Influence of Topography on the people of Scotland. Distribution
and ancient antagonism of Celt and Saxon. Caithness and its
grin. Legends and place-names. Popular explanation of boulders.
Cliff-portraits. Fairy-stones and supposed human footprints.
Imitative forms of flint. Scottish climate and its influence on
the people. Indifference of the Highlander to rain. ‘Dry rain.’
Wind in Scotland. Shakespeare on the climate of Morayland.
Influence of environment on the Highlander.
It is impossible to wander with attentive eyes over Scotland without
recognising how powerfully the topography of the country has controlled
the distribution of the races that have successively peopled it,
and how seriously the combined influences of topography and climate
have come to affect the national temperament and imagination. As I
have elsewhere discussed this subject, I will only refer briefly to
it here as an appropriate ending to these chapters of a geologist’s
reminiscences.
[Sidenote: INFLUENCE OF TOPOGRAPHY]
I. First as regards the Topography. Confining our attention to the
Saxon and Celtic elements of the population, we can readily see from
the mere form of the ground why the two races have been distributed as
we now find them. On the west side of the country the Norse sea-rovers
seized upon the islands and the narrow strips of cultivable land along
the coasts of the mainland. They were ‘vikings’ or baysmen, at home
on the sea and unwilling to wander far from its margin. They had no
inducement to quit their harbours and surrounding farms in order to
penetrate into the bleak mountainous fastnesses of the interior which
they left in possession of the older Celtic people. When the Norwegian
sway came to an end, and the invaders returned to the cradle of their
race in the north, they left behind them some of their own stock who
had intermarried with the Gaels, and as a still more enduring memorial
of their presence, abundant Norse names, which still cling to hamlet,
island, promontory, bay, and hill. But the selvage of coast-line which
they had occupied was so narrow, and the chain of islands lay so near,
that the mountaineers would have little difficulty in moving down from
the high grounds, overspreading the Norse settlements, and mingling
with their inhabitants. The spoken language of the vikings disappeared,
and Gaelic once more became the native tongue of the whole district.
[Sidenote: ANTAGONISM OF CELT AND SAXON]
On the east side of the country, however, the conditions were somewhat
different. In that region the mountains here and there retire so far
from the sea as to leave wide stretches of lowland. On these spaces
of comparatively fertile land the early Teutonic invaders found more
ample room for their settlements. They accordingly possessed themselves
of these tracts from Caithness southward, along the shores of the
Moray Firth to Aberdeen, and thence round the eastern end of the
Grampian range into the broad valley of central Scotland. They seem
to have in large measure driven out the earlier Celtic people who, on
this side of the island also, were left to live as best they could
among the mountains. The topography which enabled the invaders to
possess themselves of this territory has sufficed ever since to keep
the races apart. Gradually, indeed, along their mutual boundaries,
though apparently less distinctly than on the West Coast, they came to
intermingle with each other. But the ancient antagonism between Celt
and Saxon lasted down through the centuries, and in an attenuated form
almost to our own day. The Highlander, when he used to raid the cattle
and burn the farms of the Lowlander, was avenging the wrongs which his
remote ancestors had suffered at the hands of the hated Sassenach.
The Lowlander, on the other hand, who found himself often powerless
to ward off or revenge these outrages, and had to pay blackmail to
prevent their repetition, solaced himself by losing no opportunity of
expressing his contempt for his Celtic neighbour. The word ‘Highland’
actually came to have an opprobrious meaning, summing up, as it did,
all the bad qualities of the race to which it was applied. More
particularly, the imperfect knowledge of English on the part of the
mountaineers, and their slowness or inability to understand what was
said to them in that language, led their Saxon fellow-countrymen to
the foolish conclusion that this apparent dullness arose from innate
stupidity. The poor Celts, in their efforts to express themselves in
the language of the Lowlands, naturally made use of the words they
heard there, so that a Highlander who was warned against doing what
would have been a foolish action, could innocently exclaim, ‘She’s no
sae tam Heelan’ to do that.’ I can remember in my boyhood, being much
struck by coming across some survivals of this use of the word, and of
the feelings of contempt with which it was employed. There were then
many stories current illustrative of what was thought to be the dense
stolidity and ignorance of the Celts. The type of conceited Lowlander,
so well represented in Bailie Nicol Jarvie, never realised his own
vulgarity, or recognised the innate gentlemanliness of even the poorest
and least educated Highlander who had escaped Sassenach contamination.
But these misunderstandings have been buried and forgotten.
[Sidenote: THE FLAT OF CAITHNESS]
Probably the best district of the country for the purpose of marking
the topographical conditions that determined the limits within which
the two races are confined, is to be found on the east side of
Sutherland and Ross, and in the county of Caithness. To this day these
limits remain fairly well marked. The low ground forms but a narrow
strip along the coast from the Moray Firth to the Ord. On that strip,
and through the Black Isle to Tarbat Ness, the people are Teutonic,
but as we penetrate into the hills, the squalid cabins, poor crofts,
peat reek, and sounds of the Gaelic tongue, tell unmistakeably that
we have entered upon the domain of the Celt. Caithness offers one of
the most singular pieces of topography in Scotland. Looking at the
map, one would naturally regard it as a continuation of the highlands
of Sutherland, and expect its population to be also Gaelic. But in
actual fact, it belongs not to the mountains, but to the lowlands,
and has been for many centuries in possession of the Scandinavian
stock. It consists of a flat platform or tableland, in places not
more than 100 feet above the sea, into which it descends in an almost
continuous line of abrupt precipices. The contrast between the varied
and picturesque coast-line and the tame monotony of the featureless
interior is singularly striking, and again, that between the wide,
moory, peat-covered plain, and the bold Sutherland mountains that
spring up from its border. The names of places over this plain and
along the shore bear witness to the long occupation of the territory
by the descendants of the Norsemen. But as soon as we enter the hills,
Gaelic names appear, and we find ourselves among a population that
still speaks Gaelic.
As a consequence of the flatness of the interior of Caithness, the
few roads which cross the county run for miles in straight lines.
Their rectilinear direction is said to have had a curious effect
on the physiognomy of the inhabitants. Two men coming from opposite
quarters recognise each other long before they can come within speaking
distance. A smile of recognition, however, begins to form itself on
their faces, and this lasts so long, before they actually meet, that
it becomes stereotyped into a kind of grin, which is alleged to be
characteristic of the most typical natives of Caithness.
