It Is Competent Enough When The
Markets Of The Same Country, At Different Times, And Those Times
Not Too Distant,
Are to be compared; but of very little use for the
purpose of making one nation acquainted with the state
Of another.
Provisions, though plentiful, are sold in places of great pecuniary
opulence for nominal prices, to which, however scarce, where gold
and silver are yet scarcer, they can never be raised.
In the Western Islands there is so little internal commerce, that
hardly any thing has a known or settled rate. The price of things
brought in, or carried out, is to be considered as that of a
foreign market; and even this there is some difficulty in
discovering, because their denominations of quantity are different
from ours; and when there is ignorance on both sides, no appeal can
be made to a common measure.
This, however, is not the only impediment. The Scots, with a
vigilance of jealousy which never goes to sleep, always suspect
that an Englishman despises them for their poverty, and to convince
him that they are not less rich than their neighbours, are sure to
tell him a price higher than the true. When Lesley, two hundred
years ago, related so punctiliously, that a hundred hen eggs, new
laid, were sold in the Islands for a peny, he supposed that no
inference could possibly follow, but that eggs were in great
abundance. Posterity has since grown wiser; and having learned,
that nominal and real value may differ, they now tell no such
stories, lest the foreigner should happen to collect, not that eggs
are many, but that pence are few.
Money and wealth have by the use of commercial language been so
long confounded, that they are commonly supposed to be the same;
and this prejudice has spread so widely in Scotland, that I know
not whether I found man or woman, whom I interrogated concerning
payments of money, that could surmount the illiberal desire of
deceiving me, by representing every thing as dearer than it is.
From Lochbuy we rode a very few miles to the side of Mull, which
faces Scotland, where, having taken leave of our kind protector,
Sir Allan, we embarked in a boat, in which the seat provided for
our accommodation was a heap of rough brushwood; and on the twenty-
second of October reposed at a tolerable inn on the main land.
On the next day we began our journey southwards. The weather was
tempestuous. For half the day the ground was rough, and our horses
were still small. Had they required much restraint, we might have
been reduced to difficulties; for I think we had amongst us but one
bridle. We fed the poor animals liberally, and they performed
their journey well. In the latter part of the day, we came to a
firm and smooth road, made by the soldiers, on which we travelled
with great security, busied with contemplating the scene about us.
The night came on while we had yet a great part of the way to go,
though not so dark, but that we could discern the cataracts which
poured down the hills, on one side, and fell into one general
channel that ran with great violence on the other. The wind was
loud, the rain was heavy, and the whistling of the blast, the fall
of the shower, the rush of the cataracts, and the roar of the
torrent, made a nobler chorus of the rough musick of nature than it
had ever been my chance to hear before. The streams, which ran
cross the way from the hills to the main current, were so frequent,
that after a while I began to count them; and, in ten miles,
reckoned fifty-five, probably missing some, and having let some
pass before they forced themselves upon my notice. At last we came
to Inverary, where we found an inn, not only commodious, but
magnificent.
The difficulties of peregrination were now at an end. Mr. Boswell
had the honour of being known to the Duke of Argyle, by whom we
were very kindly entertained at his splendid seat, and supplied
with conveniences for surveying his spacious park and rising
forests.
After two days stay at Inverary we proceeded Southward over
Glencroe, a black and dreary region, now made easily passable by a
military road, which rises from either end of the glen by an
acclivity not dangerously steep, but sufficiently laborious. In
the middle, at the top of the hill, is a seat with this
inscription, 'Rest, and be thankful.' Stones were placed to mark
the distances, which the inhabitants have taken away, resolved,
they said, 'to have no new miles.'
In this rainy season the hills streamed with waterfalls, which,
crossing the way, formed currents on the other side, that ran in
contrary directions as they fell to the north or south of the
summit. Being, by the favour of the Duke, well mounted, I went up
and down the hill with great convenience.
From Glencroe we passed through a pleasant country to the banks of
Loch Lomond, and were received at the house of Sir James Colquhoun,
who is owner of almost all the thirty islands of the Loch, which we
went in a boat next morning to survey. The heaviness of the rain
shortened our voyage, but we landed on one island planted with yew,
and stocked with deer, and on another containing perhaps not more
than half an acre, remarkable for the ruins of an old castle, on
which the osprey builds her annual nest. Had Loch Lomond been in a
happier climate, it would have been the boast of wealth and vanity
to own one of the little spots which it incloses, and to have
employed upon it all the arts of embellishment. But as it is, the
islets, which court the gazer at a distance, disgust him at his
approach, when he finds, instead of soft lawns; and shady thickets,
nothing more than uncultivated ruggedness.
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