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.
THE HIGHLANDS
As we continued our journey, we were at leisure to extend our
speculations, and to investigate the reason of those peculiarities
by which such rugged regions as these before us are generally
distinguished.
Mountainous countries commonly contain the original, at least the
oldest race of inhabitants, for they are not easily conquered,
because they must be entered by narrow ways, exposed to every power
of mischief from those that occupy the heights; and every new ridge
is a new fortress, where the defendants have again the same
advantages. If the assailants either force the strait, or storm
the summit, they gain only so much ground; their enemies are fled
to take possession of the next rock, and the pursuers stand at
gaze, knowing neither where the ways of escape wind among the
steeps, nor where the bog has firmness to sustain them: besides
that, mountaineers have an agility in climbing and descending
distinct from strength or courage, and attainable only by use.
If the war be not soon concluded, the invaders are dislodged by
hunger; for in those anxious and toilsome marches, provisions
cannot easily be carried, and are never to be found. The wealth of
mountains is cattle, which, while the men stand in the passes, the
women drive away. Such lands at last cannot repay the expence of
conquest, and therefore perhaps have not been so often invaded by
the mere ambition of dominion; as by resentment of robberies and
insults, or the desire of enjoying in security the more fruitful
provinces.
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