The young laird of Col, who had determined not to let us lose his company, while there was any difficulty remaining, came over with us. His influence soon appeared; for he procured That we might perform this expedition, it us horses, and conducted us to the house of Dr. was necessary to traverse a great part of Mull. Maclean, where we found very kind entertain-We passed a day at Dr. Maclean's, and could ment, and very pleasing conversation. Miss have been well contented to stay longer. But Maclean, who was born, and had been bred, at Col provided us horses, and we pursued our Glasgow, having removed with her father to journey. This was a day of inconvenience, for Mull, added to other qualifications a great the country is very rough, and my horse was but knowledge of the Erse language, which she had little. We travelled many hours through a tract, not learned in her childhood, but gained by black and barren, in which, however, there were study, and was the only interpreter of Erse the reliques of humanity; for we found a ruined poetry that I could ever find. chapel in our way.

Plantation is naturally the employment of a But where the climate is unkind, and the mind unburdened with care, and vacant to futu ground penurious, so that the most fruitful rity, saturated with present good, and at leiyears produce only enough to maintain_them-sure to derive gratification from the prospect of selves; where life, unimproved and unadorned, posterity. He that pines with hunger, is in fades into something little more than naked ex- little care how others shall be fed. The poor istence, and every one is busy for himself, with- man is seldom studious to make his grandson out any arts by which the pleasure of others may rich. It may be soon discovered why, in a be increased; if to the daily burden of distress place which hardly supplies the cravings of any additional weight be added, nothing re- necessity, there has been little attention to the mams but to despair and die. In Mull the dis-delights of fancy; and why distant convenience appointment of a harvest, or a murrain among is unregarded, where the thoughts are turned the cattle, cuts off the regular provision; and with incessant solicitude upon every possibility they who have no manufactures, can purchase of immediate advantage. no part of the superfluities of other countries.

To Ulva we came in the dark, and left it be fore noon the next day. A very exact descrip tion therefore will not be expected. We were told, that it is an island of no great extent, rough and barren, inhabited by the Macquarrys; a clan not powerful nor numerous, but of antiquity, which most other families are content to reverence. The name is supposed to be a depravation of some other; for the Erse language does not afford it any etymology. Macquarry is proprietor both of Ulva and some adjacent islands, among which is Staffa, so lately raised to renown by Mr. Banks.

as may be conceived. Trees intended to pro- | were very liberally entertained by Mr. Mac duce timber must be sown where they are to quarry. grow; and ground sown with trees must be kept useless for a long time, inclosed at an expense from which many will be discouraged by the remoteness of the profit, and watched with that attention, which in places where it is most needed, will neither be given nor bought. That it cannot be ploughed is evident: and if cattle be suffered to graze upon it, they will devour the plants as fast as they rise. Even in coarser countries, where herds and flocks are not fed, not only the deer and the wild goats will browse upon them, but the hare and rabbit will nibble them. It is therefore reasonable to believe, what I do not remember any naturalist to have remarked, that there was a time when the world was very thinly inhabited by beasts, as well as men, and that the woods had leisure to rise high before animals had bred numbers sufficient to intercept them.

Sir James Macdonald, in part of the wastes of his territory, set or sowed trees to the number, as I have been told, of several millions, expecting, doubtless, that they would grow up into future navies and cities; but for want of inclosure, and of that care which is always necessary, and will hardly ever be taken, all his cost and labour have been lost, and the ground is likely

to continue an useless heath.

When the islanders were reproached with their ignorance or insensibility of the wonders of Staffa, they had not much to reply. They had indeed considered it little, because they had always seen it; and none but philosophers, nor they always, are struck with wonder, otherwise than by novelty. How would it surprise an unenlightened ploughman, to hear a company of sober men inquiring by what power the hand tosses a stone, or why the stone, when it is tossed, falls to the ground!

Of the ancestors of Macquarry, who thus lie hid in this unfrequented island, I have found memorials in all places where they could be expected.

Having not any experience of a journey in Inquiring after the reliques of former manMull, we had no doubt of reaching the sea by ners, I found that in Ulva, and, I think, no daylight, and therefore had not left Dr. Mac- where else, is continued the payment of the lean's very early. We travelled diligently mercheta mulierum; a fine in old times due to enough, but found the country, for road there the laird at the marriage of a virgin. The oriwas none, very difficult to pass. We were al-ginal of this claim, as of our tenure of borough ways struggling with some obstruction or other, and our vexation was not balanced by any gratification of the eye or mind. We were now long enough acquainted with hills and heath to have lost the emotion that they once raised, whether pleasing or painful, and had our mind employed only on our own fatigue. We were however sure, under Col's protection, of escaping all real evils. There was no house in Mull to which he could not introduce us. He had intended to lodge us, for that night, with a gentleman that lived upon the coast, but discovered on the way, that he then lay in bed without hope of life.

We resolved not to embarrass a family, in a time of so much sorrow, if any other expedient could be found; and as the island of Ulva was over against us, it was determined that we should pass the strait and have recourse to the laird, who, like the other gentlemen of the islands, was known to Col. We expected to find a ferry-boat, but when at last we came to the water, the boat was gone.

