The
ashes are yellowish, and in a large quantity. When they dig peat,
they cut it into square pieces, and pile it up to dry beside the
house. In some places it has an offensive smell. It is like wood
charked for the smith. The common method of making peat fires, is
by heaping it on the hearth; but it burns well in grates, and in
the best houses is so used.
The common opinion is, that peat grows again where it has been cut;
which, as it seems to be chiefly a vegetable substance, is not
unlikely to be true, whether known or not to those who relate it.
There are water mills in Sky and Raasa; but where they are too far
distant, the house-wives grind their oats with a quern, or hand-
mill, which consists of two stones, about a foot and a half in
diameter; the lower is a little convex, to which the concavity of
the upper must be fitted. In the middle of the upper stone is a
round hole, and on one side is a long handle. The grinder sheds
the corn gradually into the hole with one hand, and works the
handle round with the other. The corn slides down the convexity of
the lower stone, and by the motion of the upper is ground in its
passage. These stones are found in Lochabar.
The Islands afford few pleasures, except to the hardy sportsman,
who can tread the moor and climb the mountain. The distance of one
family from another, in a country where travelling has so much
difficulty, makes frequent intercourse impracticable. Visits last
several days, and are commonly paid by water; yet I never saw a
boat furnished with benches, or made commodious by any addition to
the first fabric. Conveniences are not missed where they never
were enjoyed.
The solace which the bagpipe can give, they have long enjoyed; but
among other changes, which the last Revolution introduced, the use
of the bagpipe begins to be forgotten. Some of the chief families
still entertain a piper, whose office was anciently hereditary.
Macrimmon was piper to Macleod, and Rankin to Maclean of Col.
The tunes of the bagpipe are traditional. There has been in Sky,
beyond all time of memory, a college of pipers, under the direction
of Macrimmon, which is not quite extinct. There was another in
Mull, superintended by Rankin, which expired about sixteen years
ago. To these colleges, while the pipe retained its honour, the
students of musick repaired for education. I have had my dinner
exhilarated by the bagpipe, at Armidale, at Dunvegan, and in Col.
The general conversation of the Islanders has nothing particular.
I did not meet with the inquisitiveness of which I have read, and
suspect the judgment to have been rashly made. A stranger of
curiosity comes into a place where a stranger is seldom seen: he
importunes the people with questions, of which they cannot guess
the motive, and gazes with surprise on things which they, having
had them always before their eyes, do not suspect of any thing
wonderful. He appears to them like some being of another world,
and then thinks it peculiar that they take their turn to inquire
whence he comes, and whither he is going.
The Islands were long unfurnished with instruction for youth, and
none but the sons of gentlemen could have any literature. There
are now parochial schools, to which the lord of every manor pays a
certain stipend. Here the children are taught to read; but by the
rule of their institution, they teach only English, so that the
natives read a language which they may never use or understand. If
a parish, which often happens, contains several Islands, the school
being but in one, cannot assist the rest. This is the state of
Col, which, however, is more enlightened than some other places;
for the deficiency is 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. A rich maiden has from ten to forty; but two cows are
a decent fortune for one who pretends to no distinction.
The religion of the Islands is that of the Kirk of Scotland. The
gentlemen with whom I conversed are all inclined to the English
liturgy; but they are obliged to maintain the established Minister,
and the country is too poor to afford payment to another, who must
live wholly on the contribution of his audience.
They therefore all attend the worship of the Kirk, as often as a
visit from their Minister, or the practicability of travelling
gives them opportunity; nor have they any reason to complain of
insufficient pastors; for I saw not one in the Islands, whom I had
reason to think either deficient in learning, or irregular in life:
but found several with whom I could not converse without wishing,
as my respect increased, that they had not been Presbyterians.
