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 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.' 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. 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.'
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.