A

JOURNEY

TO THE

WESTERN ISLANDS

OF

SCOTLAND.

A NEW EDITION.

EDINBURGH:

PRINTED FOR R, GORDON N° 30. PARLIAMENT CLOSE.

MDCCXCV.

A

JOURNEY

TO THE

WESTERN ISLANDS

O F

I

SCOTLAND.

HAD defired to vifit the HEBRIDES, or Weft

ern Islands of Scotland, fo long, that I fcarcely remember how the wifh was originally excited ; and was in the Autumn of the year 1773 induced to undertake the journey, by finding in Mr Bofwell a companion, whose acuteness would help my inquiry, and whofe gaiety of converfation and civi-. lity of manners are fufficient to counteract the inconveniences of travel, in countries lefs hofpitable than we have paffed.

On the eighteenth of Auguft we left Edinburgh, a city too well known to admit description, and directed our courfe northward, along the eaftern coaft of Scotland, accompanied the first day by another gentleman, who could stay with us only

long enough to fhew us how much we loft at feparation.

As we croffed the FRITH of FORTH, our curiofity was attracted by INCH KEITH, a fmall island, which neither of my companions had ever vifited, though, lying within their view, it had all their lives folicited their notice. Here, by climbing with tome difficulty over shattered crags, we made the firft experiment of unfrequented coafts. Inch Keith is nothing more than a rock covered with a thin layer of earth, not wholly bare of grafs, and very fertile of thistles. A fmall herd of cows grazes annually upon it in the fummer. It seems never to have afforded to man or beast a permanent habitation.

We found only the ruins of a small fort, not fọ injured by time but that it might be easily restored to its former ftate. It feems never to have been intended as a place of strength, nor was built to endure a fiege, but merely to afford cover to a few foldiers, who perhaps had the charge of a battery, or were stationed to give fignals of approaching danger. There is therefore no provifion of water within the walls, though the spring is so near, that it might have been eafily enclosed. One of the ftones had this inscription: "Maria Reg. 1564." It has probably been neglected from the time that the whole ifland had the fame king.

We left this little ifland with our thoughts employed a while on the different appearance that it would

would have made, if it had been placed at the fame diftance from London, with the fame facility of approach; with what emulation of price a few rocky acres would have been purchased, and with what expensive industry they would have been cultivated and adorned.

When we landed, we found our chaife ready, and paffed through KINGHORN, Kirkaldy, and COWPAR, places not unlike the fmall or straggling market-towns in England, where commerce and manufactures have not yet produced opulence.

Though we were yet in the most populous part of Scotland, and at fo fmall a diftance from the capital, we met few paffengers.

The roads are neither rough nor dirty; and it affords a fouthern stranger a new kind of pleafure to travel fo commodiously without the interruption of toll-gates. Where the bottom is rocky, as it feems commonly to be in Scotland, a smooth way is made indeed with great labour, but it never wants repairs; and in thofe parts where adventitious materials are neceffary, the ground once confolidated is rarely broken; for the inland commerce is not great, nor are heavy commodities often transported otherwise than by water. The carriages in common use are finall carts, drawn each by one little horse; and a man seems to derive fome degree of dignity and importance from the reputation of poffeffing a two-horfe cart.