. + +Still more to prose than to verse did Mr Macdonald at this time +direct his energies; and he was happy enough to encounter a subject +exactly suited to his powers and mental peculiarities. He was the +most uncosmopolitan of mortals. He had the strongest local +attachments. In his eyes, Scotland was the fairest portion of the +planet; Glasgow, the fairest portion of Scotland; and Bridgeton--the +district of the city in which he dwelt--the fairest portion of +Glasgow. He would have shrieked like a mandrake at uprootal. He +never would pass a night away from home. But he loved nature--and +the snowdrop called him out of the smoke to Castle Milk, the +lucken-gowan to Kenmure, the craw-flower to Gleniffer. His heart +clung to every ruin in the neighbourhood like the ivy. He was +learned in epitaphs, and spent many an hour in village churchyards in +extracting sweet and bitter thoughts from the half-obliterated +inscriptions. Jaques, Isaak Walton, and Old Mortality, in one, he +knew Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, and Ayrshire by heart. Keenly +sensible to natural beauty, full of antiquarian knowledge, and in +possession of a prose style singularly quaint, picturesque, and +humorous, he began week, by week, in the columns of the _Citizen_, +the publication of his "Rambles Round Glasgow." City people were +astonished to learn that the country beyond the smoke was far from +prosaic--that it had its traditions, its antiquities, its historical +associations, its glens and waterfalls worthy of special excursions. +These sketches were afterwards collected, and ran, in their separate +and more convenient form, through two editions. No sooner were the +"Rambles" completed than he projected a new series of sketches, +entitled, "Days at the Coast"--sketches which also appeared in the +columns of a weekly newspaper. Mr Macdonald's best writing is to be +found in this book--several of the descriptive passages being really +notable in their way. As we read, the Firth of Clyde glitters before +us, with white villages sitting on the green shores: Bute and the +twin Cumbraes are asleep in sunshine; while beyond, a stream of +lustrous vapour is melting on the grisly Arran peaks. The +publication of these sketches raised the reputation of their author, +and, like the others, they received the honour of collection, and a +separate issue. But little more has to be said concerning his +literary activity. The early afternoon was setting in. During the +last eighteen months of his life he was engaged on one of the Glasgow +morning journals; and when in its columns he rambled as of yore, it +was with a comparatively infirm step, and an eye that had lost its +interest and lustre. "Nature never did betray the heart that loved +her;" and when the spring-time came, Macdonald, remembering all her +former sweetness, journeyed to Castle Milk to see the snowdrops--for +there, of all their haunts in the west, they come earliest and linger +latest. It was a dying visit, an eternal farewell. Why have I +written of this man so? Because he had the knack of making friends +of all with whom he came into contact, and it was my fortune to come +into more frequent and more intimate contact with him than most. He +was neither a great man nor a great poet--in the ordinary senses of +these terms--but since his removal there are perhaps some half-dozen +persons in the world who feel that the "strange superfluous glory of +the air" lacks something, and that because an eye and an ear are +gone, the colour of the flower is duller, the song of the bird less +sweet, than in a time they can remember. + +Both Dr Strang and Mr Macdonald have written about Glasgow, and by +their aid we shall be able to see something of the city and its +surroundings. + +[Sidenote: Early history of Glasgow.] + +The history of the city, from the period of St Mungo to the +commercial crisis in 1857 and the fall of the Western Bank, presents +many points of interest. Looking back some thirteen centuries into +the gray morning-light of time, we see St Mungo led by an angel, +establishing himself on the banks of the Molendinar, and erecting a +rude chapel or oratory. There for many summers and winters he prayed +his prayers, sung his aves, and wrought his miracles. The fame of +his sanctity spread far and wide, and many pilgrims came to converse +with, and be counselled by, the holy man. In process of time--the +prayers of the saint proving wondrously efficacious, and the Clyde +flowing through the lower grounds at a little distance being populous +with salmon--people began to gather, and a score or so of wooden +huts, built on the river bank, was the beginning of the present city. +In 1197 the cathedral was consecrated by a certain Bishop Jocelyn, +and from thence, on to the Reformation, its affairs continued in a +prosperous condition; its revenues, taking into consideration the +poverty of the country and the thinness of the population, were +considerable; and its bishops were frequently men of ambition and of +splendid tastes. Its interior was enriched by many precious relics. +On days of high festival, the Lord Bishop and his officials, clad in +costly vestments, entered by the great western door, and as the +procession swept onward to the altar, incense fumed from swinging +censers, the voices of the choir rose in rich and solemn chanting, +the great organ burst on the ear with its multitudinous thunders, and +rude human hearts were bowed to the ground with contrition, or rose +in surges of sound to heaven in ecstasy. Glasgow, too, is closely +connected with Wallace. The Bell o' the Brae saw the flash of his +sword as the Southrons fled before him. At the kirk of Rutherglen, +Sir John Menteith and Sir Aymer de Vallance met to plan the capture +of the hero: and at Rob Royston the deed of shame was consummated. +Menteith, with sixty followers, surrounded the house in which Wallace +slept. Traitors were already within. His weapons were stolen. +Kierly, his servant, was slain. According to Blind Harry, at the +touch of a hand Wallace sprung up--a lion at bay. He seized an oaken +stool--the only weapon of offence within reach--and at a blow broke +one rascal's back, in a second splashed the wall with the blood and +brains of another, when the whole pack threw themselves upon him, +bore him down by sheer weight, and secured him. He was conveyed to +Dumbarton, then held by the English, and from thence was delivered +into the hands of Edward. The battle of Langside was fought in the +vicinity of the city. Moray, lying in Glasgow, intercepted Mary on +her march from Hamilton to Dumbarton, and gave battle. Every one +knows the issue. For sixty miles without drawing rein the queen fled +towards England and a scaffold. Moray returned to Glasgow through +the village of Gorbals, his troopers, it is said, wiping their bloody +swords on the manes of their horses as they rode, and went thence to +meet his assassin in Linlithgow town. During the heat and frenzy of +the Reformation, nearly all our ecclesiastical edifices went to the +ground, or came out of the fierce trial with interiors pillaged, +altars desecrated, and the statues of apostles and saints broken or +defaced. Glasgow Cathedral was assailed like the rest; already the +work of destruction had begun, when the craftsmen of the city came to +the rescue. Their exertions on that occasion preserved the noble +building for us. They were proud of it then; they are proud of it +to-day. During the persecution, the country to the west of Glasgow +was overrun by dragoons, and many a simple Covenanter had but short +shrift--seized, tried, condemned, shot, in heaven, within the hour. +The rambler is certain to encounter, not only in village churchyards, +but by the wayside, or in the hearts of solitary moors, familiar but +with the sunbeam and the cry of the curlew, rude martyr stones, their +sculptures and letters covered with lichen, and telling with +difficulty the names of the sufferers and the manner of their deaths, +and intimating that-- + + "This stone shall witness be + 'Twixt Presbyterie and Prelacie." + + +[Sidenote: Prince Charles.] + +The next striking event in the history of the city is the visit of +Prince Charles. Enter on the Christmas week of 1745-46 the wild, +foot-sore, Highland host on its flight from Derby. How the sleek +citizens shrink back from the worn, hairy faces, and fierce eyes in +which the lights of plunder burn. "The Prince, the Prince! which is +the Prince?" "That's he--yonder--wi' the lang yellow hair." Onward +rides, pale and dejected, the throne-haunted man. He looks up as he +catches a fair face at a window, and you see he inherits the Stuart +smile and the Stuart eye. He, like his fathers, will provoke the +bitterest hatred, and be served by the wildest devotion. Men will +gladly throw away their lives for him. The blood of nobles will +redden scaffolds for him. Shepherds and herdsmen will dare death to +shelter him; and beautiful women will bend over his sleep--wrapped in +clansman's plaid on bed of heather or bracken--to clip but one shred +of his yellow hair, and feel thereby requited for all that they and +theirs have suffered in his behalf. But with all his beauty and his +misfortunes, his appearance in Glasgow created little enthusiasm. He +scarcely gained a recruit. Only a few ladies donned in his honour +white breast-knots and ribbons. He levied a heavy contribution on +the inhabitants. A prince at the head of an army in want of brogues, +and who insisted on being provided with shoe-leather gratis, was +hardly calculated to excite the admiration of prudent Glasgow +burgesses. He did not remain long. The Green beheld for one day the +far-stretching files and splendour of the Highland war, on the +next--in unpaid shoe-leather--he marched to his doom. Victory, like +a stormy sunbeam, burned for a moment on his arms at Falkirk, and +then all was closed in blood and thunder on Culloden Moor. + +[Sidenote: Glasgow Clubs.] + +It is about this period that Dr Strang's book on the "Clubs" begins. +In those old, hospitable, hard-drinking days, Glasgow seems to have +been pre-eminently a city of clubs. Every street had its tavern, and +every tavern had its club. There were morning clubs, noon-day