On the 13th, travelling partly on horseback, where we could not row, and
partly on foot, where we could not ride, we came to Dunvegan, which I
have described already. Here, though poor Macleod had been left by his
grandfather overwhelmed with debts, we had another exhibition of feudal
hospitality. There were two stags in the house, and venison came to the
table every day in its various forms. Macleod, besides his estate in
Skie, larger, I suppose, than some English counties, is proprietor of
nine inhabited isles; and, of his islands uninhabited, I doubt if he
very exactly knows the number. I told him that he was a mighty monarch.
Such dominions fill an Englishman with envious wonder; but, when he
surveys the naked mountains, and treads the quaking moor, and wanders
over the wild regions of gloomy barrenness, his wonder may continue, but
his envy ceases. The unprofitableness of these vast domains can be
conceived only by the means of positive instances. The heir of Col, an
island not far distant, has lately told me, how wealthy he should be, if
he could let Rum, another of his islands, for twopence halfpenny an
acre; and Macleod has an estate, which the surveyor reports to contain
eighty thousand acres, rented at six hundred pounds a year.
While we were at Dunvegan, the wind was high, and the rain violent, so
that we were not able to put forth a boat to fish in the sea, or to
visit the adjacent islands, which may be seen from the house; but we
filled up the time, as we could, sometimes by talk, sometimes by
reading. I have never wanted books in the isle of Skie.
We were invited one day by the laird and lady of Muck, one of the
western islands, two miles long, and three quarters of a mile high. He
has half his island in his own culture, and upon the other half live one
hundred and fifty dependants, who not only live upon the product, but
export corn sufficient for the payment of their rent.
Lady Macleod has a son and four daughters; they have lived long in
England, and have the language and manners of English ladies. We lived
with them very easily. The hospitality of this remote region is like
that of the golden age. We have found ourselves treated, at every house,
as if we came to confer a benefit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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