To Ulva We Came In The Dark, And Left It Before Noon The Next Day.
A Very Exact Description Therefore Will Not Be Expected.
We were
told, that it is an Island of no great extent, rough and barren,
inhabited by the Macquarrys;
A clan not powerful nor numerous, but
of antiquity, which most other families are content to reverence.
The name is supposed to be a depravation of some other; for the
Earse language does not afford it any etymology. Macquarry is
proprietor both of Ulva and some adjacent Islands, among which is
Staffa, so lately raised to renown by Mr. Banks.
When the Islanders were reproached with their ignorance, or
insensibility of the wonders of Staffa, they had not much to reply.
They had indeed considered it little, because they had always seen
it; and none but philosophers, nor they always, are struck with
wonder, otherwise than by novelty. How would it surprise an
unenlightened ploughman, to hear a company of sober men, inquiring
by what power the hand tosses a stone, or why the stone, when it is
tossed, falls to the ground!
Of the ancestors of Macquarry, who thus lies hid in his
unfrequented Island, I have found memorials in all places where
they could be expected.
Inquiring after the reliques of former manners, I found that in
Ulva, and, I think, no where else, is continued the payment of the
Mercheta Mulierum; a fine in old times due to the Laird at the
marriage of a virgin. The original of this claim, as of our tenure
of Borough English, is variously delivered. It is pleasant to find
ancient customs in old families. This payment, like others, was,
for want of money, made anciently in the produce of the land.
Macquarry was used to demand a sheep, for which he now takes a
crown, by that inattention to the uncertain proportion between the
value and the denomination of money, which has brought much
disorder into Europe. A sheep has always the same power of
supplying human wants, but a crown will bring at one time more, at
another less.
Ulva was not neglected by the piety of ardent times: it has still
to show what was once a church.
INCH KENNETH
In the morning we went again into the boat, and were landed on Inch
Kenneth, an Island about a mile long, and perhaps half a mile
broad, remarkable for pleasantness and fertility. It is verdant
and grassy, and fit both for pasture and tillage; but it has no
trees. Its only inhabitants were Sir Allan Maclean and two young
ladies, his daughters, with their servants.
Romance does not often exhibit a scene that strikes the imagination
more than this little desert in these depths of Western obscurity,
occupied not by a gross herdsman, or amphibious fisherman, but by a
gentleman and two ladies, of high birth, polished manners and
elegant conversation, who, in a habitation raised not very far
above the ground, but furnished with unexpected neatness and
convenience, practised all the kindness of hospitality, and
refinement of courtesy.
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