clubs, +evening clubs, and all-day clubs, which, like the sacred fire, never +went out. The club was a sanctuary wherein nestled friendship and +enjoyment. The member left his ordinary life outside the door, like +his greatcoat, and put it on again when he went away. Within the +genial circle of the club were redressed all the ills that flesh is +heir to: the lover forgot Nerissa's disdain, the debtor felt no +longer his creditor's eye. At the sight of the boon companions, Care +packed up his bundles and decamped, or if he dared remain, he was +immediately laid hold of, plunged into the punch-bowl, and there was +an end of him for that night at least. Unhappily those clubs are +dead, but as their ghosts troop past in Dr Strang's pages, the sense +is delicately taken by an odour of rum-punch. [Sidenote: The +Anderston Club.] Shortly after the Pretender's visit to the city, the +Anderston Club--so called from its meetings being held in that little +village--flourished, drank its punch, and cracked its jokes on +Saturday afternoons. Perhaps no club connected with the city, before +or since, could boast of a membership so distinguished. It comprised +nearly all the University professors. Dr Moore, professor of Greek; +Professor Ross, who faithfully instilled the knowledge of Humanities +into the Glasgow youth; Drs Cullen and Hamilton, medical teachers of +eminence; Adam Smith; the Brothers Foulis--under whose auspices the +first Fine-Art Academy was established in Scotland, and from whose +printing-press the Greek and Roman classics were issued with a +correctness of text and beauty of typography which had then no +parallel in the kingdom--were regular and zealous members. But the +heart and soul of the Anderston Club seems to have been Dr Simson, +professor of mathematics. His heart vibrated to the little hostelry +of Anderston as the needle vibrates to the pole. He could have found +his way with his eyes shut. The following story, related of the +professor by Dr Strang, is not unamusing in itself, and a fair +specimen of the piebald style in which the greater portion of the +book is written:-- + +"The mathematician ever made it a rule to throw algebra and +arithmetic 'to the dogs,' save in so far as to discover the just +_quadratic equation_ and _simple division_ of a bowl of punch. One +thing alone in the club he brought his mathematics to bear upon, and +that was his glass. This had been constructed on the truest +principles of geometry for emptying itself easily, the stalk +requiring to form but a very acute angle with the open lips ere its +whole contents had dropped into the æsophagus. One fatal day, +however, Girzy, the black-eyed and dimple-cheeked servant of the +hostelry, in making arrangements for the meeting of the club, allowed +this favourite piece of crystal, as many black and blue eyed girls +have done before and since, to slip from her fingers and be broken. +She knew the professor's partiality for his favourite beaker, and +thought of getting another; but the day was too far spent, and the +Gallowgate, then the receptacle of such luxuries, was too far distant +to procure one for that day's meeting of the fraternity. Had +Verreville, the city of glass, been then where it has since stood, +the mathematician's placid temper might not have been ruffled, nor +might Girzy have found herself in so disagreeable a dilemma. The +club met, the hen-broth smoked in every platter, the few standard +dishes disappeared, the _medoc_ was sipped, and was then succeeded, +as usual, by a goodly-sized punch-bowl. The enticing and delicious +compound was mixed, tasted, and pronounced nectar: the professor, +dreaming for a moment of some logarithm of Napier's, or problem of +Euclid's, pushed forward to the fount unconsciously the glass which +stood before him, drew it back a brimmer, and carried it to his lips; +but lo! the increased angle at which the professor was obliged to +raise his arm, roused him from his momentary reverie, and, pulling +the drinking-cup from his lips as if it contained the deadliest +henbane, exclaimed, 'What is this, Girzy, you have given me? I +cannot drink out of this glass. Give me my own, you little minx. +You might now well know that _this_ is not mine.' 'Weel-a-wat, it's +a I hae for't, Maister Simson,' answered Girzy, blushing. 'Hush, +hush,' rejoined the mathematician, 'say not so. I know it is not +_my_ glass, for the outer edge of this touches my nose, and _mine_ +never did so.' The girl confessed the accident, and the professor, +though for some minutes sadly out of humour, was at length appeased, +and swallowed his _sherbet_ at the risk of injuring his proboscis." + +[Sidenote: Dr Simson.] + +Dr Strang informs us that the eccentric mathematician, in his +progress from the University to Anderston, was in the habit of +counting his steps, and that, walking blind-folded, he could have +told the distance to a fraction of an inch. He has omitted, however, +to tell us whether the Doctor's steps were counted on his return, and +if the numbers corresponded! + +Along with the notices of the clubs subsequent to the one mentioned, +Dr Strang gives his reader a tolerable notion of how it went with +Glasgow in those years. We have a peep of the Trongate during the +lucrative tobacco trade, when Glasgow had her head not a little +turned by her commercial prosperity. There are rich citizens now in +the streets. Behold Mr Glassford, picking his steps daintily along +the Crown o' the Causeway, with scarlet cloak, flowing wig, +cocked-hat, and gold-headed cane! He has money in his purse, and he +knows it too. All men warm themselves in the light of his +countenance. If he kicks you, you are honoured, for is it not with a +golden foot? How the loud voice droops, how the obsequious knee +bends before him! He told Tobias Smollett yesterday that he had +five-and-twenty ships sailing for him on the sea, and that +half-a-million passed through his hands every year. Pass on a little +farther, and yonder is Captain Paton sunning himself on the ample +pavement in front of the Tontine. Let us step up to him. He will +ask us to dinner, and mix us a bowl of punch flavoured with his own +limes-- + + "In Trinidad that grow." + +For hospitality was then, as now, a characteristic of the city. The +suppers--the favourite meal--were of the most substantial +description. A couple of turkeys, a huge round of beef, and a +bowl--a very Caspian Sea--of punch, seething to its silver brim, and +dashed with delicate slices of lime or lemon--formed the principal +ingredients. Good fellowship was the order of the day. In the +morning and forenoon the merchants congregated in the Tontine +reading-room for news and gossip, and at night the punch-bowl was +produced, emptied, replenished, and emptied again, while the +toasts--"Down with the Convention," "The Pilot that weathered the +storm"--were drunk with enthusiasm in some cosy tavern in the then +aristocratic Princes Street. At a later period, during the disturbed +years that preceded the Reform Bill, we see the moneyed +classes--"soor-milk jockeys" they were profanely nicknamed by the +mob--eagerly enrolling themselves in yeomanry corps: on field days +resplendent in laced jacket and shako, or clanking through the +streets with spur and sabre. As we approach our own times the clubs +pale their ineffectual fires--they shrink from planets to +will-o'-the-wisp; at last + + "They die away + And fade into the light of common day." + +Glasgow is now, so far as history is concerned, a clubless city. + +[Sidenote: The Glasgow operative.] + +During the commercial distress of 1848-49, and the agitation +consequent on the flight of Louis Philippe and the establishment of +the French Republic, Glasgow had the bad eminence of going further in +deeds of lawlessness and riot than any other city in the empire. The +"Glasgow operative" is, while trade is good and wages high, the +quietest and most inoffensive of creatures. He cares comparatively +little for the affairs of the nation. He is industrious and +contented. Each six months he holds a saturnalia--one on New-year's +day, the other at the Fair, (occurring in July,) and his excesses at +these points keep him poor during the intervals. During periods of +commercial depression, however, when wages are low, and he works +three-quarter time, he has a fine nose to scent political iniquities. +He begins to suspect that all is not right with the British +constitution. These unhappy times, too, produce impudent demagogues, +whose power of lungs and floods of flashy rhetoric work incredible +mischief. To these he seriously inclines his ear. He is hungry and +excited. He is more anxious to reform Parliament than to reform +himself. He cries out against tyranny of class-legislation, +forgetting the far harder tyranny of the gin-palace and the +pawn-shop. He thinks there should be a division of property. Nay, +it is known that some have in times like these marked out the very +houses they are to possess when the goods of the world are segregated +and appropriated anew. What a dark sea of ignorance and blind wrath +is ever weltering beneath the fair fabric of English prosperity! +This dangerous state of feeling had been reached in the year spoken +of. Hungry, tumultuous meetings were held on the Green. The +ignorant people were maddened by the harangues of orators--fellows +who were willing to burn the house of the nation about the ears of +all of us, if so be _their_ private pig could be roasted thereby. +"The rich have food," said they, "you have none. You cannot die of +hunger. Take food by the strong hand wherever you can get it." This +advice was acted upon. The black human sea poured along London +Street, and then split--one wave rushed up the High Street, another +along the Trongate--each wasting as it went. The present writer, +then a mere lad, was in the streets at the time. [Sidenote: Glasgow +riots.] The whole thing going on before his eyes seemed strange, +incredible, too monstrous to be real--a hideous dream which he fought +with and strove to thrust away. For an hour or so all order was +lost. All that had been gained by a thousand years of strife and +effort--all that had been wrested from nature--all the civilities and +amenities