The reft of the houfe is later, though far from modern.

We were favoured by a gentleman, who lives in the caftle, with a letter to one of the officers at Fort George, which being the most regular fortification in the ifland, well deferves the notice of a traveller, who has never travelled before. We went thither next day, found a very kind reception, were led round the works by a gentleman, who explained the use of every part, and entertained by Sir Eyre Coote, the governor, with fuch elegance of conversation as left us no attention to the delicacies of his table.

Of Fort George I fhall not attempt to give any account. I cannot delineate it fcientifically, and a : loofe and popular description is of use only when the imagination is to be amufed. There was every where an appearance of the utmoft neatnefs and regularity. But my fuffrage is of little value, because this and Fort Auguftus are the only garrifons. that I ever faw.

We did not regret the time spent at the fort, though in confequence of our delay we came fomewhat late to Inverness, the town which may properly be called the capital of the Highlands. Hither the inhabitants of the inland parts come to be fupplied with what they cannot make for themfelves hither the young nymphs of the mountains and valleys are fent for education, and, as far as my obfervation has reached, are not fent in vain.

INVERNESS.

Inverness was the laft place which had a regular communication by high roads with the fouthern counties. All the ways beyond it have, I believe, been made by the foldiers in this century. At Invernefs, therefore, Cromwell, when he fubdued Scotland, ftationed a garrifon, as at the boundary of the Highlands. The foldiers feem to have incorporated afterwards with the inhabitants, and to have peopled the place with an English race; for the language of this town has been long confidered as peculiarly elegant.

Here is a caftle, called the caftle of Macbeth, the walls of which are yet standing. It was no very capacious edifice, but ftands upon a rock so high. and steep, that I think it was once not acceffible, but by the help of ladders, or a bridge. Over against it, on another hill, was a fort built by Cromwell, now totally demolished; for no faction. of Scotland loved the name of Cromwell, or had any defire to continue his memory.

Yet what the Romans did to other nations was in a great degree done by Cromwell to the Scots; he civilized them by conqueft, and introduced by useful violence the arts of peace. I was told at Aberdeen that the people learned from Cromwell's foldiers to make thees and to plant kail..

How they lived without kail, it is not easy to guefs:

guefs: they cultivate hardly any other plant for common tables, and when they had not kail they probably had nothing. The numbers that go barefoot are still fufficient to fhew that shoes may be fpared: They are not yet confidered as neceffaries of life; for tall boys, not otherwise meanly dreffed, run without them in the ftreets and in the islands; the fons of gentlemen pafs feveral of their firft years with naked feet.

I know not whether it be not peculiar to the Scots to have attained the liberal, without the manual arts, to have excelled in ornamental knowledge, and to have wanted not only the elegancies, but the conveniencies of common life. Literaturę foon after its revival found its way to Scotland, and from the middle of the 16th century, almost to the middle of the 17th, the politer ftudies were very diligently purfued. The Latin poetry of Delicia Poetarum Scotorum would have done honour to any nation, at least till the publication of May's Supplement the English had very little to oppofe.

.

Yet men thus ingenious and inquifitive were content to live in total ignorance of the trades by which human wants are fupplied, and to fupply them by the groffeft means. Till the Union made them acquainted with English manners, the culture of their lands was unfkilful, and their domestic life unformed; their tables were coarse as the feafts of Efkimeaux, and their houfes filthy as the cottages of Hottentots.

Since they have known that their condition was capable of improvement, their progress in useful What knowledge has been rapid and uniform.

remains to be done they will quickly do, and then wonder, like me, why that which was so neceffary and fo eafy was fo long delayed. But they muft be for ever content to owe to the English that elegance and culture, which, if they had been vigilant and active, perhaps the English might have owed to them.

Here the appearance of life began to alter. I had feen a few women with plaids at Aberdeen; but at Inverness the Highland manners are common. There is I think a kirk, in which only the Erfe language is ufed. There is likewife an English chapel, but meanly built, where on Sunday we faw a very decent congregation.

We were now to bid farewell to the luxury of travelling, and to enter a country in which perhaps no wheel has ever rolled. We could indeed have used our post-chaife one day longer, along the military road to Fort Auguftus, but we could have hired no horses beyond Inverness, and we were not fo fparing of ourselves as to lead them, merely that we might have one day longer the indulgence of a carriage.

At Inverness, therefore, we procured three horfes for ourselves and a fervant, and one more for our baggage, which was no very heavy load. We found in the course of our journey the convenience of ha

ving difencumbered ourselves by laying afide whatever we could fpare; for it is not to be imagi> ned without experience, how in climbing crags, and treading bogs, and winding through narrow and obftructed paffages, a little bulk will hinder, and a little weight will burden; or how often a man that has pleased himself at home with his own refolution, will in the hour of darknefs and fatigue be content to leave behind him every thing but himself.

LOUGH-NS S.

We took two Highlanders to run befide us, partly to fhew us the way, and partly to take back from the fea-fide the horses, of which they were the owners. One of them was a man of great livelinefs and activity, of whom his companion faid, that he would tire any horfe in Inverness. Both of them were civil and ready-handed. Civility feems part of the national character of Highlanders. Every chieftain is a monarch, and politenefs, the natural product of royal government, is diffufed from the laird through the whole clan. But they are not commonly dextrous: their narrownefs of life confines them to a few operations, and they are accustomed to endure little wants more than to remove them.

We mounted our feeds on the thirteenth of

Auguft