As we fat at Sir Alexander's table, we were enter tained, according to the ancient ufage of the north, with the melody of the bagpipe. Every thing in those countries has its hiftory. As the bagpiper was playing, an elderly gentleman informed us, that in fome remote time, the Macdonalds of Glengary having been injured, or offended by the inhabitants of Culloden, and refolving to have justice or vengeance, came to Culloden on a Sunday, where, finding their enemies at worship, they shut them up in the church, which they fet on fire; and this, faid he, is the tune that the piper played while they were burning.

Narrations like this, however uncertain, deferve the notice of a traveller, because they are the only records of a nation that has no hiftorians, and afford the moft genuine representation of the life and character of the ancient Highlanders.

Under the denomination of Highlander are comprehended in Scotland all that now fpeak the Erse language, or retain the primitive manners, whether they live among the mountains or in the islands; and in that fense I use the name, when there is not fome apparent reafon for making a distinction,

In Sky I firft obferved the use of brogues, a kind of artlefs fhoes, ftitched with thongs fo loofely, that though they defend the foot from ftones, they do not exclude water. Brogues were formerly made of raw hides, with the hair inwards, and fuch are perhaps still used in rude and remote parts; but they are faid not to laft above two days. Where life is fomewhat improved, they are now made of leather, tanned with oak-bark, as in other places, or with

the

the bark of birch, or roots of tormentil, a substance recommended in defect of bark, about forty years ago, to the Irish tanners, by one to whom the parliament of that kingdom voted a reward. The leather of Sky is not completely penetrated by vegetable matter, and therefore cannot be very durable.

My enquiries about brogues, gave me an early fpecimen of Highland information. One day I was told, that to make brogues was a domeftick art, which every man practifed for himself, and that a pair of brogues was the work of an hour. I fupposed that the husband made brogues as the wife made an apron, till next day it was told me, that a brogue-maker was a trade, and that a pair would coft half-a-crown. It will easily occur that these representations may both be true, and that, in fome places, men may buy them, and in others make them for themselves; but I had both the accounts in the fame houfe within two days.

Many of my fubfequent enquiries upon more interefting topicks ended in the like uncertainty. He that travels in the Highlands may eafily faturate his foul with intelligence, if he will acquiefce in the firft account. The Highlander gives to every question an answer so prompt and peremptory, that skepticism itself is dared into filence, and the mind finks before the bold reporter in unrefifting credulity; but if a fecond queftion be ventured, it breaks the enchantment; for it is immediately discovered, that what was told fo confidently was told at hazard, and that fuch fearlessness of affertion was either the fport of negligence, or the refuge of ignorance,

If individuals are thus at variance with themselves, it can be no wonder that the accounts of different men are contradictory. The traditions of an ignorant and favage people have been for ages negligently heard, and unskilfully related. Diftant events must have been mingled together, and the actions of one man given to another. Thefe, however, are deficiencies in ftory, for which no man is now to be cenfured. It were enough, if what there is yet opportunity of examining were accurately infpected, and juftly reprefented; but fuch is the laxity of Highland converfation, that the enquirer is kept in continual fufpenfe, and by a kind of intellectual retrogradation, knows lefs as he hears more,

The law

In the islands the plaid is rarely worn. by which the Highlanders have been obliged to change the form of their drefs, has, in all the places that we have visited, been univerfally obeyed. I have feen only one gentleman completely clothed in the ancient habit, and by him it was worn only occafionally and wantonly. The common people do not think themselves under any legal necefity of having coats; for they fay that the law against plaids was made by lord Hardwicke, and was in force only for his life: but the fame poverty that made it then difficult for them to change their clothing, hinders them now from changing it again.

The fillibeg, or lower garment, is ftill very common, and the bonnet almoft univerfal; but their attire is fuch as produces, in a fufficient degree, the effect intended by the law, of abolishing the diffimilitude of appearance between the Highlanders and the other inhabitants of Britain; and, if drefs be fuppofed

pofed to have much influence, facilitates their coalition with their fellow-fubjects.

What we have long ufed we naturally like; and therefore the Highlanders were unwilling to lay afide their plaid, which yet to an unprejudiced fpectator muft appear an incommodious and cumbersome drefs; for hanging loofe upon the body, it must flutter in a quick motion, or require one of the hands to keep it clofe. The Romans always laid afide the gown when they had any thing to do. It was a drefs fo unfuitable to war, that the fame word which fignified a gown fignified peace. The chief ufe of a plaid feems to be this, that they could commodiously wrap themselves in it, when they were obliged to fleep without a bet

ter cover.

In our paffage from Scotland to Sky, we were wet for the first time with a fhower. This was the beginning of the Highland winter, after which we were told that a fucceffion of three dry days was not to be expected for many months. The winter of the Hebrides confifts of little more than rain and wind. As they are furrounded by an ocean never frozen, the blafts that come to them over the water are too much foftened to have the power of congelation. The falt loughs, or inlets of the fea, which shoot very far into the island, never have any ice upon them, and the pools of fresh water will never bear the walker. The fnow that fometimes falls, is foon diffolved by the air, or the rain.

This is not the defcription of a cruel climate, yet the dark months are here a time of great diftrefs; because the fummer can do little more than feed it

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felf,

felf, and winter comes with its cold and its fcarcity upon families very flenderly provided.

CORIATACHAN IN SKY.

The third or fourth day after our arrival at Armidel, brought us an invitation to the isle of Raafay, which lies eaft of Sky. It is incredible how foon the account of any event is propagated in these narrow countries by the love of talk, which much leifure produces, and the relief given to the mind in the penury of infular conversation by a new topick. The arrival of ftrangers at a place fo rarely vifited, excites rumour, and quickens curiofity. curiofity. I know not whether we touched at any corner, where fame had not already prepared us a reception.

To gain a commodious paffage to Raafay, it was neceffary to pafs over a large part of Sky. We were furnished therefore with horfes and a guide. In the islands there are no roads, nor any marks by which a ftranger may find his way. The horfeman has always at his fide a native of the place, who, by pursuing game, or tending cattle, or being often employed in meffages or conduct, has learned where the ridge of the hill has breadth fufficient to allow a horfe and his rider a paffage, and where the mofs or bog is hard enough to bear them. The bogs are avoided as toilsome at least, if not unfafe, and therefore the journey is made generally from precipice to precipice; from which if the eye ventures to look down, it fees below a gloomy cavity, whence the rush of water is fometimes heard.

But there feems to be in all this more alarm than danger. The Highlander walks carefully before, and

the