第61章 INCH KENNETH(1)

In the morning we went again into the boat,and were landed on Inch Kenneth,an Island about a mile long,and perhaps half a mile broad,remarkable for pleasantness and fertility.It is verdant and grassy,and fit both for pasture and tillage;but it has no trees.Its only inhabitants were Sir Allan Maclean and two young ladies,his daughters,with their servants.

Romance does not often exhibit a scene that strikes the imagination more than this little desert in these depths of Western obscurity,occupied not by a gross herdsman,or amphibious fisherman,but by a gentleman and two ladies,of high birth,polished manners and elegant conversation,who,in a habitation raised not very far above the ground,but furnished with unexpected neatness and convenience,practised all the kindness of hospitality,and refinement of courtesy.

Sir Allan is the Chieftain of the great clan of Maclean,which is said to claim the second place among the Highland families,yielding only to Macdonald.Though by the misconduct of his ancestors,most of the extensive territory,which would have descended to him,has been alienated,he still retains much of the dignity and authority of his birth.When soldiers were lately wanting for the American war,application was made to Sir Allan,and he nominated a hundred men for the service,who obeyed the summons,and bore arms under his command.

He had then,for some time,resided with the young ladies in Inch Kenneth,where he lives not only with plenty,but with elegance,having conveyed to his cottage a collection of books,and what else is necessary to make his hours pleasant.

When we landed,we were met by Sir Allan and the Ladies,accompanied by Miss Macquarry,who had passed some time with them,and now returned to Ulva with her father.

We all walked together to the mansion,where we found one cottage for Sir Allan,and I think two more for the domesticks and the offices.We entered,and wanted little that palaces afford.Our room was neatly floored,and well lighted;and our dinner,which was dressed in one of the other huts,was plentiful and delicate.

In the afternoon Sir Allan reminded us,that the day was Sunday,which he never suffered to pass without some religious distinction,and invited us to partake in his acts of domestick worship;which Ihope neither Mr.Boswell nor myself will be suspected of a disposition to refuse.The elder of the Ladies read the English service.

Inch Kenneth was once a seminary of ecclesiasticks,subordinate,Isuppose,to Icolmkill.Sir Allan had a mind to trace the foundations of the college,but neither I nor Mr.Boswell,who bends a keener eye on vacancy,were able to perceive them.

Our attention,however,was sufficiently engaged by a venerable chapel,which stands yet entire,except that the roof is gone.It is about sixty feet in length,and thirty in breadth.On one side of the altar is a bas relief of the blessed Virgin,and by it lies a little bell;which,though cracked,and without a clapper,has remained there for ages,guarded only by the venerableness of the place.The ground round the chapel is covered with grave-stones of Chiefs and ladies;and still continues to be a place of sepulture.

Inch Kenneth is a proper prelude to Icolmkill.It was not without some mournful emotion that we contemplated the ruins of religious structures and the monuments of the dead.

On the next day we took a more distinct view of the place,and went with the boat to see oysters in the bed,out of which the boat-men forced up as many as were wanted.Even Inch Kenneth has a subordinate Island,named Sandiland,I suppose in contempt,where we landed,and found a rock,with a surface of perhaps four acres,of which one is naked stone,another spread with sand and shells,some of which I picked up for their glossy beauty,and two covered with a little earth and grass,on which Sir Allan has a few sheep.

I doubt not but when there was a college at Inch Kenneth,there was a hermitage upon Sandiland.

Having wandered over those extensive plains,we committed ourselves again to the winds and waters;and after a voyage of about ten minutes,in which we met with nothing very observable,were again safe upon dry ground.

We told Sir Allan our desire of visiting Icolmkill,and entreated him to give us his protection,and his company.He thought proper to hesitate a little,but the Ladies hinted,that as they knew he would not finally refuse,he would do better if he preserved the grace of ready compliance.He took their advice,and promised to carry us on the morrow in his boat.

We passed the remaining part of the day in such amusements as were in our power.Sir Allan related the American campaign,and at evening one of the Ladies played on her harpsichord,while Col and Mr.Boswell danced a Scottish reel with the other.

We could have been easily persuaded to a longer stay upon Inch Kenneth,but life will not be all passed in delight.The session at Edinburgh was approaching,from which Mr.Boswell could not be absent.

In the morning our boat was ready:it was high and strong.Sir Allan victualled it for the day,and provided able rowers.We now parted from the young Laird of Col,who had treated us with so much kindness,and concluded his favours by consigning us to Sir Allan.

Here we had the last embrace of this amiable man,who,while these pages were preparing to attest his virtues,perished in the passage between Ulva and Inch Kenneth.

Sir Allan,to whom the whole region was well known,told us of a very remarkable cave,to which he would show us the way.We had been disappointed already by one cave,and were not much elevated by the expectation of another.

It was yet better to see it,and we stopped at some rocks on the coast of Mull.The mouth is fortified by vast fragments of stone,over which we made our way,neither very nimbly,nor very securely.