[Sidenote: LEGENDS AND TOPOGRAPHY]
That the topographical features of Scotland have influenced the
national imagination is well indicated by the legends and place-names
that have been attached to them. A deep cleft on a mountain-crest, a
bowl-shaped hollow scooped out of a hillside, a profound ravine, a
conical mound or a group of such mounds, rising conspicuously above a
bare moorland, a solitary boulder of gigantic size, or a line of large
boulders--these and many other prominent elements in the scenery,
alike of the Lowlands and the Highlands, have arrested attention from
the earliest times. As they appear so exceptional in the general
topography, exceptional causes have been sought to explain them, and
they have given rise to legendary beliefs that have been gradually
interwoven in the mythology and superstition of the races that have
dwelt among them. That these apparently abnormal features owed their
origin to some form of direct supernatural agency has been tacitly
assumed as their only possible explanation. Now and then they are
referred to the immediate action of the Deity. Thus all over the hills
and valleys of the south of Ayrshire, an incredible number of boulders
of grey granite have been scattered. So abundant are they in some
places as, when seen from a distance, to look like flocks of sheep,
and so distinct are they in form, colour, and composition from any of
the rocks round about them, that they could not fail to excite the
imagination in trying to account for them. A stonebreaker who was asked
how he supposed they had come to lie where they are, after a pause gave
the following picturesque explanation, ‘Weel ye see, when the Almichtie
flang the warld out, He maun hae putten thae stanes upon her to keep
her steady.’
[Sidenote: WITCHES’ CANTRIPS]
More usually the popular fancy has fixed on the Devil, with his
copartnery of wizards, warlocks, witches and carlines, as the authors
of the more singular parts of a landscape. I have already referred to
this aspect of diabolic agency, and by way of further illustration
may cite here an example of the kind of legend which has grown up
in all parts of the country. I was once directed to a shoemaker in
the village of Carnwath as possessing more local knowledge of his
district than anyone else. By a piece of bad luck for himself, but of
good fortune for me, on the day of my call upon him the man had so
injured a finger that he could not at the moment continue to ply his
trade. He was accordingly delighted to accompany me over the ground,
and point out some of the changes which it had undergone within his
own memory. A conspicuous feature in the district was furnished by a
number of boulders of dark stone scattered over the surface between the
River Clyde and the Yelping Craig, about two miles to the east. Before
farming operations had reached their present development there, the
number of these blocks was so much greater than at present that one
place was known familiarly as ‘Hell Stanes Gate’ (road), and another
as ‘Hell Stanes Loan.’ The tradition runs that Michael Scott, the
famous wizard, had entered into a compact with the Devil and a band of
witches to dam back the Clyde with masses of stone to be carried from
the Yelping Craig. It was one of the conditions of such pacts that the
name of the Supreme Being should never on any account be mentioned
from the beginning to the end of the transaction. All went well for a
while, some of the stronger carlines having brought their burden of
boulders to within a few yards from the river, when one of the younger
members of the company, staggering under the weight of a huge block of
greenstone, exclaimed, ‘O Lord! but I’m tired.’ Instantly every boulder
tumbled to the ground, nor could witch, warlock, or devil move a single
stone one yard further. And there the blocks had lain for many a long
century, until the modern farmers blasted some of them with gunpowder
to furnish material for dykes and road-metal, and got rid of others by
tumbling them into holes dug to receive them.
The shoemaker, however, though he enjoyed the popular explanation,
had got far beyond the thraldom of old superstition, and had made
some acquaintance with modern science. When I asked him how he would
himself account for the scattering of these blocks of stone over the
district, he replied at once, ‘O, ye ken, they cam on the backs o’ the
icebairges,’ and he proceeded to give me a graphic picture of what he
supposed must have been the condition of Clydesdale when it lay below
an icy sea, across which the stones were transported and were left
where they now lie.
In many cases the origin of striking local features is referred to the
doings of powerful witches alone, as in the case of Ailsa Craig, which
is said to be the work of
A witch so strong
That could control the moon, make flows and ebbs.
The legend relates that for some purpose she designed to carry over
a hill to Ireland, and selected one near Colmonell. Having lifted it
up in her apron, she set off on her broomstick through the air, but
unfortunately, when some miles out over the firth, her apron-strings
broke, and the huge mass fell into the water, where its upper part has
projected ever since as the well-known ‘craggy ocean-pyramid.’ In proof
of the truth of this tale, the hollow is pointed out from which the
rock was removed.
[Sidenote: CLIFF-PORTRAITS]
Even among the minor topographical features of the country, the natural
play of the imagination may be seen where the instinctive feeling
for the detection of resemblances has led to the recognition of so
many likenesses to men and to animals, sometimes obvious, sometimes
far-fetched, among the outlines of hills and crags. This tendency may
be seen at work in every country. Anyone can perceive the strikingly
lion-like aspect of Arthur’s Seat, which seems to sit watching over
Edinburgh, ready to spring at a foe. The profile of Samuel Johnson’s
(some say Lord Brougham’s) face and his portly body have long been
familiar on the southern front of Salisbury Crags, though it seems to
me that the mouth is wider open and the chin hangs a little more than
when I used to admire it as a boy. The ‘tooth of time’ is incessantly
gnawing at all such cliffs, and while some fancied resemblances are
gradually effaced, others are brought into existence. Travellers up
Loch Carron see in front of them on the summit of the mountain Fuar
Thol a gigantic recumbent profile, which from generation to generation
is likened to that of some contemporary personage. At present it
is spoken of as the face of a well-known politician whose features
are familiar in the pages of _Punch_. Our grandchildren will find a
likeness in it to some one of their own time. In the little anchorage
of the Shiant Isles, the face of one of the surrounding cliffs
presents the outline of a man in the attitude so often depicted in the
background of Teniers’ pictures.
Further illustration of this universal habit of mind may be gathered
from even the smaller objects in nature. Children delight to recognise
resemblances in things; the grown man learns to detect differences. Yet
in regard to things that are unfamiliar, the man’s first instincts are
those of the child. He seizes on the likeness which the newly observed
objects bear to some already known to him, and he may even go so far
as to mistake similarity for identity. Perhaps in no department of
nature does this habit of mind manifest itself more flagrantly than in
the mineral kingdom. People who know little or nothing of minerals or
rocks, readily enough perceive a resemblance between some pieces of
stone and certain plants, animals or inanimate objects, with which they
at once compare or even identify them. In the vast majority of cases,
there is no real connection between the stone and the object which it
resembles. The likeness is merely accidental and external. Among the
multitudinous shapes which concretions of mineral matter have assumed,
a curious collection might be made of imitative forms. The ‘fairy
stones’ of Scotland, found as concretions among deposits of clay,
present endless rude figures of manikins, or portions of the human
body, of fishes, birds, plants, cannon-balls, snuff-boxes, shoes, and
innumerable familiar objects. Similar concretions occur all over the
world, and have long attracted popular notice.
