never looked in his strength, sprang thickly up over its floor. In the
remote past it had been used as a sort of garner and thrashing-place by
a farmer of the parish, named Marcus, who had succeeded in rearing crops
of bere and oats on two sloping plots at the foot of the cliffs in its
immediate neighbourhood; and it was known, from this circumstance, to my
uncles and the older inhabitants of the town, as Marcus's Cave. My
companions, however, had been chiefly drawn to it by a much more recent
association. A poor Highland pensioner--a sorely dilapidated relic of
the French-American War, who had fought under General Wolfe in his
day--had taken a great fancy to the cave, and would fain have made it
his home. He was ill at ease in his family;--his wife was a termagant,
and his daughter disreputable; and, desirous to quit their society
altogether, and live as a hermit among the rocks, he had made
application to the gentleman who tenanted the farm above, to be
permitted to fit up the cave for himself as a dwelling. So bad was his
English, however, that the gentleman failed to understand him; and his
request was, as he believed, rejected, while it was in reality only not
understood. Among the younger folk the cave came to be known, from the
incident, as "Rory Shingles' Cave;" and my companions were delighted to
believe that they were living in it as Rory would have lived, had his
petition been granted. In the wild half-savage life which we led, we did
contrive to provide for ourselves remarkably well. The rocky shores
supplied us with limpets, periwinkles, and crabs, and now and then a
lump-fish; the rugged slopes under the precipices, with hips, sloes, and
brambles; the broken fragments of wreck along the beach, and the wood
above, furnished abundance of fuel; and as there were fields not half a
mile away, I fear the more solid part of our diet consisted often of
potatoes which we had not planted, and of pease and beans which we had
not sown. One of our number contrived to bring away a pot unobserved
from his home; another succeeded in providing us with a pitcher; there
was a good spring not two hundred yards from the cave mouth, which
supplied us with water; and, thus possessed of not merely all that
nature requires, but a good deal more, we contrived to fare sumptuously
every day. It has been often remarked, that civilized man, when placed
in circumstances at all favourable, soon learns to assume the savage. I
shall not sa