This day there was a new moon, and the weather changed for the better.
Dr Johnson said of Miss M'Lean, 'She is the most accomplished lady
that I have found in the Highlands. She knows French, musick, and
drawing, sews neatly, makes shell-work, and can milk cows; in short,
she can do every thing. She talks sensibly, and is the first person
whom I have found, that can translate Erse poetry literally.' We set
out, mounted on little Mull horses. Mull corresponded exactly with the
idea which I had always had of it; a hilly country, diversified with
heath and grass, and many rivulets. Dr Johnson was not in very good
humour. He said, it was a dreary country, much worse than Sky. I
differed from him, 'O, sir,' said he, 'a most dolorous country!'
We had a very hard journey to-day. I had no bridle for my sheltie, but
only a halter; and Joseph rode without a saddle. At one place, a loch
having swelled over the road, we were obliged to plunge through pretty
deep water. Dr Johnson observed, how helpless a man would be, were he
travelling here alone, and should meet with any accident; and said,
'he longed to get to a country of saddles and bridles'. He was more
out of humour to-day, than he has been in the course of our tour,
being fretted to find that his little horse could scarcely support his
weight; and having suffered a loss, which, though small in itself, was
of some consequence to him, while travelling the rugged steeps of
Mull, where he was at times obliged to walk. The loss that I allude to
was that of the large oak-stick, which, as I formerly mentioned, he
had brought with him from London. It was of great use to him in our
wild peregrination; for, ever since his last illness in 1766, he has
had a weakness in his knees, and has not been able to walk easily. It
had too the properties of a measure; for one nail was driven into it
at the length of a foot; another at that of a yard. In return for the
services it had done him, he said, this morning he would make a
present of it to some museum; but he little thought he was so soon to
lose it. As he preferred riding with a switch, it was intrusted to a
fellow to be delivered to our baggage-man, who followed us at some
distance; but we never saw it more. I could not persuade him out of a
suspicion that it had been stolen. 'No, no, my friend,' said he, 'it
is not to be expected that any man in Mull, who has got it, will part
with it. Consider, sir, the value of such a PIECE OF TIMBER here!'
As we travelled this forenoon, we met Dr M'Lean, who expressed much
regret at his having been so unfortunate as to be absent while we were
at his house.
We were in hopes to get to Sir Allan Maclean's at Inchkenneth,
to-night; but the eight miles, of which our road was said to consist,
were so very long, that we did not reach the opposite coast of Mull
till seven at night, though we had set out about eleven in the
forenoon; and when we did arrive there, we found the wind strong
against us. Col determined that we should pass the night at
M'Quarrie's, in the island of Ulva, which lies between Mull and
Inchkenneth; and a servant was sent forward to the ferry, to secure
the boat for us: but the boat was gone to the Ulva side, and the wind
was so high that the people could not hear him call; and the night so
dark that they could not see a signal. We should have been in a very
bad situation, had there not fortunately been lying in the little
sound of Ulva an Irish vessel, the Bonnetta, of Londonderry, Captain
M'Lure, master. He himself was at M'Quarrie's; but his men obligingly
came with their long-boat, and ferried us over.
M'Quarrie's house was mean; but we were agreeably surprised with the
appearance of the master, whom we found to be intelligent, polite, and
much a man of the world. Though his clan is not numerous, he is a very
ancient chief, and has a burial place at Icolmkill. He told us, his
family had possessed Ulva for nine hundred years; but I was distressed
to hear that it was soon to be sold for the payment of his debts.
Captain M'Lure, whom we found here, was of Scotch extraction, and
properly a M'Leod, being descended of some of the M'Leods who went
with Sir Normand of Bernera to the battle of Worcester, and after the
defeat of the royalists, fled to Ireland, and, to conceal themselves,
took a different name. He told me, there was a great number of them
about Londonderry; some of good property. I said, they should now
resume their real name. The Laird of M'Leod should go over, and
assemble them, and make them all drink the large horn full, and from
that time they should be M'Leods. The captain informed us, he had
named his ship the Bonnetta, out of gratitude to Providence; for once,
when he was sailing to America with a good number of passengers, the
ship in which he then sailed was becalmed for five weeks, and during
all that time, numbers of the fish bonnetta swam close to her, and
were caught for food; he resolved therefore, that the ship he should
next get, should be called the Bonnetta.
M'Quarrie told us a strong instance of the second sight. He had gone
to Edinburgh, and taken a man-servant along with him. An old woman,
who was in the house, said one day, 'M'Quarrie will be at home to-
morrow, and will bring two gentlemen with him'; and she said, she saw
his servant return in red and green. He did come home next day. He had
two gentlemen with him; and his servant had a new red and green
livery, which M'Quarrie had bought for him at Edinburgh, upon a sudden
thought, not having the least intention when he left home to put his
servant in livery, so that the old woman could not have heard any
previous mention of it. This, he assured us, was a true story.
M'Quarrie insisted that the mercheta mulierum, mentioned in our old
charters, did really mean the privilege which a lord of a manor, or a
baron, had, to have the first night of all his vassals' wives. Dr
Johnson said, the belief of such a custom having existed was also held
in England, where there is a tenure called Borough-English, by which
the eldest child does not inherit, from a doubt of his being the son
of the tenant. [Footnote: Sir William Blackstone says in his
Commentaries, that 'he cannot find that ever this custom prevailed in
England'; and therefore he is of opinion that it could not have given
rise to Borough-English.] M'Quarrie told us, that still, on the
marriage of each of his tenants, a sheep is due to him; for which the
composition is fixed at five shillings. I suppose, Ulva is the only
place where this custom remains.
Talking of the sale of an estate of an ancient family, which was said
to have been purchased much under its value by the confidential lawyer
of that family, and it being mentioned that the sale would probably be
set aside by a suit in equity, Dr Johnson said, 'I am very willing
that this sale should be set aside, but I doubt much whether the suit
will be successful; for the argument for avoiding the sale is founded
on vague and indeterminate principles, as that the price was too low,
and that there was a great degree of confidence placed by the seller
in the person who became the purchaser. Now, how low should a price
be? or what degree of confidence should there be to make a bargain be
set aside? a bargain, which is a wager of skill between man and man.
If, indeed, any fraud can be proved, that will do.'
When Dr Johnson and I were by ourselves at night, I observed of our
host, 'aspectum generosum habet.' 'Et generosum animum,' he added. For
fear of being overheard in the small Highland houses, I often talked
to him in such Latin as I could speak, and with as much of the English
accent as I could assume, so as not to be understood, in case our
conversation should be too loud for the space.
We had each an elegant bed in the same room; and here it was that a
circumstance occurred, as to which he has been strangely
misunderstood. From his description of his chamber, it has erroneously
been supposed, that his bed being too short for him, his feet, during
the night, were in the mire; whereas he has only said, that when he
undressed, he felt his feet in the mire: that is, the clay-floor of
the room, on which he stood before he went into bed, was wet, in
consequence of the windows being broken, which let in the rain.