We were now again at a stop. It was the sixteenth of October, a time when it is not convenient to sleep in the Hebrides without a cover, and there was no house within our reach, but that which we had already declined.

ULVA.

While we stood deliberating, we were happily espied from an Irish ship, that lay at anchor in the strait. The master saw that we wanted a passage, and with great civility sent us his boat, which quickly conveyed us to Ulva, where we

English, is variously delivered. It is pleasant to find ancient customs in old families. This payment, like others, was, for want of money, made anciently in the produce of the land. Macquarry was used to demand a sheep, for which he now takes a crown, by that inattention to the uncertain proportion between the value and the denomination of money, which has brought much disorder into Europe. A sheep has always the same power of supplying human wants, but a crown will bring at one time more, at another less.

Ulva was not neglected by the piety of ancient times; it has still to show what was once a church.

INCH KENNETH.

In the morning we went again into the boat, and were landed on Inch Kenneth, an island about a mile long, and perhaps half a mile broad, remarkable for pleasantness and fertility. It is verdant and grassy, and fit both for pasture and tillage; but it has no trees. Its only inhabitants were Sir Allan Maclean and two young ladies, his daughters, with their servants.

Romance does not often exhibit a scene that strikes the imagination more than this little desert in these depths of western obscurity, occupied not by a gross herdsman, or amphibious fisherman, but by a gentleman and two ladies, of high birth, polished manners, and elegant conversation, who, in a habitation raised not very far above the ground, but furnished with unexpected neatness and convenience, practised all the kindness of hospitality, and refinement of courtesy.

This part of our curiosity was nearly frustrated; for though we went to see a cave, and Inch Kenneth is a proper prelude to Icolm-knew that caves are dark, we forgot to carry kill. It was not without some mournful emotion that we contemplated the ruins of religious structures, and the monuments of the dead."

should have proceeded in our search, though we had already gone as far as any former adventurers, except some who are reported never to have returned; and measuring our way back, we found it more than a hundred and sixty yards, the eleventh part of a mile.

Our measures were not critically exact, having been made with a walking pole, such as it is convenient to carry in these rocky countries, of which I guessed the length by standing against it. In this there could be no great error, nor do I much doubt but the Highlander, whom we employed, reported the number right. More nicety, however, is better, and no man should travel unprovided with instruments for taking heights and distances.

shelter, and therefore contemplated at ease the region through which we glided in the tranquillity of the night, and saw now a rock and now an island grow gradually conspicuous and gradually obscure. I committed the fault which I have just been censuring, in neglecting, as we passed, to note the series of this placid navigation. We were very near an island, called Nun's Island, perhaps from an ancient convent. Here is said to have been dug the stone which was used in the buildings of Icolmkill. Whether it is now inhabited we could not stay to inquire.

At last we came to Icolmkill, but found no convenience for landing. Our boat could not be forced very near the dry ground, and our Highlanders carried us over the water.

the blessings of religion. To abstract the mind from all local emotion would be impossible, if it were endeavoured, and would be foolish, if it were possible. Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me and from my friends be such frigid philosophy, as may conduct us indifferent and unmoved over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue. That man is little to be envied, whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona.

There is yet another cause of error not al- We were now treading that illustrious island, ways easily surmounted, though more dangerous which was once the luminary of the Caledonian to the veracity of itinerary narratives, than im- regions, whence savage clans and roving barbaperfect mensuration. An observer deeply im-rians derived the benefits of knowledge, and pressed by any remarkable spectacle, does not suppose that the traces will soon vanish from his mind, and having commonly no great convenience for writing, defers the description to a time of more leisure and better accommodation. He who has not made the experiment, or who is not accustomed to require rigorous accuracy from himself, will scarcely believe how much a few hours take from certainty of knowledge, and distinctness of imagery; how the succession of objects will be broken, how separate parts will be confused, and how many particular features and discriminations will be compressed and conglobated into one gross and general idea. To this dilatory notation must be imputed the false relations of travellers, where there is no imaginable motive to deceive. They trusted to memory what cannot be trusted safely but to the eye, and told by guess what a few hours before they had known with certainty. Thus it was that Wheeler and Spon described with irreconcileable contrariety things which they surveyed together, and which both undoubtedly designed to show as they saw them.

We came too late to visit monuments; some care was necessary for ourselves. Whatever was in the island, Sir Allan could demand, for the inhabitants were Macleans; but having little, they could not give us much. He went to the headman of the island, whom fame, but fame delights in amplifying, represents as worth no less than fifty pounds. He was perhaps proud enough of his guests, but ill prepared for our entertainment; however, he soon produced more provision than men not luxurious require. Our lodging was next to be provided. We found a barn well stocked with hay, and made our beds as soft as we could.

In the morning we rose and surveyed the place. The churches of the two convents are both standing, though unroofed. They were built of unhewn stone, but solid, and not inelegant. I brought away rude measures of the buildings, such as I cannot much trust myself, inaccurately taken, and obscurely noted. Mr. Pennant's delineations, which are doubtless exact, have made my unskilful description less necessary.