[Sidenote: SUPPOSED ANIMAL FOOTPRINTS]
An Orkney laird once wrote to me that his people, while removing
flagstones from the shore of his island, had made an extraordinary
discovery, no less than ‘the footprints of men, women, children
and animals,’ all impressed on the solid stone and in excellent
preservation, and he courteously offered to send me some specimens
of these interesting remains. The identification of the impressions
as human relics was of course out of the question, for the rock that
contained them belonged to the Old Red Sandstone, which was deposited
long before any trace of man appeared upon the earth. Nevertheless,
as there was just a possibility that among the specimens, there might
be some new fossils, which might add to our knowledge of the flora or
fauna of that ancient formation, I asked the proprietor to be good
enough to send a few examples of the ‘find.’ In due course one or
two large boxes arrived containing several hundredweight of stone.
But every one of the specimens was merely the cast of a mineral
concretion. Yet they were curiously like footprints. One looked as if
a young man, in going out to a ball, had stepped with his dress-boot
upon soft mud, into which he had sunk about an inch. Another seemed as
if it might have been made by a rough-shod farmer, springing from his
dog-cart upon the surface of a muddy pool. There were prints resembling
misshapen female feet, and one or two might, with a little imagination,
have been taken for prints of infants, whose fond mothers were trying
to make them stand on a soft clay floor. But not a single one of them
had anything to do with a human being, or with any fossil plant or
animal.
[Sidenote: IMITATIVE SHAPES IN FLINT]
The flints which lie dispersed through the chalk, and which are
distributed in such profusion over the surface of parts of the
north-east of Scotland, present many curiously imitative shapes,
either belonging to them originally, or brought about by the irregular
fracturing and rolling which the stones have undergone under the sea or
on the beds of rivers. The following letter, written to me by a workman
in the south of England, where chalk-flints are immensely abundant,
and are largely used for road making and other purposes, may be taken
as an illustration of the popular view of these objects. It is given
_verbatim et literatim_.
I have a collection of flints In fantistic Shapes of a human Race
such as leg with foot also feet harms legs Hand with finger also
finger skul and other Parts of Human frame about 50 Pieces weight
nearley One hundred I have also Kelt harrow heds speer heds and set.
My Collection of the Human Race is a splended one and I dont think
they Can be beeten they look as natrel as the boddy they or far sale
and honestly worth a thousand Pounds I will take a Reasonable Offer
for them they are on View at my House and I should like to find a
Home for them. Faithfully yours, ---- Gravel Thrower.
II. Not less important than the topography of a country, as a factor in
the bodily and mental development of a people, is the Climate. Alike in
prose and verse the climates of northern countries have been abundantly
maligned, though it has been generally allowed that they produce men of
mark both in body and mind. We are told that the sun ‘ripens spirits in
cold northern climes,’ and that courage, strength, and endurance may be
looked for in people inured to exertion in these regions. In English
literature the climate of Scotland has naturally offered a convenient
butt for sarcasm and abuse, coupled occasionally with an admission
that, at all events, it has fostered a sturdy race. Waller, in order to
enhance his praise of the doings of Cromwell in Scotland, speaks of his
successes over
A race unconquered, by their clime made bold,
The Caledonians, arm’d with want and cold.
There can be no doubt that most of this dispraise of the climate has
been based on mere hear-say report, and that where it has been grounded
on actual personal observation in Scotland, it has generally been the
result of exceedingly brief experience, during short excursions into
the country. It has in large measure arisen from the confounding of
climate with weather. A man who comes into a country for a few weeks,
and is unlucky enough to meet with a spell of bad weather which lasts
most of the time of his visit, may be pardoned if he abuses what he has
himself suffered from, but he has no right to pass any judgment on the
climate of the country. Climate is the average of all the variations
of weather during a long succession of years, and cannot be tested by
any mere summer tour. A Scot may fairly claim that his country can
boast of two or three climates, tolerably well marked off from each
other, but all of them healthy, and on the whole, not disagreeable.
There is the oceanic climate of the western isles and firths, under
which in sheltered places many flowering shrubs and evergreens flourish
luxuriantly, which can scarcely be grown elsewhere in the country save
under glass. The eastern climate, being further removed from the warm
Atlantic waters, and more directly exposed to the chilly east-wind, is
less genial. The central climate of the mountains is one of greater
extremes, the summer temperature in the valleys being sometimes high,
while the frosts in winter are often severe, and the snow-rifts remain
unmelted in the shaded corries all the summer. To these might perhaps
be added the Shetland climate, characterised by the prevalence of winds
and sea-fogs. The winds are there fierce, and always more or less laden
with salt from the spindrift of the surrounding ocean, so that shrubs
cannot grow above the limit of their sheltering wall, and true trees
are not to be seen. The white sea-fogs spread rapidly over the islands
during summer, and though dense enough to blot out the view, are not
always so thick as wholly to obscure the sun.
[Sidenote: SCOTTISH CLIMATES]
To one accustomed to more southern latitudes the chief defect of the
Scottish climate is the want of sunshine. The _nimbus Britannicus_
spreads too frequently as a grey pall across the sky. But the native
who has been used to this canopy all his life, and has never seen the
continuous unclouded blue of a southern clime, manages to enjoy good
health, lives often a long and active life, and resents imputations
on the meteorology of his country, though he reserves to himself,
especially if he be a farmer, the privilege of a good grumble, when no
stranger is at hand to overhear it.
[Sidenote: HIGHLANDERS IN RAIN]
Most people shun a shower, and think themselves worthy of pity if
one should overtake them when they can find no shelter, or have no
umbrella to protect them. But to ordinary Highlanders exposure to
heavy rain is a matter of indifference, even if not a source of real
pleasure. On any wet day you may see these men standing together in
pouring rain, although a shed or other shelter may be close at hand.
They get soaked to the skin, but it does not seem to do them any harm.
In fact, they say themselves that the wet thickens the cloth of their
raiment and keeps them warm. And that they are often really warm is
obvious enough when the steam may be seen rising from them, as if
they were drying themselves before a fire. The only concession I ever
noticed a Highlander make is now and then to take off his cap, if the
water is trickling from it down his neck, and to wring the rain out of
it before putting it on again. As an illustration of how strong and
persistent this national trait is, it may be mentioned that about the
middle of the eighteenth century a Highlander from the forest of Mam
More emigrated to Canada, where after some years he was visited by an
old friend from Scotland who, when the man was out of the way, asked
his wife and daughters whether he ever talked of the Highlands. They
said he frequently did so, and though he was fairly content with his
home in the colony, he would often complain that there was not rain
enough. When a good heavy shower came, he would go out and stand in it
till he was quite drenched; and returning into the house, dripping wet,
but with a smile of satisfaction on his face, he would say, ‘What a
comfortable thing rain is!’[41]
A lady of my acquaintance on the west coast, to whom I remarked that
it was a pity for ordinary mortals that so much rain fell there,
immediately answered me, ‘O, but you must remember, it is _dry_ rain.’