of life--seemed drowned in a wild sea of scoundrelism. The +world was turned topsy-turvy. Impossibility became matter of fact. +Madness ruled the hour. Gun-shops were broken open, and +wretched-looking men, who hardly knew the muzzle from the stock, were +running about with muskets over their shoulders. In Buchanan Street +a meal cart was stopped, overturned, the sacks ripped open with +knives, and women were seen hurrying home to their famishing broods +with aprons full; some of the more greedy with a cheese under each +arm. In Queen Street a pastry cook's was attacked, the windows +broken, and the delicacies they contained greedily devoured. A large +glass-case, filled with coloured lozenges, arranged in diamond +patterns, stood serene for a while amid universal ruin. A scoundrel +smashed it with a stick; down rushed a deluge of lozenges, and a +dozen rioters were immediately sprawling over each other on the +ground to secure a share of the spoil. By this time alarm had +spread. Shops were shutting in all directions, some of the more +ingenious traders, it is said, pasting "A Shop to Let" upon their +premises--that they might thereby escape the rage or the cupidity of +the rioters. At last, weary with spoliation, the mob, armed with +guns, pistols, and what other weapons they had secured, came marching +along the Trongate, a tall begrimed collier, with a rifle over his +shoulder, in front. This worthy, more than two-thirds drunk, kept +shouting at intervals, "Vive la Republic! We'll hae Vive la +Republic, an' naething _but_ Vive la Republic!" to which intelligible +political principle his followers responded with vociferous cheers. +At last they reached the Cross. Here a barricade was in process of +erection. Carts were stopped and thrown down, and London Street +behind was crowded with men, many of them provided with muskets. On +a sudden the cry arose, "The sogers, the sogers!" terrible to the +heart of a British mob. Hoofs were heard clattering along the +Trongate, and the next moment an officer of Carabineers leaped his +horse over the barricade, followed by his men, perhaps a dozen in +all. The effect was instantaneous. In five minutes not a rioter was +to be seen. When evening fell the Trongate wore an unwonted +appearance. Troops stacked their bayonets, lighted their fires, and +bivouacked under the piazzas of the Tontine. Sentinels paced up and +down the pavements, and dragoons patrolled the streets. Next day the +disturbance came to a crisis. A riot occurred in Calton or +Bridgeton. The pensioners were sent to quell it there. While +marching down one of the principal streets, they were assailed by +volleys of stones, the crowd meanwhile falling back sullenly from the +bayonet points. The order was given to fire, and the veterans, whose +patience was completely exhausted, sent their shot right into the +mass of people. Several were wounded, and one or more killed. When +the pensioners were gone, a corpse was placed on boards, carried +through the streets shoulder-high by persons who, by that means, +hoped to madden and rouse the citizens; a large crowd attending, +every window crammed with heads as the ghastly procession passed. As +they approached the centre of the city, a file of soldiers was drawn +across the street up which they were marching. When the crowd fell +back, the bearers of the dead were confronted by the ominous glitter +of steel. The procession paused, stopped, wavered, and finally beat +a retreat, and thus the riots closed. That evening people went to +look at the spot where the unhappy collision had taken place. Groups +of workmen were standing about, talking in tones of excitement. The +wall of one of the houses was chipped in places by bullets, and the +gutter, into which a man had reeled, smashed by the death-shot, had +yet a ruddy stain. Next day tranquillity was in a great measure +restored. [Sidenote: Special constables.] Masses of special +constables had by this time been organised, and marched through the +city in force. Although they did not come into contact with the +rioters, the bravery they displayed in cudgelling what unfortunate +females, and _keelies_ of tender years fell into their hands, gave +one a lively idea of the prowess they would have exhibited had they +met foes worthy of the batons they bore. + +Glasgow, as most British readers are aware, is situated on both sides +of the Clyde, some twenty or thirty miles above its junction with the +sea. Its rapidity of growth is perhaps without a parallel in the +kingdom. There are persons yet alive who remember when the river, +now laden with shipping, was an angler's stream, in whose gravelly +pools the trout played, and up whose rapids the salmon from the sea +flashed like a sunbeam; and when the banks, now lined with warehouses +and covered with merchandise of every description, really merited the +name of the Broomy Law. Science and industry have worked wonders +here. The stream, which a century ago hardly allowed the passage of +a herring-boat or a coal-gabbert, bears on its bosom to-day ships +from every clime, and mighty ocean steamers which have wrestled with +the hurricanes of the Atlantic. Before reaching Glasgow the Clyde +traverses one of the richest portions of Scotland, for in summer +Clydesdale is one continued orchard. As you come down the stream +towards the city, you have, away to the right, the mineral districts +of Gartsherrie and Monkland--not superficially captivating regions. +Everything there is grimed with coal-dust. Spring herself comes with +a sooty face. The soil seems calcined. You cannot see that part of +the world to advantage by day. With the night these innumerable +furnaces and iron-works will rush out into vaster volume and wilder +colour, and for miles the country will be illuminated--restless with +mighty lights and shades. It is the Scottish Staffordshire. +[Sidenote: Moors of the covenant.] On the other hand, away to the +south-west stretch the dark and sterile moors of the covenant, with +wild moss-haggs, treacherous marshes green as emerald, and dark mossy +lochs, on whose margins the water-hen breeds--a land of plovers and +curlews, in whose recesses, and in the heart of whose mists, the +hunted people lay while the men of blood were hovering near--life and +death depending on the cry and flutter of a desert bird, or the flash +of a sunbeam along the stretches of the moor. In the middle of that +melancholy waste stands the farm-house of Lochgoin, intimately +connected with the history of the Covenanters. To this dwelling came +Cameron and Peden and found shelter; here lies the notched sword of +Captain John Paton, and the drum which was beaten at Drumclog by the +hill-folk, and the banner that floated above their heads that day. +And here, too, was written the "Scots Worthies," a book considerered +by the austerer portion of the Scottish peasantry as next in +sacredness to the Bible. And it has other charms this desolate +country: over there by Mearns, Christopher North spent his glorious +boyhood; in this region, too, Pollok was born, and fed his gloomy +spirit on congenial scenes. Approaching the city, and immediately to +the left, are the Cathkin Braes: and close by the village of +Cathcart, past which the stream runs murmuring in its rocky bed, is +the hill on which Mary stood and saw Moray shiver her army like a +potsherd. [Sidenote: The estuary of the Clyde.] Below Glasgow, and +westward, stretches the great valley of the Clyde. On the left is +the ancient burgh of Renfrew; farther back Paisley and Johnston, +covered with smoke; above all, Gleniffer Braes, greenly fair in +sunlight; afar Neilston Pad, raising its flat summit to the sky, like +a table spread for a feast of giants. On the right are the +Kilpatrick Hills, terminating in the abrupt peak of Dumbuck; and +beyond, the rock of Dumbarton, the ancient fortress, the rock of +Ossian's song. It rises before you out of another world and state of +things, with years of lamentation and battle wailing around it like +sea-mews. By this time the river has widened to an estuary. +Port-Glasgow, with its deserted piers, and Greenock, populous with +ships, lie on the left. Mid-channel, Rosneath is gloomy with its +woods; on the farther shore Helensburgh glitters like a silver +thread; in front, a battlement of hills. You pass the point of +Gourock, and are in the Highlands. From the opposite coast Loch Long +stretches up into yon dark world of mountains. Yonder is Holy Loch, +smallest and loveliest of them all. A league of sea is glittering +like frosted silver between you and Dunoon. The mighty city, twenty +miles away, loud with traffic, dingy with smoke, is the working +Glasgow; here, nestling at the foot of mountains, stretching along +the sunny crescents of bays, clothing beaked promontories with +romantic villas, is another Glasgow keeping holiday the whole summer +long. These villages are the pure wheat; the great city, with its +strife and toil, its harass and heart-break--the chaff and husks from +which it is winnowed. The city is the soil, this region the bright +consummate flower. The merchant leaves behind him in the roar and +vapour his manifold vexations, and appears here with his best face +and happiest smile. Here no bills intrude, the fluctuations of stock +appear not, commercial anxieties are unknown. In their places are +donkey rides, the waving of light summer dresses, merry pic-nics, and +boating parties at sunset on the splendid sea. Here are the +"comforts of the Sautmarket" in the midst of legendary hills. When +the tempest is brewing up among the mountains, and night comes down a +deluge of wind and rain; when the sea-bird is driven athwart the +gloom like a flake of foam severed from the wave, and the crimson eye +of the Clock glares at intervals across the frith, you can draw the +curtains, stir the fire, and beguile the hours with the smiling +wisdom of Thackeray, if a bachelor; if a family man, "The Battle of +Prague," or the overture to "Don Giovanni," zealously thumped by +filial hands, will drown the storm without. Hugging the left shore, +we have Largs before us, where long ago Haco and his berserkers found +dishonourable graves. On the other side is Bute, fairest, most +melancholy of all the