This Is All The Opportunity Of
Worship That Is Now Granted To The Inhabitants Of The Island, Some
Of Whom Must Travel Thither Perhaps Ten Miles.
Two chapels were
erected by their ancestors, of which I saw the skeletons, which now
stand faithful witnesses of the triumph of the Reformation.
The want of churches is not the only impediment to piety: there is
likewise a want of Ministers. A parish often contains more Islands
than one; and each Island can have the Minister only in its own
turn. At Raasa they had, I think, a right to service only every
third Sunday. All the provision made by the present ecclesiastical
constitution, for the inhabitants of about a hundred square miles,
is a prayer and sermon in a little room, once in three weeks: and
even this parsimonious distribution is at the mercy of the weather;
and in those Islands where the Minister does not reside, it is
impossible to tell how many weeks or months may pass without any
publick exercise of religion.
GRISSIPOL IN COL
After a short conversation with Mr. Maclean, we went on to
Grissipol, a house and farm tenanted by Mr. Macsweyn, where I saw
more of the ancient life of a Highlander, than I had yet found.
Mrs. Macsweyn could speak no English, and had never seen any other
places than the Islands of Sky, Mull, and Col: but she was
hospitable and good-humoured, and spread her table with sufficient
liberality. We found tea here, as in every other place, but our
spoons were of horn.
The house of Grissipol stands by a brook very clear and quick;
which is, I suppose, one of the most copious streams in the Island.
This place was the scene of an action, much celebrated in the
traditional history of Col, but which probably no two relaters will
tell alike.
Some time, in the obscure ages, Macneil of Barra married the Lady
Maclean, who had the Isle of Col for her jointure. Whether Macneil
detained Col, when the widow was dead, or whether she lived so long
as to make her heirs impatient, is perhaps not now known. The
younger son, called John Gerves, or John the Giant, a man of great
strength who was then in Ireland, either for safety, or for
education, dreamed of recovering his inheritance; and getting some
adventurers together, which, in those unsettled times, was not hard
to do, invaded Col. He was driven away, but was not discouraged,
and collecting new followers, in three years came again with fifty
men. In his way he stopped at Artorinish in Morvern, where his
uncle was prisoner to Macleod, and was then with his enemies in a
tent. Maclean took with him only one servant, whom he ordered to
stay at the outside; and where he should see the tent pressed
outwards, to strike with his dirk, it being the intention of
Maclean, as any man provoked him, to lay hands upon him, and push
him back.
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