The remark appears stupidly absurd, but she was an intelligent and
observant person, who would not have made an idiotic statement. I
learnt that what she referred to was the rapidity with which the rain
disappeared from the surface of the ground and from the garments of
those exposed to it. She maintained that, owing to the more genial
climate of the west, the rain, as it fell, was warmer than on the east
side of the country, and owing to more rapid evaporation, and perhaps
to greater porousness of the soil, it vanished out of sight sooner.
Certainly from my own experience, I do not think one catches cold from
severe wetting so readily on the west as on the east coast.
In the year 1728, Aaron Hill, who is now chiefly remembered because of
his connection with Pope, became popular in the north of Scotland owing
to the vigorous, but ultimately unsuccessful efforts, he made to cut
and float down timber on the Spey, for the uses of the navy. He was
entertained by the nobles and magistrates, and received the freedom of
the town of Inverness. But he must have happened upon a spell of bad
weather, for when he halted at Berwick he wrote on the window of the
inn the following lines:
Scotland! thy weather’s like a modish wife;
Thy winds and rains for ever are at strife;
So Termagant a while her thunder tries,
And when she can no longer scold--she cries.[42]
[Sidenote: WIND AND RAIN]
More trying to the temper than the rain is the wind that too often
sweeps across the country. Men who have to ‘strive with all the tempest
in their teeth,’ acquire a certain compression of the lips and look of
determination which sometimes, by the end of a long and weather-beaten
life, may become permanent. Edinburgh, built on ridges exposed to the
breeze from all quarters, is said to be distinguished by the ‘windy
walk’ of its inhabitants. Ami Boué was struck with the wall that ran
along the middle of the earthen mound which was thrown across the
central valley, in order to connect the old and the new town of that
city, and he tells us that pedestrians chose one or other side of this
wall according to the quarter from which the continual and often
violent winds blew. ‘How many hats,’ he exclaims, ‘were lost there in a
year! I wore out more umbrellas in my four years of residence in Great
Britain than during all the rest of my life. Macintoshes had not been
invented.’[43]
[Sidenote: WEATHER SALUTATIONS]
To any one intent on some definite employment out-of-doors, such as
fishing, sketching, botanising, geological mapping, or any pursuit
where quiet air is necessary, nothing can be more exasperating than a
struggle against the ceaseless driving of the blast. Mere heavy rain,
if it fall straight, can be endured, for it allows one to stand, to
turn round, and if an umbrella be used, to consult a map or guide-book.
With a furious wind, however, you can do nothing but
Grow sick, and damn the climate--like a lord.
In Scotland, as in other countries having a variable climate, the
weather has long been a staple subject with which to introduce a
conversation. And it is curious that even when the sky is overcast,
with a threatening of rain, the usual greeting, ‘It’s a fine day,’
may not infrequently be heard as the beginning of the colloquy. So
inveterate is this habit that the observation is apt to escape from
the lips, even when the meteorological conditions make it grotesquely
out of place, as in the case of the man who made use of it on a day of
howling tempest, but immediately corrected himself: ‘It’s a fine day,’
said he,--‘but coorse.’
Remarks about the weather have been known to be resented on Sundays as
an unbecoming topic of conversation for that solemn season. When the
usual salutation had been made to one of the more strait-laced elders,
he testily answered, ‘Ay, but whatna a day’s this, to be speakin’ about
days?’
Still more gruff was the Aberdonian response to the ordinary greeting
of a stranger on a country road, ‘Ou ay, fae’s findin’ faut wi’ the
day. There’s some folk wad fecht wi’ a stane wa’.’
The number of days in a year when an outdoor walk is impracticable on
account of the weather is in Scotland far smaller than people might
imagine. Of course there come storms of wind and rain that will keep
one a prisoner for a day or so at a time. But even in these storms
there are not infrequently lulls, when a brisk walk may be enjoyed
before the tempest begins again. Geological surveying affords a good
test of climate, and I have found it quite possible to carry this work
on the whole year through. Snow puts a stop to it, but many winters
come and go without leaving snow on the lowlands at all, or at least
for more than a day or two altogether.
Those who are familiar with the peculiarly genial and healthy climate
of the southern shores of the Moray Firth have sometimes thought
that as good an argument as many that have been brought forward
to prove that Shakespeare visited Scotland, might be based on the
extraordinarily minute and accurate description which he gives of the
climate of that region.
The air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses. This guest of summer,
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve
By his loved mansionry that the heaven’s breath
Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze,
Buttress nor coign of vantage, but this bird
Hath made his bed and procreant cradle;
Where they most breed and haunt I have observed
The air is delicate.
The salubrity of the climate has been recognised for many years by
medical men, who, as already mentioned, send their patients from the
south of England to these northern shores.
[Sidenote: IRISHMAN AND HIGHLANDER]
The most suggestive illustration of the influence of environment upon
the character of the people is probably to be found in the Highlands.
There can be no doubt that the Celtic inhabitants of that region belong
to the same stock as those of Ireland. We know, indeed, as a historical
fact, that the south-western districts of Scotland were actually
peopled from Ireland. Yet no one familiar with the population of the
two countries can fail to recognise the contrasts which they present
to each other, both in general physique and in habits and temperament.
Neither race has kept itself pure and unmixed, but in each case the
foreign infusion has been of the same kind in varying proportions.
Norsemen, Danes, Normans, English, have mingled with the Celtic stock
in both islands. The Irishman, however, has had the advantage of, on
the whole, a better climate. His country possesses far more level
ground and a much larger proportion of arable soil. His mountains rise
up for the most part as islands out of a vast plain, and thus have
offered little serious impediment to the free intercourse of the people
from one end of the island to the other. Hence he has been able to sow
and reap his crops, and to rear his sheep, cattle and horses, with
comparatively little opposition from nature. Moreover, he has escaped
the shadow of the Calvinistic gloom. His religion has not repressed his
natural liveliness of temperament. His clergy have not set themselves
to eradicate all his superstitions and usages, habits and customs, but
have allowed these free play where they were not clearly opposed to
the cause of morality. And thus his gaiety, if it has not been greatly
promoted by the cheerfulness of his surroundings, has at least not
been always and everywhere dimmed and chastened by a contest with his
environment for the means of subsistence, save where the population has
increased beyond the capacity of the ground to support it, nor by a
stern and inquisitorial interference on the part of his priesthood.