islands of the Clyde. From its sheltered +position it has an atmosphere soft as that of Italy, and is one huge +hospital now. You turn out in the dog-days, your head surmounted +with a straw-hat ample enough to throw a shadow round you, your +nether man encased in linen ducks, and see invalids sitting +everywhere in the sunniest spots like autumn flies, or wandering +feebly about, wrapt in greatcoats, their chalk faces shawled to the +nose. You are half-broiled, they shiver as if in an icy wind. Their +bent figures take the splendour out of the sea and the glory out of +the sunshine. They fill the summer air as with the earthy horror of +a new-made grave. You feel that they hang on life feebly, and will +drop with the yellow leaf. Beyond Bute are the Cumbraes, twin +sisters born in one fiery hour; and afar Arran, with his precipices, +purple-frowning on the level sea. + +[Sidenote: Arran] + +In his preface to the "Rambles" Mr Macdonald writes:-- + +"The district of which Glasgow is the centre, while it possesses many +scenes of richest Lowland beauty, and presents many glimpses of the +stern and wild in Highland landscape, is peculiarly fertile in +reminiscences of a historical nature. In the latter respect, indeed, +it is excelled by few localities in Scotland--a circumstance of which +many of our citizens seem to have been hitherto almost unconscious. +There is a story told of a gentleman who, having boasted that he had +travelled far to see a celebrated landscape on the Continent, was put +to the blush by being compelled to own that he had never visited a +scene of superior loveliness than one situated on his own estate, and +near which he had spent the greater part of his life. The error of +this individual is one of which too many are guilty." + +[Sidenote: Celebrated scenery disappointing.] + +These sentences would make an admirable text for a little week-day +sermon. For we are prone, in other matters than scenery, to seek our +enjoyments at a distance. We would gather that happiness from the +far-off stars which, had we the eyes to see, is all the while lying +at our feet. You go to look at a celebrated scene. People have +returned from it in raptures. You have heard them describe it, you +have read about it, and you naturally expect something very fine +indeed. When you arrive, the chances are that its beauties are +carefully stowed away in a thick mist, or you are drenched to the +skin, or you find the hotel full, and are forced to sleep in an +outhouse, or on the heather beneath the soft burning planets, and go +home with a rheumatism which embitters your existence to your dying +day. Or, if you are lucky enough to find the weather cloudless and +the day warm, you are doomed to cruel disappointment. Is _that_ what +you have heard and read so much about? That pitiful drivelling +cascade! Why, you were led to expect the wavy grace of the Gray +Mare's Tail combined with the flash and thunder of Niagara. That a +mountain forsooth! It isn't so much bigger than Ben Lomond after +all! You feel swindled and taken in. You commend the waterfall to +the fiend. You snap your fingers in the face of the mountain. +"You're a humbug, sir. You're an impostor, sir. I--I'll write to +the _Times_ and expose you, sir." On the other hand, the townsman, +at the close of a useful and busy day, walks out into the country. +The road is pretty; he has never been on it before; he is insensibly +charmed along. He reaches a little village or clachan, its +half-dozen thatched houses set down amid blossoming apple-trees; the +smoke from the chimneys, telling of the preparation of the evening +meal, floating up into the rose of sunset. A labourer is standing at +the door with a child in his arms; the unharnessed horses are +drinking at the trough; the village boys and girls are busy at their +games; two companies, linked arm-in-arm, are alternately advancing +and receding, singing all the while with their sweet shrill voices-- + + "The Campsie Duke's a riding, a riding, a riding." + +[Sidenote: Unexpectedness of pleasure.] + +This is no uncommon scene in Scotland, and why does it yield more +pleasure than the celebrated one that you have gone a hundred miles +to see, besides spending no end of money on the way? Simply because +you have approached it with a pure, healthy mind, undebauched by +rumour or praise. It has in it the element of unexpectedness; which, +indeed, is the condition of all delight, for pleasure must surprise +if it is to be worthy of the name. The pleasure that is expected and +looked for never comes, or if it does it is in a shape so changed +that recognition is impossible. Besides, you have found out the +scene, and have thereby a deeper interest in it. This same law +pervades everything. You hear of Coleridge's wonderful conversation, +and in an evil hour make your appearance at Highgate. The +mild-beaming, silvery-haired sage, who conceived listening to be the +whole duty of man, talks for the space of three mortal hours--by you +happily unheard. For, after the first twenty minutes, you are +conscious of a hazy kind of light before your eyes, a soothing sound +is murmuring in your ears, a delicious numbness is creeping over all +your faculties, and by the end of the first half-hour you are snoring +away as comfortably as if you were laid by the side of your lawful +spouse. You are disappointed of course: of the musical wisdom which +has been flowing in plenteous streams around, you have not tasted one +drop; and you never again hear a man praised for power or brilliancy +of conversation without an inward shudder. The next day you take +your place on the coach, and are fortunate enough to secure your +favourite seat beside the driver. Outside of you is a hard-featured +man, wrapt in a huge blue pilot-coat. You have no idea to what class +of society he may belong. It is plain that he is not a gentleman in +the superfine sense of that term. He has a very remarkable gift of +silence. When you have smoked your cigar out, you hazard a remark +about the weather. He responds. You try his mind as an angler tries +a stream, to see if anything will rise. One thing draws on another, +till, after an hour's conversation, which has flown over like a +minute, you find that you have really learned something. [Sidenote: +Pleasure not to be sought at a distance.] The unknown individual in +the pilot-coat, who has strangely come out of space upon you, and as +strangely returns into space again, has looked upon the world, and +has formed his own notions and theories of what goes on there. On +him life has pressed as well as on you; joy at divers times has +lighted up his grim features; sorrow and pain have clouded them. +There is something in the man; you are sorry when he is dropped on +the road, and say "Good-bye," with more than usual feeling. Why is +all this? The man in the pilot-coat does not talk so eloquently as +S.T.C, but he instructs and pleases you--and just because you went to +hear the celebrated Talker, as you go to see the Irish Giant, or the +Performing Pig, you are disappointed, as you deserved to be. The man +in the pilot-coat has come upon you naturally, unexpectedly. At its +own sweet will "the cloud turned forth its silver lining on the +night." Happiness may best be extracted from the objects surrounding +us. The theory on which our loud tumultuary modern life is +based--that we can go to Pleasure, that if we frequent her haunts we +are sure to find her--is a heresy and a falsehood. She will not be +constrained. She obeys not the call of the selfish or the greedy. +Depend upon it she is as frequently found on homely roads, and +amongst rustic villages and farms, as among the glaciers of Chamouni, +or the rainbows of Niagara. + +In one of his earliest rambles, Mr Macdonald follows the river for +some miles above the city. The beauty of the Clyde below Glasgow is +well known to the civilised world. Even the _roué_ of landscape, to +whom the Rhine is weariness and the Alps common-place, has felt his +heart leap within him while gazing on that magnificent estuary. But +it is not only in her maturity that the Clyde is fair. Beauty +attends her from her birth on Rodger Law until she is wedded with +ocean--Bute, and the twin Cumbraes, bridesmaids of the stream; Arran, +groomsman to the main. With Mr Macdonald's book in pocket to be a +companion at intervals--for one requires no guide, having years +before learned every curve and bend of the river--let us start along +its banks towards Carmyle and Kenmure wood. We pass Dalmarnock +Bridge, and leave the city, with its windowed factories and driving +wheels and everlasting canopy of smoke behind. The stream comes +glittering down between green banks, one of which rises high on the +left, so that further vision in that quarter is intercepted. On the +right are villages and farms; afar, the Cathkin Braes, the moving +cloud shadows mottling their sunny slopes; and straight ahead, and +closing the view, the spire of Cambuslang Church, etched on the +pallid azure of the sky. We are but two miles from the city, and +everything is bright and green. The butterfly flutters past; the +dragonfly darts hither and thither. See, he poises himself on his +winnowing wings, about half a yard from one's nose, which he +curiously inspects; that done, off darts the winged tenpenny-nail, +his rings gleaming like steel. There are troops of swallows about. +Watch one. Now he is high in air--now he skims the Clyde. You can +hear his sharp, querulous twitter as he jerks and turns. Nay, it is +said that the kingfisher himself has been seen gleaming along these +sandy banks, illuminating them like a meteor. [Sidenote: Dalbeth +Convent.] At some little distance a white house is pleasantly +situated amongst trees--it is Dalbeth Convent. As we pass, one of +the frequent bells summoning the inmates to devotion is stirring the +sunny Presbyterian air. A little on this side of the convent, a +rapid brook comes rushing to the Clyde, crossed by a rude bridge of +planks, which has been worn by the feet of three generations at the +very least. The brook, which is rather huffy and boisterous in its +way, particularly after rain, had, a few days before, demolished and +broken up said wooden planks, and