cured fome rum or brandy for our boatmen and fervants, from a publick-house near where we landed; but unfortunately a funeral a few days before had exhaufted all their store. Mr. Campbell however, one of the Duke of Argyle's tacksmen, who lived in the neighbourhood, on receiving a meffage from Sir Allan, fent us a liberal fupply.

We continued to coaft along Mull, and paffed by Nuns' Ifland, which it is faid belonged to the nuns of Icolmkill, and from which, we were told, the ftone for the buildings there was taken. As we failed along by moonlight, in a fea fomewhat rough, and often between black and gloomy rocks, Dr. Johnson faid, "If this be not roving among the Hebrides, nothing is."-The repetition of words which he had fo often previously used, made a strong impreffion on my imagination; and, by a natural courfe of thinking, led me to confider how our prefent adventures would appear to me at a future period.

I have often experienced, that scenes through which a man has paffed, improve by lying in the memory they grow mellow. Ai labores funt jucundi. This may be owing to comparing them with present liftlefs ease. Even harsh fcenes acquire a foftnefs by length of time; and some are like very loud founds, which do not please, or at least do not please so much,

till

till you are removed to a certain diftance. They may be compared to ftrong coarse pictures, which will not bear to be viewed near. Even pleasing scenes improve by time, and feem more exquifite in recollection, than when they were prefent; if they have not faded to dimnefs in the memory. Perhaps, there is fo much evil in every human enjoyment, when prefent, so much drofs mixed with it, that it requires to be refined by time; and yet I do not fee why time fhould not melt away the good and the evil in equal proportions ;-why the fhade should decay, and the light remain in prefervation.

After a tedious fail, which, by our following various turnings of the coaft of Mull, was extended to about forty miles, it gave us no fmall pleasure to perceive a light in the village. at Icolmkill, in which almoft all the inhabitants of the island live, clofe to where the ancient buildings stood. As we approached the shore, the tower of the cathedral, juft difcernible in the air, was a picturefque object.

When we had landed upon this facred place, which, as long as I can remember, I had thought on with veneration, Dr. Johnfon and I cordially embraced. We had long talked of vifiting Icolmkill; and, from the latenefs of the season, were at times very doubtful whether we should be able to effect our purpose. To have feen it, even alone, would have given me great fatisfaction;

Ee

fatisfaction; but the venerable fcene was rendered much more pleafing by the company

of

my great and pious friend, who was no lefs affected by it than I was; and who has defcribed the impreffions it fhould make on the mind, with fuch ftrength of thought, and energy of language, that I fhall quote his words, as conveying my own fenfations much more forcibly than I am capable of doing:

"WE were now treading that illustrious Inland, which was once the luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence favage clans and roving barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge, and the bleffings of religion. To abtract the mind from all local emotion would be impoffible, if it were endeavoured, and would be foolish, if it were poffible. Whatever withdraws us from the power of our fenfes, whatever makes the paft, the diftant, or the future, predominate over the prefent, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me, and from my friends, be fuch frigid philofophy 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, whofe patriotifm would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whole piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona! *" Upon

*Had our Tour produced nothing else but this fublime paffage, the world muit have acknowledged that it was not

made

2

Upon hearing that Sir Allan M'Lean was ar rived, the inhabitants, who ftill confider themfelves as the people of McLean, to whom the inland formerly belonged, though the Duke of Argyle has at prefent poffeffion of it, ran eagerly to him..

We were accommodated this night in a large barn, the island affording no lodging that we fhould have liked fo well. Some good hay was ftrewed at one end of it, to form a bed for us, upon which we lay with our clothes on; and we were furnished with blankets from the village. Each of us had a portmanteau for a pillow. When I awaked in the morning, and looked round me, I could not help smiling at the idea of the Chief of the M'Leans, the great English Moralift, and myself, lying thus extended in fuch a fituation.

Wednesday, 20th October.

Early in the morning we furveyed the remains of antiquity at this place, accompanied by an illiterate fellow, as Cicerone, who called himself a defcendant of a coufin of Saint Columba, the founder of the religious establishment here. As I knew that many persons had Ee 2 already

made in vain. The prefent respectable President of the Royal Society was fo much struck on reading it, that he clasped his hands together, and remained for fome time in an attitude of filent admiration.

already examined them, and as I faw Dr. Johnson infpecting and measuring feveral of the ruins of which he has fince given fo full an account, my mind was quiefcent; and I refolved to stroll among them at my ease, to take no trouble to investigate minutely, and only receive the general impreffion of folemn antiquity, and the particular ideas of fuch objects as fhould of themselves ftrike my attention.

We walked from the Monastery of Nuns to the great church or cathedral, as they call it, along an old broken causeway. They told us, that this had been a street; and that there were good houfes built on each fide. Dr. Johnfon doubted if it was any thing more than a paved road for the nuns. The Convent of Monks, the great church, Oran's chapel, and four other chapels, are ftill to be difcerned. But I muft own that Icolmkill did not anfwer my expectations; for they were high, from what I had read of it, and ftill more from what I had heard and thought of it, from my earliest years. Dr. Johnfon faid, it came up to his expectations, because he had taken his impreffion from an account of it fubjoined to Sacheverel's Hiftory of the Isle of Man, where it is faid, there is not much to be feen here. We were both difappointed, when we were fhewn what are called the monuments of the Kings of Scotland, Ireland, and Denmark, and of a King of

4.

France.