344.
[519] Mr. Croker says that 'though he sold a great tract of land in Harris, he left at his death in 1801 the original debt of L50,000 [Boswell says L40,000] increased to L70,000.' When Johnson visited Macleod at Dunvegan, he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'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 Sky, larger I suppose than some English counties, is proprietor of nine inhabited isles; and of his isles 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 mountain, 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 80,000 acres, rented at L600 a year.' Piozzi Letters, i. 154.
[520] They were abolished by an act passed in 1747, being 'reckoned among the principal sources of the rebellions. They certainly kept the common people in subjection to their chiefs. By this act they were legally emancipated from slavery; but as the tenants enjoyed no leases, and were at all times liable to be ejected from their farms, they still depended on the pleasure of their lords, notwithstanding this interposition of the legislature, which granted a valuable consideration in money to every nobleman and petty baron, who was thus deprived of one part of his inheritance.' Smollett's England, iii. 206. See ante, p. 46, note 1, and post, Oct. 22.
[521] 'I doubt not but that since the regular judges have made their circuits through the whole country, right has been everywhere more wisely and more equally distributed; the complaint is, that litigation is grown troublesome, and that the magistrates are too few and therefore often too remote for general convenience... In all greater questions there is now happily an end to all fear or hope from malice or from favour. The roads are secure in those places through which forty years ago no traveller could pass without a convoy...No scheme of policy has in any country yet brought the rich and poor on equal terms to courts of judicature. Perhaps experience improving on experience may in time effect it.' Johnson's Works, ix. 90.
[522] He described Rasay as 'the seat of plenty, civility, and cheerfulness.' Piozzi Letters, i. 152.
[523] 'We heard the women singing as they waulked the cloth, by rubbing it with their hands and feet, and screaming all the while in a sort of chorus. At a distance the sound was wild and sweet enough, but rather discordant when you approached too near the performers.' Lockhart's Scott, iv. 307.
[524] She had been some time at Edinburgh, to which she again went, and was married to my worthy neighbour, Colonel Mure Campbell, now Earl of Loudoun, but she died soon afterwards, leaving one daughter. BOSWELL. 'She is a celebrated beauty; has been admired at Edinburgh; dresses her head very high; and has manners so lady-like that I wish her head-dress was lower.' Piozzi Letters, i. 144. See ante, iii. 118.
[525]
'Yet hope not life from grief or danger free, Nor think the doom of man reversed for thee.'
The Vanity of Human Wishes.
[526] 'Rasay 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.' Piozzi Letters, i. 152. In describing the distance of one family from another, Johnson writes:--'Visits last several days, and are commonly paid by water; yet I never saw a boat furnished with benches.' Works, ix. 100.
[527] See ante, ii. 106, and iii. 154.
[528] 'They which forewent us did leave a Roome for us, and should wee grieve to doe the same to these which should come after us? Who beeing admitted to see the exquisite rarities of some antiquaries cabinet is grieved, all viewed, to have the courtaine drawen, and give place to new pilgrimes?' A Cypresse Grove, by William Drummond of Hawthorne-denne, ed. 1630, p. 68.
[529] See ante, iii. 153, 295.
[530]
'While hoary Nestor, by experience wise, To reconcile the angry monarch tries.'
FRANCIS. Horace, i Epis. ii. II.
[531] See ante, p. 16.
[532] Lord Elibank died Aug. 3, 1778, aged 75. Gent. Mag. 1778, p. 391.
[533] A term in Scotland for a sp