carried one of them off. Arriving, +we find a woman and boy anxious to cross, yet afraid to venture. +Service is proffered, and, after a little trouble, both are landed in +safety on the farther bank. The woman is plainly, yet neatly +dressed, and may be about forty-five years of age or thereby. The +boy has turned eleven, has long yellow hair hanging down his back, +and looks thin and slender for his years. With them they have +something wrapped up in a canvas cloth, which, to the touch as they +are handed across, seem to be poles of about equal length. For the +slight service the woman returns thanks in a tone which smacks of the +southern English counties. "Good-bye" is given and returned, and we +proceed, puzzling ourselves a good deal as to what kind of people +they are, and what their business may be in these parts, but can come +to no conclusion. However, it does not matter much, for the +ironworks are passed now, and the river banks are beautiful. They +are thickly wooded, and at a turn the river flows straight down upon +you for a mile, with dusty meal-mills on one side, a dilapidated +wheel-house on the other, and stretching from bank to bank a +half-natural, half-artificial shallow horse-shoe fall, over which the +water tumbles in indolent foam--a sight which a man who has no +pressing engagements, and is fond of exercise, may walk fifty miles +to see, and be amply rewarded for his pains. In front is a ferry--a +rope extending across the river by which the boat is propelled--and +lo! a woman in a scarlet cloak on the opposite side hails the +ferryman, and that functionary comes running to his duty. [Sidenote: +Carmyle.] Just within the din of the shallow horse-shoe fall lies the +village of Carmyle, an old, quiet, sleepy place, where nothing has +happened for the last fifty years, and where nothing will happen for +fifty years to come. Ivy has been the busiest thing here; it has +crept up the walls of the houses, and in some instances fairly "put +out the light" of the windows. The thatched roofs are covered with +emerald moss. The plum-tree which blossomed some months ago +blossomed just the same in the spring which witnessed the birth of +the oldest inhabitant. For half a century not one stone has been +placed upon another here--there are only a few more green mounds in +the churchyard. It is the centre of the world. All else is change: +this alone is stable. There is a repose deeper than sleep in this +little, antiquated village--ivy-muffled, emerald-mossed, lullabied +for ever by the fall of waters. The meal-mills, dusty and white as +the clothes of the miller himself, whir industriously; the waters of +the lade come boiling out from beneath the wheel, and reach the Clyde +by a channel dug by the hand of man long ago, but like a work of +nature's now, so covered with furze as it is. Look down through the +clear amber of the current, and you see the "long green gleet of the +slippery stones" in which the silver-bellied eel delights. Woe +betide the luckless village urchin that dares to wade therein. There +is a sudden splash and roar. When he gets out, he is laid with +shrill objurgations across the broad maternal knee, and fright and +wet clothes are avenged by sound whacks from the broad maternal hand. +Leaving the village, we proceed onward. The banks come closer, the +stream is shallower, and whirls in eddy and circle over a rocky bed. +There is a woodland loneliness about the river which is aided by the +solitary angler standing up to his middle in the water, and waiting +patiently for the bite that never comes, or by the water-ousel +flitting from stone to stone. [Sidenote: Kenmuir Bank.] In a quarter +of an hour we reach Kenmuir Bank, which rises some seventy feet or +so, filled with trees, their trunks rising bare for a space, and then +spreading out with branch and foliage into a matted shade, permitting +the passage only of a few flakes of sunlight at noon, resembling, in +the green twilight, a flock of visionary butterflies alighted and +asleep. Within, the wood is jungle; you wade to the knees in +brushwood and bracken. The trunks are clothed with ivy, and snakes +of ivy creep from tree to tree, some green with life, some tarnished +with decay. At the end of the Bank there is a clear well, in which, +your face meeting its shadow, you may quench your thirst. Seated +here, you have the full feeling of solitude. An angler wades out +into mid-channel--a bird darts out of a thicket, and slides away on +noiseless wing--the shallow wash and murmur of the Clyde flows +through a silence as deep as that of an American wilderness--and yet, +by to-morrow, the water which mirrors as it passes the beauty of the +lucken-gowan hanging asleep, will have received the pollutions of a +hundred sewers, and be bobbing up and down among the crowds of +vessels at the Broomielaw. Returning homeward by the top of Kenmuir +Bank, we gaze westward. Out of a world of smoke the stalk of St +Rollox rises like a banner-staff, its vapoury streamer floating on +the wind; and afar, through the gap between the Campsie and +Kilpatrick hills, Benlomond himself, with a streak of snow upon his +shoulder. Could one but linger here for a couple of hours, one would +of a verity behold a sight--the sun setting in yonder lurid, +smoke-ocean. The wreaths of vapour which seem so common-place and +vulgar now, so suggestive of trade and swollen purses and rude +manners, would then become a glory such as never shepherd beheld at +sunrise on his pastoral hills. Beneath a roof of scarlet flame, one +would see the rolling edges of the smoke change into a brassy +brightness, as with intense heat; the dense mass and volume of it +dark as midnight, or glowing with the solemn purple of thunder; while +right in the centre of all, where it has burned a clear way for +itself, the broad fluctuating orb, paining the eye with concentrated +splendours, and sinking gradually down, a black spire cutting his +disk in two. But for this one cannot wait, and the apparition will +be unbeheld but by the rustic stalking across the field in company +with his prodigious shadow, and who, turning his face to the flame, +will conceive it the most ordinary thing in the world. We keep the +upper road on our return, and in a short time are again at Carmyle; +we have no intention of tracing the river bank a second time, and so +turn up the narrow street. But what is to do? + +[Sidenote: The acrobat.] + +The children are gathered in a circle, and the wives are standing at +the open doors. There is a performance going on. The tambourine is +sounding, and a tiny acrobat, with a fillet round his brow, tights +covered with tinsel lozenges, and flesh-coloured shoes, is striding +about on a pair of stilts, to the no small amazement and delight of +the juveniles. He turns his head, and--why, it's the little boy I +assisted across the brook at Dalbeth three hours ago, and of course +that's the old lady who is thumping and jingling the tambourine, and +gathering in the halfpennies! God bless her jolly old face! who +would have thought of meeting her here? I am recognised, the boy +waves me farewell, the old lady smiles and curtsies, thumps her +tambourine, and rattles the little bells of it with greater vigour +than ever. The road to Glasgow is now comparatively uninteresting. +The trees wear a dingy colour; you pass farm-houses, with sooty +stacks standing in the yard. 'Tis a coaly, dusty district, which has +characteristics worth noting. For, as the twilight falls dewily on +far-off lea and mountain, folding up daisy and buttercup, putting the +linnet to sleep beside his nest of young in the bunch of broom, here +the circle of the horizon becomes like red-hot steel; the furnaces of +the Clyde iron-works lift up their mighty towers of flame, throwing + + "Large and angry lustres o'er the sky, + And shifting lights across the long dark roads;" + +and so, through chase of light and shade, through glimmer of glare +and gloom, we find our way back to Glasgow--its low hum breaking into +separate and recognisable sounds, its nebulous brightness into +far-stretching street-lamps, as we draw near. + +[Sidenote: Paisley.] + +The tourist who travels by train from Glasgow to Greenock must pass +the town of Paisley. If he glances out of the carriage window he +will see beneath him a third-rate Scotch town, through which flows +the foulest and shallowest of rivers. + +The principal building in the town, and the one which first attracts +the eye of a stranger, is the jail; then follow the church spires in +their order of merit. Unfortunately the train passes not through +Paisley, but over it; and from his "coign of vantage" the tourist +beholds much that is invisible to the passenger in the streets. All +the back-greens, piggeries, filthy courts, and unmentionable +abominations of the place, are revealed to him for a moment as the +express flashes darkly across the railway bridge. For the seeing of +Scotch towns a bird's-eye view is plainly the worst point of view. +In all likelihood the tourist, as he passes, will consider Paisley +the ugliest town he has ever beheld, and feel inwardly grateful that +his lot has not been cast therein. But in this the tourist may be +very much mistaken. Paisley is a remarkable place--one of the most +remarkable in Scotland. Just as Comrie is the abode of earthquakes, +Paisley is the abode of poetic inspiration. There is no accounting +for the tastes of the celestials. Queen Titania fell in love with +Bottom when he wore the ass's head; and Paisley, ugly as it is, is +the favourite seat of the Muses. There Apollo sits at the loom and +earns eighteen shillings per week. At this moment, and the same +might have been said of any moment since the century came in, there +is perhaps a greater number of poets living and breathing in this +little town than in the whole of England. Whether this may arise +from the poverty of the place, on the principle that the sweetness of +the nightingale's song is connected in some subtle way with the thorn +against which she leans her breast, it may be useless to inquire. +Proceed from what cause it may, Paisley has been for the last fifty +years or more an aviary of singing birds. To said aviary I had once +the honour to be introduced. Some years ago, when dwelling in the +outskirts of the town, I received a billet intimating that the L.C.A. +would meet on the evening of the 26th Jan. 18--, in honour of the +memory of the immortal Robert Burns, and requesting my attendance. +N.B.