ound no instance here of
extraordinary longevity. A cottager grows old over his oaten cakes, like
a citizen at a turtle feast. He is indeed seldom incommoded by
corpulence. Poverty preserves him from sinking under the burden of
himself, but he escapes no other injury of time. Instances of long life
are often related, which those who hear them are more willing to credit
than examine. To be told that any man has attained a hundred years,
gives hope and comfort to him who stands trembling on the brink of his
own climacterick.

Length of life is distributed impartially to very different modes of life
in very different climates; and the mountains have no greater examples of
age and health than the low lands, where I was introduced to two ladies
of high quality; one of whom, in her ninety-fourth year, presided at her
table with the full exercise of all her powers; and the other has
attained her eighty-fourth, without any diminution of her vivacity, and
with little reason to accuse time of depredations on her beauty.

In the Islands, as in most other places, the inhabitants are of different
rank, and one does not encroach here upon another. Where there is no
commerce nor manufacture, he that is born poor can scarcely become rich;
and if none are able to buy estates, he that is born to land cannot
annihilate his family by selling it. This was once the state of these
countries. Perhaps there is no example, till within a century and half,
of any family whose estate was alienated otherwise than by violence or
forfeiture. Since money has been brought amongst them, they have found,
like others, the art of spending more than they receive; and I saw with
grief the chief of a very ancient clan, whose Island was condemned by law
to be sold for the satisfaction of his creditors.

The name of highest dignity is Laird, of which there are in the extensive
Isle of Sky only three, Macdonald, Macleod, and Mackinnon. The Laird is
the original owner of the land, whose natural power must be very great,
where no man lives but by agriculture; and where the produce of the land
is not conveyed through the labyrinths of traffick, but passes directly
from the hand that gathers it to the mouth that eats it. The Laird has
all those in his power that live upon his farms. Kings can, for the most
part, only exalt or degrade. The Laird at pleasure can feed or starve,
can give bread, or withold it. This inherent power was yet strengthened
by t