The Expedition of Humphry ClinkerSmollett, T. (Tobias)
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The Expedition of Humphry Clinker
Smollett, T. (Tobias)
Epistolary fiction; Great Britain -- Fiction; Travelers -- Fiction
We have had princely sport in hunting the stag on these mountains. These
are the lonely hills of Morven, where Fingal and his heroes enjoyed the
same pastime; I feel an enthusiastic pleasure when I survey the brown
heath that Ossian wont to tread; and hear the wind whistle through
the bending grass--When I enter our landlord’s hall, I look for the
suspended harp of that divine bard, and listen in hopes of hearing the
aerial sound of his respected spirit--The poems of Ossian are in every
mouth--A famous antiquarian of this country, the laird of Macfarlane, at
whose house we dined a few days ago, can repeat them all in the original
Gallick, which has a great affinity to the Welch, not only in the
general sound, but also in a great number of radical words; and I make
no doubt that they are both sprung from the same origin. I was not a
little surprised, when asking a Highlander one day, if he knew where we
should find any game? he replied, ‘hu niel Sassenagh’, which signifies
no English: the very same answer I should have received from a Welchman,
and almost in the same words. The Highlanders have no other name for
the people of the Low-country, but Sassenagh, or Saxons; a strong
presumption, that the Lowland Scots and the English are derived from the
same stock--The peasants of these hills strongly resemble those of Wales
in their looks, their manners, and habitations; every thing I see, and
hear, and feel, seems Welch--The mountains, vales, and streams; the
air and climate; the beef, mutton, and game, are all Welch--It must be
owned, however, that this people are better Provided than we in some
articles--They have plenty of red deer and roebuck, which are fat
and delicious at this season of the year. Their sea teems with amazing
quantities of the finest fish in the world, and they find means to
procure very good claret at a very small expence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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