--Supper and drink, 1s. 6d. Being a good deal puzzled by the +mystic characters, I made inquiries, and discovered that L.C.A. +represented the "Literary and Convivial Association," which met every +Saturday evening for the cultivation of the minds of its members--a +soil which for years had been liberally irrigated with toddy--with +correspondent effects. To this cheap feast of the gods on the sacred +evening in question I directed my steps, and beheld the assembled +poets. [Sidenote: The poets.] There could scarcely have been fewer +than eighty present. Strange! Each of these conceited himself of +finer clay than ordinary mortals; each of these had composed verses, +some few had even published small volumes or pamphlets of verse by +subscription, and drank the anticipated profits; each of these had +his circle of admirers and flatterers, his small public and shred of +reputation; each of these envied and hated his neighbour; and not +unfrequently two bards would quarrel in their cups as to which of +them was possessor of the larger amount of fame. At that time the +erection of a monument to Thom of Inverury had been talked about, +_apropos_ of which one of the bards remarked, "Ou ay, jist like them. +They'll bigg us monuments whan we're deid: I wush they'd gie us +something whan we're leevin'." In that room, amid that motley +company, one could see the great literary world unconsciously +burlesqued and travestied, shadowed forth there the emptiness and +noise of it, the blatant vanity of many of its members. The eighty +poets presented food for meditation. Well, it is from this town that +I propose taking a walk, for behind Paisley lie Gleniffer Braes, the +scene of Tannahill's songs. One can think of Burns apart from +Ayrshire, of Wordsworth apart from Cumberland, but hardly of +Tannahill apart from the Braes of Gleniffer. The district, too, is +of but little extent; in a walk of three hours you can see every spot +mentioned by the poet. You visit his birthplace in the little +straggling street, where the sound of the shuttle is continually +heard. You pass up to the green hills where he delighted to wander, +and whose charms he has celebrated; and you return by the canal +where, when the spirit "finely touched to fine issues," was +disordered and unstrung, he sought repose. Birth, life, and death +lie side by side. The matter of the moral is closely packed. The +whole tragedy sleeps in the compass of an epigram. + +[Sidenote: Stanley Castle.] + +Leaving the rambling suburbs of Paisley, you pass into a rough and +undulating country with masses of gray crag interspersed with whinny +knolls, where, in the evenings, the linnet sings; with narrow sandy +roads wandering through it hither and thither, passing now a clump of +gloomy firs, now a house where some wealthy townsman resides, now a +pleasant corn-field. A pretty bit of country enough, with larks +singing above it from dawn to sunset, and where, in the gloaming, the +wanderer not unfrequently can mark the limping hare. A little +further on are the ruins of Stanley Castle. This castle, in the days +of the poet, before the wildness of the country had been tamed by the +plough, must have lent a singular charm to the landscape. It stands +at the base of the hills which rise above it with belt of wood, rocky +chasm, white streak of waterfall--higher up into heath and silence, +silence deep as the heaven that overhangs it; where nothing moves +save the vast cloud-shadows, where nothing is heard save the cry of +the moorland bird. Tannahill was familiar with the castle in its +every aspect--when sunset burned on the walls, when the moon steeped +it in silver and silence, and when it rose up before him shadowy and +vast through the marshy mists. He had his loom to attend during the +day, and he knew the place best in its evening aspect. Twilight, +with its quietude and stillness, seemed to have peculiar charms for +his sensitive nature, and many of his happiest lines are descriptive +of its phenomena. But the glory is in a great measure departed from +Stanley Tower; the place has been turned into a reservoir by the +Water Company, and the ruin is frequently surrounded by water. This +intrusion of water has spoiled the scene. The tower is hoary and +broken, the lake looks a thing of yesterday, and there are traces of +quite recent masonry about. The lake's shallow extent, its glitter +and brightness, are impertinences. Only during times of severe +frost, when its surface is iced over, when the sun is sinking in the +purple vapours like a globe of red-hot iron--when the skaters are +skimming about like swallows, and the curlers are boisterous--for the +game has been long and severe--and the decisive stone is roaring up +the rink--only in such circumstances does the landscape regain some +kind of keeping and homogeneousness. There is no season like winter +for improving a country; he tones it down to one colour; he breathes +over its waters, and in the course of a single night they become +gleaming floors, on which youth may disport itself. He powders his +black forest-boughs with the pearlin's of his frosts; and the +fissures which spring tries in vain to hide with her flowers, and +autumn with fallen leaves, he fills up at once with a snow-wreath. +But we must be getting forward, up that winding road, progress marked +by gray crag, tuft of heather, bunch of mountain violets, the country +beneath stretching out farther and farther. Lo! a strip of emerald +steals down the gray of the hill, and there, by the way-side, is an +ample well, with the "netted sunbeam" dancing in it. Those who know +Tannahill's "Gloomy Winter's noo awa" must admire its curious +felicity of touch and colour. Turn round, you are in the very scene +of the song. [Sidenote: Gleniffer.] In front is "Gleniffer's dewy +dell," to the east "Glenkelloch's sunny brae," afar the woods of +Newton, over which at this moment laverocks fan the "snaw-white +cluds;" below, the "burnie" leaps in sparkle and foam over many a +rocky shelf, till its course is lost in that gorge of gloomy firs, +and you can only hear the music of its joy. Which is the fairer--the +landscape before your eyes, or the landscape sleeping in the light of +song? You cannot tell, for they are at once different and the same. +The touch of the poet was loving and true. His genius was like the +light of early spring, clear from speck or stain of vapour, but with +tremulousness and uncertainty in it; happy, but with grief lying +quite close to its happiness; smiling, although the tears are hardly +dry upon the cheeks that in a moment may be wet again. + +[Sidenote: Tannahill.] + +But who is Tannahill? the southern reader asks with some wonder; and +in reply it may be said that Burns, like every great poet, had many +imitators and successors, and that of these successors in the north +country Hogg and Tannahill are the most important. Hogg was a +shepherd in The Forest, and he possessed out of sight the larger +nature, the greater intellectual force; while as master of the weird +and the supernatural there is no Scottish poet to be put beside him. +The soul of Ariel seems to inhabit him at times. He utters a strange +music like the sighing of the night-wind; a sound that seems to live +remote from human habitations. In openness to spiritual beauty, +Burns, compared with him, was an ordinary ploughman. Like Thomas the +Rhymer, he lay down to sleep on a green bank on a summer's day, and +the Queen of Fancy visited his slumber; and never afterwards could he +forget her beauty, and her voice, and the liquid jingling of her +bridle bells. Tannahill was a weaver, who wrote songs, became +crazed, and committed suicide before he reached middle life. His was +a weak, tremulous nature. He was wretched by reason of +over-sensitiveness. "He lived retired as noon-tide dew." He wanted +Hogg's strength, self-assertion, humour, and rough sagacity; nor had +he a touch of his weird strain. From Burns, again, he was as +different as a man could possibly be. Tannahill knew nothing of the +tremendous life-battle fought on wet Mossgiel farm, in fashionable +Edinburgh, in provincial Dumfries. He knew nothing of the Love, +Scorn, Despair,--those wild beasts that roamed the tropics of Burns's +heart. But limited as was his genius, it was in its quality perhaps +more exquisite than theirs. He was only a song-writer--both Burns +and Hogg were more than that--and some of his songs are as nearly as +possible perfect. He knew nothing of the mystery of life. If the +fierce hand of Passion had been laid upon his harp, it would have +broken at once its fragile strings. He looked upon nature with a +pensive yet a loving eye. Gladness flowed upon him from the bright +face of spring, despondency from the snow-flake and the sweeping +winter winds. His amatory songs have no fire in them. While Burns +would have held Annie in his "straining grasp," Tannahill, with a +glow upon his cheek, would have pointed out to the unappreciating +fair the "plantin' tree-taps tinged wi' gowd," or silently watched +the "midges dance aboon the burn." Then, by the aid of that love of +nature, how clearly he sees, and how exquisitely he paints what he +sees-- + + "Feathery breckans fringe the rocks; + 'Neath the brae the burnie jouks." + + "Towering o'er the Newton wuds, + Laverocks fan the snaw-white cluds." + +Neither Keats nor Tennyson, nor any of their numerous followers +surpassed this unlettered weaver in felicity of colour and touch. +Any one wishing to prove the truth of Tannahill's verse, could not do +better than bring out his song-book here, and read and ramble, and +ramble and read again. + +[Sidenote: Elderslie.] + +But why go farther to-day? The Peesweep Inn, where the rambler +baits, is yet afar on the heath; Kilbarchan, queerest of villages, is +basking its straggling length on the hill-side in the sun, peopled by +botanical and bird-nesting weavers, its cross adorned by the statue +of Habbie Simpson, "with his pipes across the