As We See More, We Become Possessed Of More
Certainties, And Consequently Gain More Principles Of Reasoning,
And Found A Wider Basis Of Analogy.
Regions mountainous and wild, thinly inhabited, and little
cultivated, make a great part of the earth, and he that has never
seen them, must live unacquainted with much of the face of nature,
and with one of the great scenes of human existence.
As the day advanced towards noon, we entered a narrow valley not
very flowery, but sufficiently verdant. Our guides told us, that
the horses could not travel all day without rest or meat, and
intreated us to stop here, because no grass would be found in any
other place. The request was reasonable and the argument cogent.
We therefore willingly dismounted and diverted ourselves as the
place gave us opportunity.
I sat down on a bank, such as a writer of Romance might have
delighted to feign. I had indeed no trees to whisper over my head,
but a clear rivulet streamed at my feet. The day was calm, the air
soft, and all was rudeness, silence, and solitude. Before me, and
on either side, were high hills, which by hindering the eye from
ranging, forced the mind to find entertainment for itself. Whether
I spent the hour well I know not; for here I first conceived the
thought of this narration.
We were in this place at ease and by choice, and had no evils to
suffer or to fear; yet the imaginations excited by the view of an
unknown and untravelled wilderness are not such as arise in the
artificial solitude of parks and gardens, a flattering notion of
self-sufficiency, a placid indulgence of voluntary delusions, a
secure expansion of the fancy, or a cool concentration of the
mental powers. The phantoms which haunt a desert are want, and
misery, and danger; the evils of dereliction rush upon the
thoughts; man is made unwillingly acquainted with his own weakness,
and meditation shows him only how little he can sustain, and how
little he can perform. There were no traces of inhabitants, except
perhaps a rude pile of clods called a summer hut, in which a
herdsman had rested in the favourable seasons. Whoever had been in
the place where I then sat, unprovided with provisions and ignorant
of the country, might, at least before the roads were made, have
wandered among the rocks, till he had perished with hardship,
before he could have found either food or shelter. Yet what are
these hillocks to the ridges of Taurus, or these spots of wildness
to the desarts of America?
It was not long before we were invited to mount, and continued our
journey along the side of a lough, kept full by many streams, which
with more or less rapidity and noise, crossed the road from the
hills on the other hand. These currents, in their diminished
state, after several dry months, afford, to one who has always
lived in level countries, an unusual and delightful spectacle; but
in the rainy season, such as every winter may be expected to bring,
must precipitate an impetuous and tremendous flood. I suppose the
way by which we went, is at that time impassable.
GLENSHEALS
The lough at last ended in a river broad and shallow like the rest,
but that it may be passed when it is deeper, there is a bridge over
it. Beyond it is a valley called Glensheals, inhabited by the clan
of Macrae. Here we found a village called Auknasheals, consisting
of many huts, perhaps twenty, built all of dry-stone, that is,
stones piled up without mortar.
We had, by the direction of the officers at Fort Augustus, taken
bread for ourselves, and tobacco for those Highlanders who might
show us any kindness. We were now at a place where we could obtain
milk, but we must have wanted bread if we had not brought it. The
people of this valley did not appear to know any English, and our
guides now became doubly necessary as interpreters. A woman, whose
hut was distinguished by greater spaciousness and better
architecture, brought out some pails of milk. The villagers
gathered about us in considerable numbers, I believe without any
evil intention, but with a very savage wildness of aspect and
manner. When our meal was over, Mr. Boswell sliced the bread, and
divided it amongst them, as he supposed them never to have tasted a
wheaten loaf before. He then gave them little pieces of twisted
tobacco, and among the children we distributed a small handful of
halfpence, which they received with great eagerness. Yet I have
been since told, that the people of that valley are not indigent;
and when we mentioned them afterwards as needy and pitiable, a
Highland lady let us know, that we might spare our commiseration;
for the dame whose milk we drank had probably more than a dozen
milk-cows. She seemed unwilling to take any price, but being
pressed to make a demand, at last named a shilling. Honesty is not
greater where elegance is less. One of the bystanders, as we were
told afterwards, advised her to ask for more, but she said a
shilling was enough. We gave her half a crown, and I hope got some
credit for our behaviour; for the company said, if our interpreters
did not flatter us, that they had not seen such a day since the old
laird of Macleod passed through their country.
The Macraes, as we heard afterwards in the Hebrides, were
originally an indigent and subordinate clan, and having no farms
nor stock, were in great numbers servants to the Maclellans, who,
in the war of Charles the First, took arms at the call of the
heroic Montrose, and were, in one of his battles, almost all
destroyed. The women that were left at home, being thus deprived
of their husbands, like the Scythian ladies of old, married their
servants, and the Macraes became a considerable race.
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