We took two Highlanders to run beside us, partly to shew us the way, and
partly to take back from the sea-side the horses, of which they were the
owners. One of them was a man of great liveliness and activity, of whom
his companion said, that he would tire any horse in Inverness. Both of
them were civil and ready-handed. Civility seems part of the national
character of Highlanders. Every chieftain is a monarch, and politeness,
the natural product of royal government, is diffused from the laird
through the whole clan. But they are not commonly dexterous: their
narrowness of life confines them to a few operations, and they are
accustomed to endure little wants more than to remove them.
We mounted our steeds on the thirtieth of August, and directed our guides
to conduct us to Fort Augustus. It is built at the head of Lough Ness,
of which Inverness stands at the outlet. The way between them has been
cut by the soldiers, and the greater part of it runs along a rock,
levelled with great labour and exactness, near the water-side.
Most of this day's journey was very pleasant. The day, though bright,
was not hot; and the appearance of the country, if I had not seen the
Peak, would have been wholly new. We went upon a surface so hard and
level, that we had little care to hold the bridle, and were therefore at
full leisure for contemplation. On the left were high and steep rocks
shaded with birch, the hardy native of the North, and covered with fern
or heath. On the right the limpid waters of Lough Ness were beating
their bank, and waving their surface by a gentle agitation. Beyond them
were rocks sometimes covered with verdure, and sometimes towering in
horrid nakedness. Now and then we espied a little cornfield, which
served to impress more strongly the general barrenness.
Lough Ness is about twenty-four miles long, and from one mile to two
miles broad. It is remarkable that Boethius, in his description of
Scotland, gives it twelve miles of breadth. When historians or
geographers exhibit false accounts of places far distant, they may be
forgiven, because they can tell but what they are told; and that their
accounts exceed the truth may be justly supposed, because most men
exaggerate to others, if not to themselves: but Boethius lived at no
great distance; if he never saw the lake, he must have been very
incurious, and if he had seen it, his veracity yielded to very slight
temptations.
Lough Ness, though not twelve miles broad, is a very remarkable diffusion
of water without islands. It fills a large hollow between two ridges of
high rocks, being supplied partly by the torrents which fall into it on
either side, and partly, as is supposed, by springs at the bottom. Its
water is remarkably clear and pleasant, and is imagined by the natives to
be medicinal. We were told, that it is in some places a hundred and
forty fathoms deep, a profundity scarcely credible, and which probably
those that relate it have never sounded. Its fish are salmon, trout, and
pike.
It was said at fort Augustus, that Lough Ness is open in the hardest
winters, though a lake not far from it is covered with ice. In
discussing these exceptions from the course of nature, the first question
is, whether the fact be justly stated. That which is strange is
delightful, and a pleasing error is not willingly detected. Accuracy of
narration is not very common, and there are few so rigidly philosophical,
as not to represent as perpetual, what is only frequent, or as constant,
what is really casual. If it be true that Lough Ness never freezes, it
is either sheltered by its high banks from the cold blasts, and exposed
only to those winds which have more power to agitate than congeal; or it
is kept in perpetual motion by the rush of streams from the rocks that
inclose it. Its profundity though it should be such as is represented
can have little part in this exemption; for though deep wells are not
frozen, because their water is secluded from the external air, yet where
a wide surface is exposed to the full influence of a freezing atmosphere,
I know not why the depth should keep it open. Natural philosophy is now
one of the favourite studies of the Scottish nation, and Lough Ness well
deserves to be diligently examined.
The road on which we travelled, and which was itself a source of
entertainment, is made along the rock, in the direction of the lough,
sometimes by breaking off protuberances, and sometimes by cutting the
great mass of stone to a considerable depth. The fragments are piled in
a loose wall on either side, with apertures left at very short spaces, to
give a passage to the wintry currents. Part of it is bordered with low
trees, from which our guides gathered nuts, and would have had the
appearance of an English lane, except that an English lane is almost
always dirty. It has been made with great labour, but has this
advantage, that it cannot, without equal labour, be broken up.
Within our sight there were goats feeding or playing. The mountains have
red deer, but they came not within view; and if what is said of their
vigilance and subtlety be true, they have some claim to that palm of
wisdom, which the eastern philosopher, whom Alexander interrogated, gave
to those beasts which live furthest from men.
Near the way, by the water side, we espied a cottage. This was the first
Highland Hut that I had seen; and as our business was with life and
manners, we were willing to visit it. To enter a habitation without
leave, seems to be not considered here as rudeness or intrusion. The old
laws of hospitality still give this licence to a stranger.
A hut is constructed with loose stones, ranged for the most part with
some tendency to circularity. It must be placed where the wind cannot
act upon it with violence, because it has no cement; and where the water
will run easily away, because it has no floor but the naked ground. The
wall, which is commonly about six feet high, declines from the
perpendicular a little inward. Such rafters as can be procured are then
raised for a roof, and covered with heath, which makes a strong and warm
thatch, kept from flying off by ropes of twisted heath, of which the
ends, reaching from the center of the thatch to the top of the wall, are
held firm by the weight of a large stone. No light is admitted but at
the entrance, and through a hole in the thatch, which gives vent to the
smoke. This hole is not directly over the fire, lest the rain should
extinguish it; and the smoke therefore naturally fills the place before
it escapes. Such is the general structure of the houses in which one of
the nations of this opulent and powerful island has been hitherto content
to live. Huts however are not more uniform than palaces; and this which
we were inspecting was very far from one of the meanest, for it was
divided into several apartments; and its inhabitants possessed such
property as a pastoral poet might exalt into riches.
When we entered, we found an old woman boiling goats-flesh in a kettle.
She spoke little English, but we had interpreters at hand; and she was
willing enough to display her whole system of economy. She has five
children, of which none are yet gone from her. The eldest, a boy of
thirteen, and her husband, who is eighty years old, were at work in the
wood. Her two next sons were gone to Inverness to buy meal, by which
oatmeal is always meant. Meal she considered as expensive food, and told
us, that in Spring, when the goats gave milk, the children could live
without it. She is mistress of sixty goats, and I saw many kids in an
enclosure at the end of her house. She had also some poultry. By the
lake we saw a potatoe-garden, and a small spot of ground on which stood
four shucks, containing each twelve sheaves of barley. She has all this
from the labour of their own hands, and for what is necessary to be
bought, her kids and her chickens are sent to market.
With the true pastoral hospitality, she asked us to sit down and drink
whisky. She is religious, and though the kirk is four miles off,
probably eight English miles, she goes thither every Sunday. We gave her
a shilling, and she begged snuff; for snuff is the luxury of a Highland
cottage.
Soon afterwards we came to the General's Hut, so called because it was
the temporary abode of Wade, while he superintended the works upon the
road. It is now a house of entertainment for passengers, and we found it
not ill stocked with provisions.