第17章 ANOCH(1)

Early in the afternoon we came to Anoch,a village in Glenmollison of three huts,one of which is distinguished by a chimney.Here we were to dine and lodge,and were conducted through the first room,that had the chimney,into another lighted by a small glass window.

The landlord attended us with great civility,and told us what he could give us to eat and drink.I found some books on a shelf,among which were a volume or more of Prideaux's Connection.

This I mentioned as something unexpected,and perceived that I did not please him.I praised the propriety of his language,and was answered that I need not wonder,for he had learned it by grammar.

By subsequent opportunities of observation,I found that my host's diction had nothing peculiar.Those Highlanders that can speak English,commonly speak it well,with few of the words,and little of the tone by which a Scotchman is distinguished.Their language seems to have been learned in the army or the navy,or by some communication with those who could give them good examples of accent and pronunciation.By their Lowland neighbours they would not willingly be taught;for they have long considered them as a mean and degenerate race.These prejudices are wearing fast away;but so much of them still remains,that when I asked a very learned minister in the islands,which they considered as their most savage clans:'Those,'said he,'that live next the Lowlands.'

As we came hither early in the day,we had time sufficient to survey the place.The house was built like other huts of loose stones,but the part in which we dined and slept was lined with turf and wattled with twigs,which kept the earth from falling.

Near it was a garden of turnips and a field of potatoes.It stands in a glen,or valley,pleasantly watered by a winding river.But this country,however it may delight the gazer or amuse the naturalist,is of no great advantage to its owners.Our landlord told us of a gentleman,who possesses lands,eighteen Scotch miles in length,and three in breadth;a space containing at least a hundred square English miles.He has raised his rents,to the danger of depopulating his farms,and he fells his timber,and by exerting every art of augmentation,has obtained an yearly revenue of four hundred pounds,which for a hundred square miles is three halfpence an acre.

Some time after dinner we were surprised by the entrance of a young woman,not inelegant either in mien or dress,who asked us whether we would have tea.We found that she was the daughter of our host,and desired her to make it.Her conversation,like her appearance,was gentle and pleasing.We knew that the girls of the Highlands are all gentlewomen,and treated her with great respect,which she received as customary and due,and was neither elated by it,nor confused,but repaid my civilities without embarassment,and told me how much I honoured her country by coming to survey it.

She had been at Inverness to gain the common female qualifications,and had,like her father,the English pronunciation.I presented her with a book,which I happened to have about me,and should not be pleased to think that she forgets me.

In the evening the soldiers,whom we had passed on the road,came to spend at our inn the little money that we had given them.They had the true military impatience of coin in their pockets,and had marched at least six miles to find the first place where liquor could be bought.Having never been before in a place so wild and unfrequented,I was glad of their arrival,because I knew that we had made them friends,and to gain still more of their good will,we went to them,where they were carousing in the barn,and added something to our former gift.All that we gave was not much,but it detained them in the barn,either merry or quarrelling,the whole night,and in the morning they went back to their work,with great indignation at the bad qualities of whisky.

We had gained so much the favour of our host,that,when we left his house in the morning,he walked by us a great way,and entertained us with conversation both on his own condition,and that of the country.His life seemed to be merely pastoral,except that he differed from some of the ancient Nomades in having a settled dwelling.His wealth consists of one hundred sheep,as many goats,twelve milk-cows,and twenty-eight beeves ready for the drover.

From him we first heard of the general dissatisfaction,which is now driving the Highlanders into the other hemisphere;and when Iasked him whether they would stay at home,if they were well treated,he answered with indignation,that no man willingly left his native country.Of the farm,which he himself occupied,the rent had,in twenty-five years,been advanced from five to twenty pounds,which he found himself so little able to pay,that he would be glad to try his fortune in some other place.Yet he owned the reasonableness of raising the Highland rents in a certain degree,and declared himself willing to pay ten pounds for the ground which he had formerly had for five.

Our host having amused us for a time,resigned us to our guides.

The journey of this day was long,not that the distance was great,but that the way was difficult.We were now in the bosom of the Highlands,with full leisure to contemplate the appearance and properties of mountainous regions,such as have been,in many countries,the last shelters of national distress,and are every where the scenes of adventures,stratagems,surprises and escapes.

Mountainous countries are not passed but with difficulty,not merely from the labour of climbing;for to climb is not always necessary:but because that which is not mountain is commonly bog,through which the way must be picked with caution.Where there are hills,there is much rain,and the torrents pouring down into the intermediate spaces,seldom find so ready an outlet,as not to stagnate,till they have broken the texture of the ground.