ldings in different parts of the Island shew
their degrees of wealth and power. I believe that for all the castles
which I have seen beyond the Tweed, the ruins yet remaining of some one
of those which the English built in Wales, would supply materials.

These castles afford another evidence that the fictions of romantick
chivalry had for their basis the real manners of the feudal times, when
every Lord of a seignory lived in his hold lawless and unaccountable,
with all the licentiousness and insolence of uncontested superiority and
unprincipled power. The traveller, whoever he might be, coming to the
fortified habitation of a Chieftain, would, probably, have been
interrogated from the battlements, admitted with caution at the gate,
introduced to a petty Monarch, fierce with habitual hostility, and
vigilant with ignorant suspicion; who, according to his general temper,
or accidental humour, would have seated a stranger as his guest at the
table, or as a spy confined him in the dungeon.

Lochbuy means the Yellow Lake, which is the name given to an inlet of the
sea, upon which the castle of Mr. Maclean stands. The reason of the
appellation we did not learn.

We were now to leave the Hebrides, where we had spent some weeks with
sufficient amusement, and where we had amplified our thoughts with new
scenes of nature, and new modes of life. More time would have given us a
more distinct view, but it was necessary that Mr. Boswell should return
before the courts of justice were opened; and it was not proper to live
too long upon hospitality, however liberally imparted.

Of these Islands it must be confessed, that they have not many
allurements, but to the mere lover of naked nature. The inhabitants are
thin, provisions are scarce, and desolation and penury give little
pleasure.

The people collectively considered are not few, though their numbers are
small in proportion to the space which they occupy. Mull is said to
contain six thousand, and Sky fifteen thousand. Of the computation
respecting Mull, I can give no account; but when I doubted the truth of
the numbers attributed to Sky, one of the Ministers exhibited such facts
as conquered my incredulity.

Of the proportion, which the product of any region bears to the people,
an estimate is commonly made according to the pecuniary price of the
necessaries of life; a principle of judgment which is never certain,
because it supposes what is far from truth, that the va