[Sidenote: GRIMNESS OF THE HIGHLANDER]
The fate of the Celt in the Highlands has been far different. There he
has found himself in a region of mountains too rugged and lofty for
cultivation, save along their bases, and too continuous to permit easy
access from one district to another, yet not sufficiently impassable
to prevent the sudden irruption of some hostile clan of mountaineers,
carrying with it slaughter and spoliation. Shut in among long, narrow,
and deep glens, he has cultivated their strips of alluvium, but has
too often found the thin stony soil to yield but a poor return for his
labour. For many a long century he had to defend his flocks and herds
from the wolf, the fox, and the wild cat.[44] The gloom of his valleys
is deepened by the canopy of cloud which for so large a part of the
year rests upon the mountain-ridges and cuts off the light and heat of
the sun. Hence his harvests are often thrown into the late autumn, and
in many a season his thin and scanty crops rot on the ground, leaving
him face to face with starvation and an inclement winter. Under these
adverse conditions he could hardly fail to become more or less subdued
and grim. But he has likewise been exposed, more irresistibly than his
fellow-countrymen of the Lowlands, to the misguided solicitude and
sombre fanaticism of kirk-sessions and Presbyteries. His tales, his
legends, and his superstitions have been derided by his ecclesiastical
guides as foolish fables; his songs, his instrumental music, and
his dances, have been stigmatised as vain and unworthy exhibitions,
his musical instruments have been broken and burnt. His natural and
innocent ebullitions of joy and mirth have been checked and repressed
as unbecoming in a being who is journeying onward to eternity.
[Sidenote: HIGHLAND CHARACTER]
Need it be matter for wonder if under these various restraining
influences the gaiety which the Highlander doubtless shared originally
with his brother in Ireland, has been in large measure replaced by
a serious sedateness, passing even into depression. When he chooses
to solace himself with music, its sad cadences seem to re-echo the
monotonous melancholy of the winds that sough past his roughly-built
cot, or howl down his glens and across his wastes of barren moorland.
But while the lighter side of his nature has thus suffered, his higher
qualities have probably been only further fostered and developed. His
struggle with climate and soil has strengthened in him a spirit of
stubborn endurance and self-reliance, which his moral training has
directed towards praiseworthy ends. This spirit finds its freest scope
in the life of a soldier. In that career, also, the instincts and
traditions of his race meet with their fullest realisation. And thus
it has come that for more than a century and a half the British Army
has had no braver or more loyal body of men than those of the Highland
regiments. On many a hard-fought field, in all parts of the world,
wherever deeds of heroism had to be done, the pibroch has thrilled and
the tartan has waved in the front.
FOOTNOTES
[1] In 1773, when Mrs. Grant of Laggan, as a girl, had to make
the journey from Inveraray to Oban there was ‘no road but the
path of cattle,’ ‘an endless moor, without any road, except a
small footpath, through which our guide conducted the horses with
difficulty.’--_Letters from the Mountains_, 5th edit., vol. i., p. 4.
Half a century later the conditions do not seem to have altered much
in that region, as shown in Dr. Norman Macleod’s _Reminiscences of a
Highland Parish_.
[2] _Lives of the Lord Chancellors_, vol. vi., p. 50. This was written
in the early years of railway enterprise. The journey is now performed
every day in seven hours and three quarters, and the time will probably
be further shortened in the not distant future.
[3] Chambers’ _Domestic Annals of Scotland_, vols. ii. and iii.
[4] _Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland_ [Captain Burt],
5th edit., vol. i., p. 203, footnote by Editor R. Jamieson.
[5] Dr. Norman Macleod, writing in 1867, stated that since the
beginning of the last wars of the French Revolution the island of
Skye alone had sent forth 21 lieutenant-generals and major-generals;
48 lieutenant-colonels; 600 commissioned officers; 10,000 soldiers; 4
governors of colonies; 1 governor-general; 1 adjutant-general; 1 chief
baron of England; and 1 judge of the Supreme Court of Scotland. The
martial tide is now but feeble, though some additions could still be
made to the list.
[6] It will be remembered what a high opinion Johnson formed of the
learning and breeding of the West Highland clergy. There is no reason
to think they have deteriorated since his time, though possibly their
learning would not now be singled out for special eulogium.
[7] _Life of Chalmers_, vol. iv., p. 450. The catastrophe of the last
ladleful is not given by Dr. Hanna.
[8] _Primitiæ et Ultima, or the Early Labours and Last Remains that
will meet the public eye_, etc., etc., _of the late Rev. and learned
Mr. Thomas Boston, minister of the Gospel at Ettrick, now first
published from his MSS_. In three volumes. Edinburgh, 1800.
[9] Many years ago I told this story to my friend Mr. Thomas Constable
(son of Scott’s publisher), and a few days thereafter received a note
from him asking if I would write it down. This I did, and he told
me afterwards that for a time he carried my MS. in his pocket and
read from it to his friends, but that the paper becoming tender with
frequent use, he had the manuscript thrown into type, struck off a
number of copies, and circulated them among his acquaintance. One of
these copies must have fallen into the hands of Mr. Mark Boyd, who, in
his _Social Gleanings_, London, 1875, p. 57, printed the story as here
given.
[10] A. Carmichael, _Carmina Gadelica_ (1900), vol. i. p. 163.
[11] _Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, collected
entirely from oral sources_, 1900, and _Witchcraft and Second Sight in
the Highlands and Islands of Scotland_, 1902.
[12] _Horae Sabbaticae_, by Godfrey Higgins, 1833, p. 2.
[13] Higgins, _Horae Sabbaticae_, p. 53.
[14] _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_, l. 632.
[15] Thus Mrs. Grant of Laggan tells us that she sat up on Sunday
night, 17th October, 1794, that she might write a letter to a friend
‘without infringing on a better day.’--_Letters from the Mountains_,
5th edit., vol. iii., p. 14.
[16] _Satyre of the Three Estaitis_, Part ii.
[17] More ludicrous still was the desire of the Highland porter in
Glasgow who, as Dr. Norman Macleod relates, ‘sent his amputated finger
to be buried in the graveyard of the parish beside the remains of his
kindred. It is said also that a bottle of whisky was sent along with
the finger, that it might be entombed with all honour.’
[18] The statistics for Edinburgh University during 1903 show that of
the 1451 students of medicine 677 or over 46 per cent. belonged to
Scotland; 333, or nearly 23 per cent., were from England and Wales; 118
from Ireland; 72 from India; 232, or about 16 per cent., from British
Colonies; and 19 from foreign countries.
[19] This story is sometimes said to have been told by the Rev. Dr.
Guthrie. It is also reported as having had its origin in a smiddy at
Auchtermuchty, in Fife. The idea is probably as old as the human race.
The Ayrshire farmer’s expression of it however was a good deal more
graphic than Pope’s
We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow,
Our wiser sons, no doubt, will think us so.
[20] Another version of this story changes the father into the
grandmother!
[21] _Letters from the Mountains_, 5th edition, vol. ii., p. 124
[22] Burt’s _Letters_, 5th edition (1818), vol. ii., pp. 46, 47.
[23] _Essays on the Superstitions of the Highlanders of Scotland_
(1811), vol. ii., p. 143. Writing some thirty years earlier she
expressed herself to the same effect in her _Letters from the
Mountains_, vol. ii., p. 103.