When we had satisfied our curiosity in the cave, so far as our penury of light permitted us, we clambered again to our boats, and proceeded along the coast of Mull to a headland, called Atun, remarkable for the columnar form of the rocks, which rise in a series of pilasters, with a degree of regularity which Sir Allan thinks not less worthy of curiosity than the shore of Staffa. Not long after we came to another range of black rocks, which had the appearance of broken pilasters set one behind another to a great depth. This place was chosen by Sir Allan for our dinner. We were easily accommodated with seats, for the stones were of all heights, and refreshed ourselves and our boatmen, who could have no other rest till we were at Icolmkill. The evening was now approaching, and we were yet at a considerable distance from the end of our expedition. We could therefore stop no more to make remarks in the way, but set forward with some degree of cagerness. The day soon failed us, and the moon presented a very solemn and pleasing scene. The sky was clear, That these edifices are of different ages, seems so that the eye commanded a wide circle; the evident. The arch of the first church is Roman, sea was neither still nor turbulent; the wind being part of a circle; that of the additional neither silent nor loud. We were never far building is pointed, and therefore Gothic or Sa. from one coast or another, on which, if the wea-racenical; the tower is firm, and wants only to ther had become violent, we could have found I be floored and covered.

The episcopal church consists of two parts, separated by the belfry, and built at different times. The original church had, like others, the alter at one end, and the tower at the other; but as it grew too small, another building of equal dimension was added, and the tower then was necessarily in the middle.

Of the chambers or cells belonging to the Iona has long enjoyed, without any very cre monks, there are some walls remaining, but no-dible attestation, the honour of being reputed thing approaching to a complete apartment. the cemetery of the Scottish kings. It is not The bottom of the church is so encumbered unlikely, that, when the opinion of local sancwith mud and rubbish, that we could make no tity was prevalent, the chieftains of the isles, discoveries of curious inscriptions, and what and perhaps some of the Norwegian or Irish there are have been already published. The princes, were reposited in this venerable inclosure. But by whom the subterraneous vaults place is said to be known where the black stones lie concealed, on which the old Highland chiefs, are peopled, is now utterly unknown. The when they made contracts and alliances, used graves are very numerous, and some of them unto take the oath, which was considered as more doubtedly contain the remains of men, who did sacred than any other obligation, and which not expect to be so soon forgotten. could not be violated without the blackest infamy. In those days of violence and rapine, it was of great importance to impress upon savage minds the sanctity of an oath, by some particular and extraordinary circumstances. They would not have recourse to the black stones upon small or common occasions, and when they had established their faith by this tremendous sanction, inconstancy and treachery were no longer feared.

The chapel of the nunnery is now used by the inhabitants as a kind of general cowhouse, and the bottom is consequently too miry for examination. Some of the stones which covered the later abbesses have inscriptions, which might yet be read, if the chapel were cleansed. The roof of this, as of all the other buildings, is totally destroyed, not only because timber quickly decays when it is neglected, but because in an island utterly destitute of wood, it was wanted for use, and was consequently the first plunder of needy rapacity.

The chancel of the nuns' chapel is covered with an arch of stone, to which time has done no injury; and a small apartment communicating with the choir, on the north side, like the chapter-house in cathedrals, roofed with stone in the same manner, likewise entire.

Not far from this awful ground may be traced the garden of the monastery; the fishponds are yet discernible, and the aqueduct which supplied them is still in use.

There remains a broken building, which is called the Bishop's House, I know not by what authority. It was once the residence of some man above the common rank, for it has two stories and a chimney. We were shown a chimney at the other end, which was only a niche, without perforation; but so much does antiquarian credulity, or patriotic vanity, prevail, that it was not much more safe to trust the eye of our instructor than the memory.

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

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

In one of the churches was a marble altar, which the superstition of the inhabitants has destroyed. Their opinion was, that a fragment of this stone was a defence against shipwrecks, fire, and miscarriages. In one corner of the But the fruitfulness of Iona is now its whole church the basin for holy water is yet unbroken. The cemetery of the nunnery was, till very late- prosperity. The inhabitants are remarkably ly, regarded with such reverence, that only wo-grose, and remarkably neglected: I know not if men were buried in it. These reliques of veneration always produce some mournful pleasure, I could have forgiven a great injury more easily than the violation of this imaginary sanctity.

South of the chapel stand the walls of a large room, which was probably the hall, or refectory, of the nunnery. This apartment is capable of repair. Of the rest of the convent there are only fragments.

Besides the two principal churches, there are, I think, five chapels yet standing, and three more remembered. There are also crosses, of which two bear the names of St. John and St. Matthew.

A large space of ground about these conse. crated edifices is covered with grave-stones, few of which have any inscription. He that surveys it, attended by an insular antiquary, may be told where the kings of many nations are buried, and if he loves to soothe his imagination with the thoughts that naturally rise in places where the great and the powerful lie mingled with the dust, let him listen in submissive silence; for if he asks any questions his delight is it an end.

they are visited by any minister. The island, which was once the metropolis of learning and piety, has now no school for education, nor temple for worship, only two inhabitants that can speak English, and not one that can write or read.

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

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