The Castle Of Lochbuy Was Secured By Double
Doors, Of Which The Outer Was An Iron Grate.
In every castle is a well and a dungeon.
The use of the well is
evident. The dungeon is a deep subterraneous cavity, walled on the
sides, and arched on the top, into which the descent is through a
narrow door, by a ladder or a rope, so that it seems impossible to
escape, when the rope or ladder is drawn up. The dungeon was, I
suppose, in war, a prison for such captives as were treated with
severity, and, in peace, for such delinquents as had committed
crimes within the Laird's jurisdiction; for the mansions of many
Lairds were, till the late privation of their privileges, the halls
of justice to their own tenants.
As these fortifications were the productions of mere necessity,
they are built only for safety, with little regard to convenience,
and with none to elegance or pleasure. It was sufficient for a
Laird of the Hebrides, if he had a strong house, in which he could
hide his wife and children from the next clan. That they are not
large nor splendid is no wonder. It is not easy to find how they
were raised, such as they are, by men who had no money, in
countries where the labourers and artificers could scarcely be fed.
The buildings in different parts of the Island shew their degrees
of wealth and power. I believe that for all the castles which I
have seen beyond the Tweed, the ruins yet remaining of some one of
those which the English built in Wales, would supply materials.
These castles afford another evidence that the fictions of
romantick chivalry had for their basis the real manners of the
feudal times, when every Lord of a seignory lived in his hold
lawless and unaccountable, with all the licentiousness and
insolence of uncontested superiority and unprincipled power. The
traveller, whoever he might be, coming to the fortified habitation
of a Chieftain, would, probably, have been interrogated from the
battlements, admitted with caution at the gate, introduced to a
petty Monarch, fierce with habitual hostility, and vigilant with
ignorant suspicion; who, according to his general temper, or
accidental humour, would have seated a stranger as his guest at the
table, or as a spy confined him in the dungeon.
Lochbuy means the Yellow Lake, which is the name given to an inlet
of the sea, upon which the castle of Mr. Maclean stands. The
reason of the appellation we did not learn.
We were now to leave the Hebrides, where we had spent some weeks
with sufficient amusement, and where we had amplified our thoughts
with new scenes of nature, and new modes of life. More time would
have given us a more distinct view, but it was necessary that Mr.
Boswell should return before the courts of justice were opened; and
it was not proper to live too long upon hospitality, however
liberally imparted.
Of these Islands it must be confessed, that they have not many
allurements, but to the mere lover of naked nature.
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