[24] There were probably many descents and slaughters in these islands
of which no historic record remains. It is known, however, that in
1585 a party of Macdonalds from Skye was forced by stress of weather
to take refuge in the part of Jura belonging to Maclean of Dowart.
Two gentlemen of the Macdonald clan, independently driven at the same
time into a neighbouring inlet, remained concealed from their kinsmen
and secretly carried off by night a number of Maclean’s cattle, which
they took with them to sea, intending that the blame should fall on
their chief. The Macleans, on discovering the robbery, attacked the
Macdonalds who remained, and slew sixty of them, the chief escaping
only because he had slept that night on board his galley.
[25] See J. G. Campbell’s _Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands
of Scotland_ (1900), pp. 112, 114, 121.
[26] _Letters from the Mountains_, vol. i., p. 112; _Essays on the
Superstitions of the Highlanders of Scotland_, vol. ii., p. 202.
[27] A. Carmichael, _Carmina Gadelica_, 1900, Introduction, p. xxvi.
Dr. Norman Macleod, who had no sympathy with this bigotry, relates--‘A
minister in a remote island parish once informed me that “on religious
grounds,” he had broken the only fiddle on the island. His notion of
religion, I fear, is not rare among his brethren in the far west and
north.’--_Reminiscences of a Highland Parish_, p. 35.
[28] A. Carmichael, _op. cit._, p. xxviii.
[29] A. Carmichael, _op. cit._, vol. i., pp. 258, 276.
[30] This anecdote has been variously related; but the version given
here is probably the true one.
[31] Translated from the Gaelic by A. Carmichael, _Carmina Gadelica_,
vol. ii., p. 235.
[32] In another version the predatory animal has become a wild sow!
[33] This story is told with variations in the name of the parish and
number of interments.
[34] The story of this entombment alive is told in my _Geological
Sketches at Home and Abroad_, p. 71.
[35] Kay’s _Edinburgh Portraits_, vol. i. p. 57.
[36] There are various versions of this story; and different towns are
assigned as that to which it refers. I heard it more than forty years
ago in the form given above.
[37] _Life of Chalmers_, iv. p. 462.
[38] Opening Address to Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1st December, 1862.
The distinguished author expresses regret that a certain feeling of
patriotism did not still keep a portion of the labours of the Scottish
geologists for the Transactions of the Scottish Royal Society, and he
makes a kindly and half prophetic allusion to my own probable removal
to London. I may here say that I never forgot his words, and that I
have considered it a duty as well as a pleasure, even when no longer
resident in Scotland, to send some of the results of my researches to
the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
[39] This and the next paragraph are taken with some alterations from
my _Life of A. C. Ramsay_.
[40] _Journey of a Tour to the Western Islands_, 1757, p. 124.
[41] Burt’s _Letters_, vol. ii., p. 28.
[42] Burt in his _Letters_ says that he found these lines scribbled
on the window with the initials A. H. at the end of them, and he
conjectured them to be Hill’s. They were afterwards included in
the poems of that writer, who seems to have had a passion for thus
disfiguring window-panes, for he has collected a series of his verses
‘written on windows in several parts of the kingdom in a journey to
Scotland.’
[43] From Boué’s _Autobiography_, which he wrote in French some time
before his death, and printed in Vienna. It abounds in misprints, over
and above those of which he appends a long list, and reminds one of the
French of his _Esquisse Géologique sur l’Écosse_. He addressed copies
of the work in his own handwriting to his friends, to be distributed
after his death. Mine was not only inscribed to me inside, but the
postal cover was also addressed by him, and I received it by post
shortly after the news came that he had passed away.
[44] The last wolf is believed to have been killed in Scotland about
the year 1743 in the forest of Tarnaway, Morayland, by Macqueen
of Pall-a’-Chrocain, a deer-stalker of great stature and strength
(Chambers’ _Domestic Annals of Scotland_, Vol. III. p. 609). The
fox is still common in many districts, where it is hunted with dogs
and rifles. The wild-cat is becoming scarce, but continues to haunt
some of the mountainous tracts of the Highlands. A number of captive
individuals are kept in confinement at the Earl of Seaforth’s residence
in Glen Urquhart.
INDEX.
Aberfoyle, Bailie Nicol Jarvie’s coulter at, 18.
Accent, persistence of local, 368.
Advocates at Scottish Bar, 148, 154.
Ailsa Craig, legendary origin of, 420.
Alexander, Rev. Dr. W. L., 19.
Angling experiences, 288.
Anstruther, 364.
Arctic shells of Kyles of Bute, 362.
Ardnamurchan, Point of, 163.
Argyll, Duke of, 187.
Arran, village ‘natural’ in, 332;
Parliamentary election in, 362.
‘Aster’ steam yacht, 248, 255, 282, 284.
Avoch, saint’s well in, 112.
Ayrshire ministers, 67, 70;
Sabbath observance in, 138;
lairds, 190;
miners, 116, 313, 336;
witches, 336.
Bailies in Scotland, 359.
Bald Robert, 341.
Baptismal rites, 68.
Barometer, use of, by farmers, 211.
Barra, 45.
Benbecula, 45.
Berwick-on-Tweed, tombstone at, 326.
Birkhill, Moffatdale, 300.
Black Isle, 414.
Black, Joseph, tomb of, 327;
anecdotes of, 352;
one of the scientific lights of Edinburgh, 371.
Black, William, 31.
Blackie, John Stuart, 175, 272.
Boswell, James, 349.
Boué, Ami, 383, 431.
Boulders, explanations of origin of, 417.
Breadalbane, second Marquis of, 185, 346.
Breakfasts, former sociality of, 350;
attractions of, in Scotland, 405.
Brodick, ‘natural’ at, 332.
Buckhaven, 364.
Burke and Hare, murders by, 324.
‘Burning the water,’ 288.
Burns, Robert, 116, 144, 368.
Burt’s _Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland_, 17,
235, 314, 431.
Bute, volunteer battery on, 64;
social changes in, 360.
Butler, S., cited, 125, 297, 351.
Butter, superstitions in making of, 114.
Byron, cited, 126, 157, 173, 349.
Caithness, 275, 414.
Callernish, standing stones of, 39, 248.
Campbell, Lord Chancellor, 12.
Campbell, Rev. J. Gregorson, cited, 108, 257.
Canal travelling, 14.
Canna Island, 45;
a broken leg in, 162.
Castles in West Highlands, 253.
Catechising in church, 71.
Celtic Church, 40, 60, 108.
Chalmers, Dr., 179, 365, 379.
Chambers, Robert, 173, 341, 346, 352, 380, 437.
Chang, the Chinese giant, 322.
Christison, Sir R., 177.
Churchill, 161.
Clans, dispersion of, 267.