wrong shoulder." +Westward is Elderslie, where Wallace was born, and there, too, till +within the last few years, stood the oak amongst whose branches, as +tradition tells, the hero, when hard pressed by the Southrons, found +shelter with all his men. From afar came many a pilgrim to behold +the sylvan giant. Before its fall it was sorely mutilated by time +and tourists. Of its timber were many snuff-boxes made. Surviving +the tempests of centuries, it continued to flourish green atop, +although its heart was hollow as a ruined tower. At last a gale, +which heaped our coasts with shipwreck, struck it down with many of +its meaner brethren. "To this complexion must we come at last." At +our feet lies Paisley with its poets. Seven miles off, Glasgow +peers, with church-spire and factory stalk, through a smoky cloud; +the country between gray with distance, and specked here and there +with the vapours of the trains. How silent the vast expanse! not a +sound reaches the ear on the height. Gleniffer Braes are clear in +summer light, beautiful as when the poet walked across them. Enough, +their beauty and his memory. One is in no mood to look even at the +unsightly place beside the canal which was sought when to the poor +disordered brain the world was black, and fellow-men ravening wolves. +Here he walked happy in his genius; not a man to wonder at and bow +the knee to, but one fairly to appreciate and acknowledge. For the +twitter of the wren is music as well as the lark's lyrical up-burst; +the sigh of the reed shaken by the wind as well as the roaring of a +league of pines. + + + + +_HOME._ + +When of an autumn evening the train brought me into Edinburgh, the +scales of familiarity having to some little extent fallen from my +eyes, I thought I had never before seen it so beautiful. Its +brilliancy was dazzling and fairy-like. It was like a city of +Chinese lanterns. It was illuminated as if for a great victory, or +the marriage of a king. Princes Street blazed with street lamps and +gay shop-windows. The Old Town was a maze of twinkling lights. The +Mound lifted up its starry coil. The North Bridge leaping the chasm, +held lamps high in air. There were lights on the Calton Hill, lights +on the crest of the Castle. The city was in a full blossom of +lights--to wither by midnight, to be all dead ere dawn. And then to +an ear accustomed to silence there arose on every side the potent hum +of moving multitudes, more august in itself, infinitely more +suggestive to the imagination than the noise of the Atlantic on the +Skye shores. The sound with which I had been for some time familiar +was the voice of many billows; the sound which was in my ears was the +noise of men. + +And in driving home, too, I was conscious of a curious oppugnancy +between the Skye life which I had for same time been leading, and the +old Edinburgh life which had been dropped for a little, and which had +now to be resumed. The two experiences met like sheets of metal, but +they were still separate sheets--I could not solder them together and +make them one. I knew that a very few days would do that for me; but +it was odd to attempt by mental effort to unite the experiences and +to discover how futile was all such effort. Coming back to Edinburgh +was like taking up abode in a house to which one had been for a while +a stranger, in which one knew all the rooms and all the articles of +furniture in the rooms, but with whose knowledge there was mingled a +feeling of strangeness. I had changed my clothes of habit, and for +the moment I did not feel so much at ease in the strange Edinburgh, +as the familiar Skye, suit. + +[Sidenote: Ossianic translations.] + +It was fated, however, that the two modes of life should, in my +consciousness, melt into each other imperceptibly. When I reached +home I found that my friend the Rev. Mr Macpherson of Inverary had +sent me a packet of Ossianic translations. These translations, +breathing the very soul of the wilderness I had lately left, I next +day perused in my Edinburgh surroundings, and through their agency +the two experiences coalesced. Something of Edinburgh melted into my +remembrance of Skye--something of Skye was projected into actual +Edinburgh. Thus is life enriched by ideal contrast and interchange. +With certain of these translations I conclude my task. To me they +were productive of much pleasure. And should the shadows in my book +have impressed the reader to any extent, as the realities impressed +me--if I have in any way kindled the feeling of Skye in his +imagination as it lives in mine--these fragments of austere music +will not be ungrateful. + + + + + EXTRACT FROM CARRICK-THURA. + + Night fell on wave-beat Rotha, + The hill-shelter'd bay received the ships; + A rock rose by the skirt of the ocean, + A wood waved over the boom of the waves; + Above was the circle of Lodin, + And the huge stones of many a power; + Below was a narrow plain + And tree and grass beside the sea. + A tree torn by the wind when high + From the skirt of the cairns to the plain. + Beyond was the blue travel of streams; + A gentle breeze came from the stilly sea, + A flame rose from a hoary oak; + The feast of the chiefs was spread on the heath; + Grieved was the soul of the king of shields, + For the chief of dark Carrick of the braves. + + The moon arose slow and faint; + Deep slumber fell round the heads of the braves, + Their helmets gleam'd around; + The fire was dying on the hill. + Sleep fell not on the eyelids of the king; + He arose in the sound of his arms + To view the wave-beat Carrick. + The fire lower'd in the far distance, + The moon was in the east red and slow. + A blast came down from the cairn; + On its wings was the semblance of a man, + Orm Lodin, ghastly on the sea. + He came to his own dwelling-place, + His black spear useless in his hand, + His red eye as the fire of the skies, + His voice as the torrent of the mountains. + + Far distant in the murky gloom. + Fingal raised his spear in the night, + His challenge was heard on the plain-- + "Son of the night, from my side, + Take the wind--away; + Why shouldst come to my presence, feeble one, + Thy form as powerless as thy arms? + Do I dread thy dark-brown shape, + Spirit of the circles of Lodin? + Weak is thy shield and thy form of subtle cloud, + Thy dull-edged sword as fire in the great waves, + A blast parts them asunder, + And thou [thyself] art straightway dispersed + From my presence, dark son of the skies. + Call thy blast--away!" + "Wouldst thou drive me from my own circle?" + Said the hollow voice of eeriest sound. + "To me bends the host of the braves; + I look from my wood on the people, + And they fall as ashes before my sight; + From my breath comes the blast of death; + I come forth on high on the wind; + The storms are pouring aloft + Around my brow, cold, gloomy, and dark. + Calm is my dwelling in the clouds, + Pleasant the great fields of my repose." + "Dwell in thy plains," + Said the mighty king, his hand on his sword; + "Else remember the son of Cumal in the field; + Feeble is thy phantom, great is my strength. + Have I moved my step from the mountain + To thy halls on the peaceful plain? + Has my powerful spear met + In the skyey robe the voice + Of the dark spirit of the circle of Lodin? + Why raise thy brow in gloom? + Why brandishest thy spear on high? + Little I fear thy threats, feeble one, + I fled not from hosts on the field, + Why should flee from the seed of the winds + The mighty hero, Morven's king? + Flee he will not, well he knows + The weakness of thy arm in battle." + "Flee to thy land," replied the Form, + "Flee on the black wind--away! + The blast is in the hollow of my hand-- + Mine are the course and wrestling of the storm, + The king of Soroch is my son, + He bends on the hill to my shade, + His battle is at Carrick of the hundred braves, + And safe he shall win the victory-- + "Flee to thy own land, son of Cumal, + Else feel to thy sorrow my rage." + High he lifted his dark spear, + Fiercely he bent his lofty head. + Against him Fingal advanced amain, [a-fire,] + His bright-blue sword in hand, + Son of Loon--the swartest cheek'd. + The light of the steel passed through the Spirit, + The gloomy and feeble spirit of death. + Shapeless he fell, yonder [opposite] + On the wind of the black cairns, as smoke + Which a young one breaks, rod in hand, + At the hearth of smoke and struggle, + The Form of Lodin shriek'd in the hill, + Gathering himself in the wind, + Innis-Torc heard the sound, + The waves with terror stay their courses: + Up rose the braves of Cumal's son. + Each hand grasp'd a spear on the hill, + "Where is he?" they cried with frowning rage, + Each armour sounding on its lord. + + + + + EXTRACTS FROM FINGAL. + + Cuchullin sat by the wall of Tura, + In the shade of the tree of sounding leaf; + His spear leant against the cave-pierced rock, + His great shield by his side on the grass. + The thoughts of the chief were on Cairber. + A hero he had slain in battle fierce, + When the watcher of the ocean came, + The swift son of Fili with the bounding step. + "Arise, Cuchullin, arise, + I see a gallant fleet from the north, + Swift bestir thee, chief of the banquet, + Great is Swaran, numerous is his host!" + "Moran, answered the dauntless blue-eyed, + Weak and trembling wert thou aye; + In thy fear the foe is numerous; + Son of Fili is Fingal, + High champion of the dark-mottled hills." + "I saw their leader," answer'd Moran; + "Like to a rock was the chief, + His spear as a fir on the rocky mountain, + His shield as the rising moon: + He sat on a rock on the shore + As the mist yonder on the hill." + "Many," I said, "chief of the strangers, + Are the champions that rise with thee, + Strong warriors, of hardiest stroke, + And keenest brand in the play of men. + But more numerous and valiant are the braves + That surround the windy Tura." + Answer'd the brave, as a wave on a rock, + "Who in this land is like me? + Thy heroes could not stand in my presence; + But low they should fall beneath my hand. + Who is he would meet my sword? + Save Fingal, king of stormy Selma. + Once on a day we grasp'd each other + On Melmor, and fierce was our strife. + The wood fell in the unyielding fight, + The streams