The occasion on which this phrase, somewhat felicitously, was brought into use, was the following:—Returning from one of his voyages to the Greenland seas, whilst sailing from the port of Greenock, they had stretched, under a prevalence of south-westerly gales, to leeward of the northern shore of the island of Mull, forming part of the county of Argyle. The wind not availing for convenient progress on the destined course, they took shelter in Tobermory, near the head of the Sound of Mull. This port, as a site for commercial enterprise, was brought into consideration (undue consideration as the trial has proved) by the “Board of Trustees for the Encouragement of the Fisheries,” a little more than half a century ago. The place naturally attracting my Father’s attention, he went on shore with little delay. He proceeded to the inn first of all, and indicated his wish to the landlord to have dinner provided for him before he returned to his ship. The interval he naturally employed in examining the place and the neighbouring scenery. During the time whilst he remained at the inn, and was in communication with its inmates, he observed,—when ordering his dinner, and when being waited on as he was eating, as also, subsequently, when he asked the cost of the entertainment he had received,—no language was spoken betwixt the landlord and his wife (who mutually contributed to his requirements) but the Gaelic. And on two or three occasions, especially on a discussion, as he fancied, of the important matter of the reckoning, there seemed to be a considerable difference of opinion betwixt the parties as _to the amount_ to be charged. Nevertheless whilst by the significant action, and whispering tone, he gathered, or supposed he gathered, so much of the purport of the discussion, not one word of what was said, as they had justly inferred, could he strictly or certainly interpret. But a trifling incident, by which his acquaintance with the maxim above spoken of was elicited, gave a new and somewhat astounding annunciation to his Gaelic-speaking hosts.