Cleanliness, former want of, in Scottish inns and towns, 302.
Clergy, influence of, in Scotland, 47, 101, 438.
Clubs, convivial, 350, 358.
Clyde, social changes in district of, 360.
Cockburn, Henry, 4, 350, 352, 369.
Collier superstitions, 116, 336;
servitude in Scotland, 341;
humour, 345.
‘Corp,’ use of the word, in Scotland, 328.
Crail, 324, 364.
Crofter-life in Highlands, 219, 224, 330, 397, 399, 401.
Cromarty, holy well near, 112.
Cromwell, tradition connected with, in Lammermuir, 208.
Cullen, Lord, 150.
Culloden, effects of Battle of, 2.
Curling, game of, 218.
Cyclists and inns, 360.
Dalquharran Castle, 193.
Dancing, sinfulness of, 141.
Darlings of Priestlaw, 206.
Death, Scottish humour in relation to, 321.
Dechen, H. von, 383.
Deer, depredations of, in Highlands, 220.
‘Deserts’ of the Celtic saints, 41.
Devil, superstitions connected with the, 114, 417.
‘Devilish,’ modern use of the word, 118.
Dinner customs, 318.
Disruption of the Church of Scotland, 96.
Dogs, shepherds’, 296.
Dolphinton, railways to, 21.
Drink in Scotland, 303, 310.
Drunkenness, Scottish, 312.
Dryden, cited, 129.
Dunbar, fisher folk of, 365.
Dunvegan Castle, 253.
Edinburgh, stage-coaches from, 8, 10, 13;
street preaching in, 75;
Sunday walking in, 126;
medical school of, 156;
University of, 166;
former dirtiness of, 348;
convivial clubs of, 351, 355, 357;
Geology in, 371;
cliff portrait near, 421;
wind of, 431.
Eigg, steamboats to, 31;
Roman Catholicism in, 45;
massacre of Macdonalds in, 254.
Eviction, a Highland, 225.
Excise officers on English Border, 304.
Fairies, 108.
Fairs in the Highlands, 233.
Fairy-stones, 422.
Farm-life in the Highlands, 219.
Farm-servants, 215.
Farmers, Lowland, 205.
Faroe Isles, 284.
Fast Day, 139.
Ferries in Highlands, 239.
Field-geologist, experiences of a, 386.
Fisher-folk of Eastern Scotland, 363.
Fisherrow, 365.
Fleming, John, 381.
Flint, imitative shapes in, 424.
Fogs on northern seas, 284, 427.
Footprints, supposed, in rock, 423.
Forbes, James David, 373, 374.
Forth, fisher-towns of the, 363.
Foula, Isle of, 282.
Free Church, influence of, in Highlands, 141, 261.
Funerals and half-witted folk, 329.
Gaelic in court, 150;
dying out of, 268;
topographical names, 269;
difficulty of acquiring, 270.
Galloway, inns of, 305.
Gannets, 42, 251.
Geikie, Prof. James, 390.
Geological Survey, 379, 380, 387.
Geology, Scottish school of, 370.
Glasgow, stage-coaches from, 8, 13;
medical school of, 156;
a professor at, 168.
Goat in kirk, 89;
taken for ‘Auld Hornie,’ 118.
Golf, early attractions of, 122;
derived from Scotland, 305, 367;
anecdotes of, 367.
Grant, Mrs., of Laggan, 9, 234, 237.
Gravediggers, 322.
Gravestones, 325,
rapid decay of, 326.
Grierson of Lag, 197.
Gull, Sir W., 160.
Haidinger, W., 382.
Hall, Sir James, of Dunglass, 371.
Hanna, Dr., 69, 74, 81, 364.
Harris, Sound of, 252.
Heaven and Hell, influence of belief in a material, 103.
Hebrides, medical attendance in, 161;
scenery of, 248;
charm of, 258;
geologists in, 393.
Henderson, Alexander, tomb of, 327.
Highlander, demureness of, 261;
gentlemanliness of, 414;
disregards rain, 428;
influence of environment on, 435.
Highlands, history of roads in, 2, 8;
songs of, 16, 264;
railway construction in, 23;
steamboats in, 27–36;
telegraph in, 37;
Celtic Church in, 40, 60;
ministers in, 53–66, 74, 80;
sermon in, 83;
church-psalmody in, 92;
Established and Free Churches in, 96, 141;
Sabbath observance in, 128;
dancing in, 141;
medical attendance in, 161;
laziness in, 234;
want of manufactures in, 237;
ferries and coaches in, 239;
castles in, 253;
crusade against music in, 260, 438;
topographical names in, 269;
inns of, 306;
whisky in, 315;
geologists in, 393;
breakfast in, 405.
Hill, Aaron, 430.
Horner, Leonard, 174, 373.
Hoy, cliffs of, 277.
Hume’s ‘Essays,’ 155.
Humour, character of Scottish 50, 52.
Hutcheson, David, 29.
Hutton, James, anecdotes of, 353;
one of the founders of modern geology, 371.
Idiots in Scotland, 331.
Inns, Scottish, 302.
Iona, cathedral of, 44;
island of, 244.
Irishman and Highlander compared, 435.
Jameson, Robert, 372.
Jeffrey, Francis, 349.
Johnson, Samuel, 349, 406.
Jura, unburied skeleton in, 255;
caves of, 256;
laird of, 257.
Jury-trial in Scotland, 145.
Kennedy, T. F., of Dunure, 10, 190.
Knox, Robert, 157.
_Lady of the Lake_, influence of, 16.
Lairds, Scottish, 185.
Lammermuir, 206.
Landed proprietors, 185.
Law, Scottish fondness for, 142.
Legends connected with topography, 416.
Lesmahagow, 99.
Lewis, Isle of, 248.
Litigiousness of Scotsmen, 142.
Loch Alsh, 63.
„ Carron, 421.
„ Coruisk, 408.
„ Duich, 62.
„ Katrine in 1843, 15;
in 1810, 16.
„ Lomond, first steamboats on, 15;
ferry on, 16.
„ Maree, 111.
„ Roag, 248.
„ Scavaig, 407, 409.
„ Striven, 64.
London, travelling to, 9, 10.
Lyell, Sir Charles, 317, 373.
Lyke-wakes, 124, 330.
Lyndsay, Sir David, 142.
Macculloch, John, 393.
Macintoshes and Macgregors, 268.
Mackinnon of Corriehatachan, 394.
Mackinnon, Rev. John, of Strath, 53, 96, 219.
Maclagan, Sir D., 177, 356.
Maclaren, Charles, 375.
Macleod, Dr. Norman, 9, 165, 394.
Macnee, Sir D., 145.
Maconochie Welwood, Allan, 168.
Macrae, Rev. Mr., of Glenelg, 61.
Mania, religious, 105.