turn'd aside, and trembled the cairn. + Three days the strife was renew'd, + Warriors bravest in battle trembled. + On the fourth, said Fingal the king-- + 'The ocean chief fell in the glen.' + He fell not, was my answer." + Let Cuchullin yield to the chief, + Who is stronger than the mountain storm. + I, said the dauntless blue-eyed, + Yield I shall not to living man. + Cuchullin shall, resolute as he, be + Great in battle, or stainless in death. + Son of Fili, seize my spear, + Strike the joyless and gloomy shield of Sema; + Thou shalt see it high on the wall of spears; + No omen of peace was its sound. + Swift, son of Fili, strike the shield of Sema, + Summon my heroes from forest and copse. + Swift he struck the spotted [bossy] shield, + Each copse and forest answer'd. + Pauseless, the alarm sped through the grove; + The deer and the roe started on the heath: + Curtha leap'd from the sounding rock: + Connal of the doughtiest spear bestirr'd himself + Favi left the hind in the chase: + Crugeal return'd to festive Jura. + Ronan, hark to the shield of the battles, + Cuchullin's land signal, Cluthair, + Calmar, hither come from the ocean: + With thy arms hither come, O Luthair. + Son of Finn, thou strong warrior, arise; + Cairber [come] from the voiced Cromlec; + Bend thy knee, free-hearted Fichi. + Cormag [come] from streamy Lena. + Coilte, stretch thy splendid side, [limbs] + Swift, travelling from Mora, + Thy side, whiter than the foam, spread + On the storm-vex'd sea. + Then might be seen the heroes of high deeds + Descending each from his own winding glen, + Each soul burning with remembrance + Of the battles of the time gone by of old: + Their eyes kindling and searching fiercely round + For the dark foe of Innisfail. + Each mighty hand on the hilt of each brand + Blazing, lightning flashing [_lit._, streaming bright, like the + sun] from their armour. + As pours a stream from a wild glen + Descend the braves from the sides of the mountains, + Each chief in the mail of his illustrious sire. + His stern, dark-visaged warriors behind, + As the gatherings of the waters of the mountains [i.e., rain-clouds] + Around the lightning of the sky. + At every step was heard the sound of arms + And the bark of hounds, high gambling + Songs were humm'd in every mouth, + Each dauntless hero eager for the strife. + Cromlec shook on the face of the mountains, + As they march'd athwart the heath: + They stood on the inclines of the hills, + As the hoary mist of autumn + That closes round the sloping mountain, + And binds its forehead to the sky. + + FINGAL, Lib. i., line 1-100. + + As rushes a gray stream in foam + From the iron front of lofty Cromla; + The torrent travelling the mountains, + While dark night enwraps the cairns: + And the cold shades of paly hue + Look down from the skirts of the showers; + So fierce, so great, so pitiless, so swift + Advanced the hardy seed of Erin. + Their chief, as the great boar [whale] of the ocean, + Drawing the cold waves behind him: + Pouring his strength as billows; [or _in_ billows,] + 'Neath his travel shakes the shore. + The seed of Lochlin heard the sound, + As the cold roaring stream of winter; + Swift Swaran struck his shield, + And spoke to the son of Arn beside him-- + I hear a sound on the side of the mountains, + As the evening fly of slow movements; + It is the gallant sons of Erin, + Or a storm in the distant woodland. + Like Gormal is the sound, + Ere wakes the tempest in the high seas: + Hie thee to the heights, son of Arn, + Survey each copse and hill-side. + He went, and soon return'd in terror, + His eye fix'd and wild in his head; + His heart beat quick against his side, + His speech was feeble, slow, and broken. + "Arise! thou Lord of the waves, + Mighty chief of the dark shields; + I see the stream of the dark-wooded mountains, + I see the seed of Erin and their lord. + A chariot! the mighty chariot of battle + Advances with death across the plain; + The well-made swift chariot of Cuchullin, + The great son of Sema, mighty in danger. + Behind, it bends down like a wave, + Or the mist on the copse of the sharp rocks; + The light of stones of power [gems] is round, + As the sea round a bark at night. + Of polish'd yew is the beam, + The seats within are of smoothest bone; + The dwelling-place of spears it is, + Of shields, of swords, and of mighty men. + By the right side of the great chariot + Is seen the snorting, high-mettled steed; + The high-maned, broad, black-chested, + High-leaping, strong son of the hills. + Loud and resounding is his hoof: + The spread of his frontlets above + Is like mist on the haunts of the elk; + Bright was his aspect, and swift his going, + Sith-fadda [Long-stride] is his name. + By the other side of the chariot + Is the arch-neck'd, snorting, + Narrow-maned, high-mettled, strong-hoofed, + Swift-footed, wide-nostril'd steed of the mountains, + Du-sron-geal is the name of the horse. + Full a thousand slender thongs + Bind the chariot on high; + The bright steel bits of the bridles + Are cover'd with foam in their cheeks: + Blazing stones, sparkling bright, + Bend aloft on the manes of the steeds-- + Of the steeds that are like the mist on the mountains, + Bearing the chief to his renown. + Wilder than the deer is their aspect, + Powerful as the eagle their strength; + Their sound is like the savage winter + On Gormal, when cover'd with snow. + In the chariot is seen the chief, + The mighty son of the keenest arms-- + Cuchullin of the blue-spotted shields. + The son of Sema, renown'd in song, + His cheek is as the polish'd yew; + His strong eye is spreading high, + 'Neath his dark-arch'd and slender brow. + His yellow hair, as a blaze round his head, + Pouring [waving] round the splendid face of the hero, + While he draws from behind his spear. + Flee, great chief of ships! + Flee from the hero who comes + As a storm from the glen of streams." + "When did I flee? said the king of ships; + When fled Swaran of the dark shields? + When did I shun the threatening danger, + Son of Arn--aye feeble? + I have borne the tempest of the skies, + On the bellowing sea of inclement showers; + The sternest battles I have borne, + Why should I flee from the conflict, + Son of Arn, of feeblest hand? + Arise my thousands on the field, + Pour as the roar of the ocean, + When bends the blast from the cloud, + Let gallant Lochlin rise around my steel. + Be ye like rocks on the edge of the ocean, + In my own land of oars, + That lifts the pine aloft + To battle with the tempests of the sky." + As the sound of autumn from two mountains + Towards each other drew the braves, + As a mighty stream from two rocks, + Flowing, pouring on the plain; + Sounding dark, fierce in battle, + Met Lochlin and Innesfail. + Chief mix'd his strokes with chief, + Man contended with man, + Steel clang'd on steel, + Helmets are cleft on high, + Blood is pouring fast around, + The bow-string twangs on the polish'd yew; + Arrows traverse the sky, + Spears strike and fall, + As the bolt of night on the mountains, + As the bellowing seething of the ocean, + When advance the waves on high; + Like the torrent behind the mountains + Was the gloom and din of the conflict. + Though the hundred bards of Cormag were there, + And their songs described the combat, + Scarcely could they tell + Of each headless corpse and death-- + Many were the deaths of men and chiefs, + Their blood spreading on the plain. + Mourn, ye race of songs, + For Sith-alum the child of the braves: + Evir, heave thy snowy breast + For gallant Ardan of fiercest look. + As two roes that fall from the mountain, + [They fell] 'neath the hand of dark-shielded Swaran; + While dauntless he moved before his thousands, + As a spirit in the cloudy sky, + A spirit that sits in cloud, + Half made by mist from the north, + When bends the lifeless mariner + A look of woe on the summit of the waves. + Nor slept thy hand by the side, + Chief of the isle of gentle showers; + Thy brand was in the path of spoils, + As lightning flashing thick, + When the people fall in the glen, + And the face of the mountain, as in a blaze, + [Or is seething white with torrents,] + Du-sron-geal snorted over brave men, + Sith-fadda wash'd his hoof in blood, + Behind him lay full many a hero, + As a wood on Cromla of the floods, + When moves the blast through the heath, + With the airy ghosts of night. + + Weep on the sounding rock, + Noble daughter of the isle of ships; + Bend thy splendid countenance over the sea, + Thou lovelier than a spirit in the woods, + Rising up soft and slow + As a sunbeam in the silence of the hills. + He fell, soon he fell in the battle, + The youth of thy love is pale, + 'Neath the sword of great Cuchullin. + What has made thee so wan and cold? + He will move no more to hardy deeds, + He will not strike the high blood of heroes; + Trenar, youthful Trena has fallen in death; + Maid, them shalt see thy love no more for ever. + His hounds howl piteously + At home, as they see his ghost, + His bow is unstrung and bare; + His death-sound is on the knoll, [_i.e._, on the knoll he + utters his death-groan.] + As roll a thousand waves to the shore, + So under Swaran advanced the foe; + As meets the shore a thousand waves, + So Erin met the king of ships. + Then arose the voices of death, + The sound of battle-shout and clang of arms, + Shields and mail lay broken on the ground. + A sword like lightning was high in each hand, + The noise of battle rose from wing to wing, + Of battle, roaring, bloody, hot, + As a hundred hammers striking wild, + By turns, showers of red sparks from the glowing forge. + Who are those on hilly Sena? + Who of darkest and fiercest gloom? + Who likest to the murkiest cloud? + The sword of each chief as fire on the waves, + The face of the woods is troubled, + The wave-beat rock shakes on the shore. + Who, but Swaran of ships + And the chief of Erin, renown'd in song? + The eye of the hosts beholds aside + The encounter of the mighty heroes. + Night descended on the combat of the braves, + And hid the undecided conflict. + + FINGAL, Book i., 313-502. + + + +THE END + + + +_Ballantyne, Roberts, and Company, Printers, Edinburgh._ + + + + + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76787 *** |