view to the obierver. The inhabitants
refemhle their iiland ; they live in a
little community among themfelves ;
tliey are not very rich, neither have
they any beggars. They are generally
cheerful, cleanly, and obliging; and
there are hut few inflances among
them of any one marrying a perfon
who did not at that time refide or afterwards
fettle on the iiland.
From thence we failed to Plymouth,
where we law the docks, magazines,
and every thing belonging to them
worthy of notice, and then proceeded
towards St. George’s Channel.
We had intended to land on the
lile of Man, as it is one o f the few
places where the Runic charaGers have
been brought by the Danes, and the
only one, except the north, wherd
fome o f our old Runic ilones are
found ; hut at fea we cannot always
acT a c c o r d i n g to our pleafure: the wind
obliged us to leave the lile o f Man on
our right, and to continue our courfe
to the weilern iilands o f Scotland.
It is exceedingly pleafant to fail among
thefe iilands, 'though not very fafe,
without a g o o d wind and expert pilots;
for
for in the firft cafe you muft depend
upon the ebb and flood ; and in the
lecond you are in continual danger on
iiccount of the great number of rocks.
The nature of the country is fuch,
that I do not wonder at it its having
given birth to a Fingal, and an Oilian.
It is not the only place wliere we have
feen heroes produced among the mountains
; and what can be more calculated
to form a poet, than wild romantic and
enchanting fcenes o f nature, which
are here ib pleafingly blended ?
It would be tedious to enumerate all
the iiles we have vifited. The moil
remarkable are Oranfay and Colnmb-
kill, on account o f their antiquities ;
Scarba, for its known water-drain,
(Vattmdrag); and Staffa, on account
of its natural pillars, which hitherto
have been little known, and furpais
whatever has been obiervecl before o f
the kind.
You know,, Sir, that the inhabitants
of thefe iftes, as well as in moil places
of the ilighlands of Scotland, have a
language of their own, which they call
EiTe, and which is a remnant o f tb^e
B 3 Ccltic<i