Manses of the Highlands, 57.
Marble, rapid open-air decay of, 327.
Martin’s _Western Islands_, 110.
Medical profession in Scotland, 156.
Metal-mining, 346.
Miller, Hugh, on women colliers, 344;
references to, 375, 377, 394, 397.
Mineral-oil, consequences of introduction of, 266.
Minister’s ‘man’, 97.
Ministers, Scottish, 47, 48, 53–76, 77–106.
Moffatdale, 300.
Moray, climate of, 160, 434.
Mull, steamboats to, 33.
Murchison, Sir R. I., 129–186, 309, 373, 379, 394.
Murray, Lord, 192.
Music, instrumental, in Scottish kirks, 94;
in the Highlands, 263, 438.
Musselburgh, 365.
‘Naturals’ in Scottish villages, 331.
Neaves, Lord, 139, 151.
Neptunist School of Geology, 372.
Newhaven, 365.
Nicol, James, 381.
North Berwick Links, 367.
North, Christopher, 405.
Norsemen in Scotland, 411.
Ochil Hills, metal-mining in, 346.
Old Red Sandstone, supposed footprints in, 423.
Orkney Islands, 274.
Pabba island, 397.
Paganism, traces of, in Scotland, 38, 107.
Palmer’s Stage-coaches, 12.
Papa Stour, 279.
Parish-visiting by Scottish ministers, 98.
Parliamentary election in Bute, 361.
Patriotism, Scottish, 358.
Peach, Mr. B. N., 275.
Peat, time for cutting, 114.
Physiognomy affected by topography, 415.
Pig, prejudice against, in Highlands, 114.
Pillans, Professor, 173, 350, 357.
Pine-candles and torches, 266.
Pittenweem, 364.
Playfair, Lord, 139, 178, 356.
Popery, Scottish abhorrence of, 95.
Posting in Scotland, 9.
Precentors, 92.
Provosts, Scottish, 359.
Publican, Irish, in Scotland, 311.
Queensferry, South, 100.
Raasay, isle of, 93, 227.
Railways in Scotland, 15, 20–27.
Rain in Scotland, 428.
Resurrectionists, 323.
Roads in Scotland, history of, 2, 8.
Robertson, Patrick, 148.
Rodil, church of, 44, 252.
Roman Catholicism in Scotland, 45, 111.
Rothesay, growth of, 360.
Royal Society Club (Edinburgh), 176, 355.
Rutherford Clark, Lord, 153.
Sabbath observance, history of, 119;
illustrations of, 126.
St. Andrews, Celtic church at, 44;
Kirk Session Register of, 121;
professor at, 167;
fisher part of, 364.
St. Kilda, 250.
St. Monans, 364.
St. Vigeans, 45.
Saints’ wells, 111.
Salmon, _à la mode_, 290.
Salters, formerly slaves, 341.
Sanday Island, 46.
Saxon element, cause of distribution of, in population of Scotland, 411.
Schoolmasters in Scotland, 180.
Scots drink, 303.
Scots language, decay of, 368.
_Scotsman_ newspaper, founded by Charles Maclaren, 376.
Scott, Michael, and witches, 418.
Scott, Walter, his influence on the tourist traffic in Scotland, 16;
his fiction characters, 143, 238, 302;
his repartee on Patrick Robertson, 148.
Sculptured Stones, 44.
Sedgwick, Adam, 394, 395.
Sermons in Scottish kirks, 77.
Shakespeare and the climate of Moray, 434.
Sheep-stealing, 232.
Shenstone, cited, 323.
Shepherds, 294.
Shetland Isles, 274, 279, 427.
Shiant Isles, 421.
Shiels, Tibbie, 299.
Skye, in 1773, 28;
communication with, 29, 31, 36;
ministers in, 53–64;
Disruption in, 96;
fairies in, 108;
superstitions in, 112;
Sabbath observance in, 133;
farm-life in, 219;
crofters of, 224, 397;
an eviction in, 225;
fairs in, 233;
place-names in, 269;
old inns of, 306;
funeral in, 330;
geologists in, 393, 395, 396.
Slaves, Scottish, 341.
Sleeping in church, 85.
Smith, James, of Jordanhill, 362.
Smith, Sydney, 302, 349.
Snails, a dish of, 354.
Snow-storm in Southern Uplands, 299.
South Uist, 45.
Southern Uplands, reminiscences of, 294–302.
Spain, insurrection in, 169.
Spar Cave, 407.
Speldings and drink, 304.
Springs, superstitions connected with, 111.
Staffa, 246.
Stage-coaches in Scotland, 8, 10.
Standing Stones, 39, 108, 248.
Steamboats on Scottish lakes, 15;
to London, 18;
in West Highlands, 27–36.
Stewart, Dugald, 346.
Stories, perennial reappearance of Scottish, 86, 292.
Story, Principal, 88.
Street-preachers, 74.
Stroma, Isle of, 275.
Sùla Sgeir, islet of, 41.
Superstition in Scotland, 107–119, 416.
Supper, former importance of, 350.
Sutherland, Sabbath observance in, 131.
Sweetheart Abbey, 325.
Tait, Prof. P. G., 180.
Talla, valley of the, 294, 298.
Terrot, Bishop, 357.
Thorn, Rev. Mr., of Govan, 86.
Tippeny, 303.
Toasts, Scottish, 318.
Tombstone inscriptions, 325.
Topographical features, influence of, on population of Scotland, 410;
legends suggested by, 416.
Town-life in Scotland, 347.
Towns, former condition of Scottish, 347.
Travel, former modes of, in Scotland, 8.
Trossachs, 15, 17.
Trout in a Skye well, 110.
Universities, changes in the, 165
University professors, 159.
Unst Lighthouse, 283.
Victoria, Queen, and Sabbath observance, 136.
Vulcanist School of Geology, 372.
Waller, quoted, 426.
Water-bull, 113.
Water-horse, 113.
Weather and climate, difference between, 426;
anecdotes connected with, 432.
Wells, holy, 111.
Werner, A. G., 371, 372.
Western Isles. _See_ Hebrides.
Whisky and law-pleas, 144;
and interments, 165, 330;
potency of, 285, 313;
modern increase in consumption of, 303, 305;
before breakfast, 405.
Witches, 115, 336.
Witnesses, Scottish, 150.
Wolf in the Highlands, 292, 437.
Women in Scottish coal-mines, 341, 343.
Women’s work in the Highlands, 235.
Wood, Long Sandy, 157.
Writers to the Signet, 154.
Yarrow, valley of the, 299.
Young, Professor John, 298, 335.
GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.
* * * * * *
Transcriber’s note:
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they
were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; unpaired quotation
marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left
unpaired.
Running page headers in the original book are shown here as sidenotes,
repositioned between paragraphs and close to relevant text.
The index was not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page
references.