We would now have gone away, and left room for others to enjoy the
pleasures of this little court; but the wind detained us till the 12th,
when, though it was Sunday, we thought it proper to snatch the
opportunity of a calm day. Raarsa accompanied us in his six-oared boat,
which, he said, was his coach and six. It is, indeed, the vehicle in
which the ladies take the air, and pay their visits, but they have taken
very little care for accommodations. There is no way, in or out of the
boat, for a woman, but by being carried; and in the boat thus dignified
with a pompous name, there is no seat, but an occasional bundle of
straw. Thus we left Raarsa; the seat of plenty, civility, and
cheerfulness.
We dined at a publick house at Port Re; so called, because one of the
Scottish kings landed there, in a progress through the western isles.
Raarsa paid the reckoning privately. We then got on horseback, and, by a
short, but very tedious journey, came to Kingsburgh, at which the same
king lodged, after he landed. Here I had the honour of saluting the
far-famed Miss Flora Macdonald, who conducted the prince, dressed as her
maid, through the English forces, from the island of Lewes; and, when
she came to Skie, dined with the English officers, and left her maid
below. She must then have been a very young lady; she is now not old; of
a pleasing person, and elegant behaviour. She told me, that she thought
herself honoured by my visit; and, I am sure, that whatever regard she
bestowed on me was liberally repaid. "If thou likest her opinions, thou
wilt praise her virtue." She was carried to London, but dismissed
without a trial, and came down with Malcolm Macleod, against whom
sufficient evidence could not be procured. She and her husband are poor,
and are going to try their fortune in America:
"Sic rerum volvitur orbis."
At Kingsburgh we were very liberally feasted, and I slept in the bed in
which the prince reposed in his distress; the sheets which he used were
never put to any meaner offices, but were wrapped up by the lady of the
house, and at last, according to her desire, were laid round her in her
grave. These are not whigs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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