as Raasa, or Talisker. The distinction of the meaner
people is made by their Christian names. In consequence of this
practice, the late Laird of Macfarlane, an eminent genealogist,
considered himself as disrespectfully treated, if the common addition was
applied to him. Mr. Macfarlane, said he, may with equal propriety be
said to many; but I, and I only, am Macfarlane.

Our afternoon journey was through a country of such gloomy desolation,
that Mr. Boswell thought no part of the Highlands equally terrifick, yet
we came without any difficulty, at evening, to Lochbuy, where we found a
true Highland Laird, rough and haughty, and tenacious of his dignity;
who, hearing my name, inquired whether I was of the Johnstons of
Glencroe, or of Ardnamurchan.

Lochbuy has, like the other insular Chieftains, quitted the castle that
sheltered his ancestors, and lives near it, in a mansion not very
spacious or splendid. I have seen no houses in the Islands much to be
envied for convenience or magnificence, yet they bare testimony to the
progress of arts and civility, as they shew that rapine and surprise are
no longer dreaded, and are much more commodious than the ancient
fortresses.

The castles of the Hebrides, many of which are standing, and many ruined,
were always built upon points of land, on the margin of the sea. For the
choice of this situation there must have been some general reason, which
the change of manners has left in obscurity. They were of no use in the
days of piracy, as defences of the coast; for it was equally accessible
in other places. Had they been sea-marks or light-houses, they would
have been of more use to the invader than the natives, who could want no
such directions of their own waters: for a watch-tower, a cottage on a
hill would have been better, as it would have commanded a wider view.

If they be considered merely as places of retreat, the situation seems
not well chosen; for the Laird of an Island is safest from foreign
enemies in the center; on the coast he might be more suddenly surprised
than in the inland parts; and the invaders, if their enterprise
miscarried, might more easily retreat. Some convenience, however,
whatever it was, their position on the shore afforded; for uniformity of
practice seldom continues long without good reason.

A castle in the Islands is only a single tower of three or four stories,
of which the walls are sometimes eight or nine feet thick, with narrow
windo