Supplied by a young gentleman, who, for his
own improvement, travels every year on foot over the Highlands to
the session at Aberdeen; and at his return, during the vacation,
teaches to read and write in his native Island.
In Sky there are two grammar schools, where boarders are taken to
be regularly educated. The price of board is from three pounds, to
four pounds ten shillings a year, and that of instruction is half a
crown a quarter. But the scholars are birds of passage, who live
at school only in the summer; for in winter provisions cannot be
made for any considerable number in one place. This periodical
dispersion impresses strongly the scarcity of these countries.
Having heard of no boarding-school for ladies nearer than
Inverness, I suppose their education is generally domestick. The
elder daughters of the higher families are sent into the world, and
may contribute by their acquisitions to the improvement of the
rest.
Women must here study to be either pleasing or useful. Their
deficiencies are seldom supplied by very liberal fortunes. A
hundred pounds is a portion beyond the hope of any but the Laird's
daughter. They do not indeed often give money with their
daughters; the question is, How many cows a young lady will bring
her husband.
