Scenes and legends of the north of Scotland : $b or, The traditional history of Cromarty — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Scenes and legends of the north of Scotland : $b or, The traditional history of Cromarty
John Stuart Mill · en
away, he purchased the bird; and sailing from the bay before nightfall,
did not return until about a month after.
On his voyage inwards he had no sooner doubled an intervening headland,
than he stepped forward to the bows to take a peep at the cottage: it
had vanished. As he approached the anchoring ground, he could discern
a heap of blackened stones occupying the place where it had stood; and
he was informed, on going ashore, that it had been burnt to the ground,
no one knew how, on the very night he had quitted the bay. He had it
rebuilt and furnished, says the story, deeming himself, what one of the
old schoolmen would have perhaps termed, the _occasional_ cause of the
disaster. About fifteen years ago there was dug up, near the site of
the cottage, a human skeleton, with the skull and the bones of the feet
lying together, as if the body had been huddled up twofold into a hole;
and this discovery led to that of the story, which, though at one time
often repeated and extensively believed, had been suffered to sleep in
the memories of a few elderly people for nearly sixty years.
CHAPTER VI.
“Subtill muldrie wrocht mony day agone.”--GAVIN DOUGLASS.
[Sidenote: A SCOTTISH TOWN OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.]
As house after house in the old town of Cromarty was yielding its place
to the sea, the inhabitants were engaged in building new dwellings
for themselves in the fields behind. A second town was thus formed,
the greater part of which has since also disappeared, though under
the influence of causes less violent than those which annihilated the
first. Shortly after the Union, the trade of the place, which prior to
that event had been pretty considerable, fell into decay, and the town
gradually dwindled in size and importance until about the year 1750,
when it had sunk into an inconsiderable village. After this period,
however, trade began to revive, and the town again to increase; and
as the old site was deemed inconveniently distant from the harbour,
it was changed for the present. The main street of this second town,
which is still used as a road, and bears the name of the Old Causeway,
is situated about two hundred yards to the east of the houses, and is
now bounded by the fences of gardens and fields, with here and there an
antique-looking, high-gabled domicile rising over it. A row of large
trees, which have sprung up since the disappearance of the town, runs
along one of the fences.