enough, if what there is yet opportunity of examining were accurately infpected, and justly reprefented; but fuch is the laxity of Highland converfation, that the inquirer is kept in continual fufpenfe, and by a kind of intellectual retrogradation, knows lefs as he hears more.

The

In the islands the plaid is rarely worn. law by which the Highlanders have been obliged to change the form of their dress, has, in all the places that we have visited, been univerfally obeyed. I have seen 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 themfelves under any legal neceffity 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 still very common, and the bonnet almost universal; 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 to have much influence, facilitates their coalition with their fellow-fubjects. D. 4

What

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 must 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 close. 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 better cover.

In our paffage from Scotland to Sky, we were wet for the first time with a shower. 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 softened to have the power of congelation. The falt loughs, or inlets of the fea, which fhoot very far into the ifland, 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

This is not the defcription of a cruel climate, yet the dark months are here at a time of great diftrefs; because the fummer can do little more than feed itself, and winter comes with its cold and its scarcity 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 converfation by a new topic. The arrival of strangers at a place fo rarely vifited, excites rumour, and quickens curiofity. I know not whe ther 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 stranger may find his way. The horseman has always at his fide a native of the place,who, by pursuing game, or tending cat

tle, or being often employed in messages 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 toilfome at least, if not unsafe, 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 horse, accustomed to the ground, follows him with little deviation. Sometimes the hill is too steep for the horfeman to keep his feat, and fometimes the mofs is too tremulous to bear the double weight of horfe and man. rider then difmounts, and all shift as they can.

'The

Journies made in this manner are rather tedious than long. A very few miles require feveral hours. From Armidel we came at night to Coriatican, a house very pleasantly fituated between two brooks, with one of the highest hills of the island behind it. It is the refidence of Mr. Mackinnon, by whom we were treated with very liberal hofpitality, among a more numerous and elegant company than it could have been fuppofed easy to collect.

The

The hill behind the house we did not climb. The weather was rough, and the height and fteepnefs difcouraged us. We were told that there is a cairne upon it. A cairne is a heap of ftones thrown upon the grave of one eminent for dignity of birth, or fplendour of atchievements. It is faid that by digging, an urn is always found under these cairnes: they must therefore have been thus piled by a people whose custom was to burn the dead. To pile ftones is, I believe, a northern custom, and to burn the body was the Roman practice; nor do I know when it was that these two acts of fepulture were united.

The weather was next day too violent for the continuation of our journey; but we had no reafon to complain of the interruption. We faw in every place, what we chiefly defired to know, the manners of the people. We had company, and, if we had chofen retirement, we might have had books.

I never was in house of the Islands, any where I did not find books in more languages than one, if I ftaid long enough to want them, except one from which the family was removed. Literature is not neglected by the higher rank of the Hebridians.

It