After a sufficiency of sleep, we assembled at breakfast. We were just as
if in barracks. Every body was master. We went and viewed the old castle
of Col, which is not far from the present house, near the shore, and
founded on a rock. It has never been a large feudal residence, and has
nothing about it that requires a particular description. Like other old
inconvenient buildings of the same age, it exemplified Gray's
picturesque lines,
'Huge[796] windows that exclude the light,
And passages that lead to nothing.'
It may however be worth mentioning, that on the second story we saw a
vault, which was, and still is, the family prison. There was a woman put
into it by the laird, for theft, within these ten years; and any
offender would be confined there yet; for, from the necessity of the
thing, as the island is remote from any power established by law, the
laird must exercise his jurisdiction to a certain degree.
We were shewn, in a corner of this vault, a hole, into which Col said
greater criminals used to be put. It was now filled up with rubbish of
different kinds. He said, it was of a great depth, 'Ay, (said Dr.
Johnson, smiling,) all such places, that _are filled up_, were of a
great depth.' He is very quick in shewing that he does not give credit
to careless or exaggerated accounts of things. After seeing the castle,
we looked at a small hut near it. It is called _Teigh Franchich, i.e._
the Frenchman's House. Col could not tell us the history of it. A poor
man with a wife and children now lived in it. We went into it, and Dr.
Johnson gave them some charity. There was but one bed for all the
family, and the hut was very smoky. When he came out, he said to me,
_'Et hoc secundum sententiam philosophorum est esse beatus_[797].'
BOSWELL. 'The philosophers, when they placed happiness in a cottage,
supposed cleanliness and no smoke.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, they did not think
about either.'
We walked a little in the laird's garden, in which endeavours have been
used to rear some trees; but, as soon as they got above the surrounding
wall, they died. Dr. Johnson recommended sowing the seeds of hardy
trees, instead of planting.
Col and I rode out this morning, and viewed a part of the island. In the
course of our ride, we saw a turnip-field, which he had hoed with his
own hands. He first introduced this kind of husbandry into the Western
islands[798]. We also looked at an appearance of lead, which seemed very
promising. It has been long known; for I found letters to the late
laird, from Sir John Areskine and Sir Alexander Murray, respecting it.
After dinner came Mr. M'Lean, of Corneck, brother to Isle of Muck, who
is a cadet of the family of Col. He possesses the two ends of Col, which
belong to the Duke of Argyll. Corneck had lately taken a lease of them
at a very advanced rent, rather than let the Campbells get a footing in
the island, one of whom had offered nearly as much as he. Dr. Johnson
well observed, that, 'landlords err much when they calculate merely
what their land _may_ yield. The rent must be in a proportionate ratio
of what the land may yield, and of the power of the tenant to make it
yield. A tenant cannot make by his land, but according to the corn and
cattle which he has. Suppose you should give him twice as much land as
he has, it does him no good, unless he gets also more stock. It is clear
then, that the Highland landlords, who let their substantial tenants
leave them, are infatuated; for the poor small tenants cannot give them
good rents, from the very nature of things. They have not the means of
raising more from their farms[799].' Corneck, Dr. Johnson said, was the
most distinct man that he had met with in these isles: he did not shut
his eyes, or put his fingers in his ears, which he seemed to think was a
good deal the mode with most of the people whom we have seen of late.