tention to two men, whose names perhaps he had not
heard, by whom his kindness was not likely to be ever repaid, and who
could be recommended to him only by their necessities.

We were now to examine our lodging. Out of one of the beds, on which we
were to repose, started up, at our entrance, a man black as a Cyclops
from the forge. Other circumstances of no elegant recital concurred to
disgust us. We had been frighted by a lady at Edinburgh, with
discouraging representations of Highland lodgings. Sleep, however, was
necessary. Our Highlanders had at last found some hay, with which the
inn could not supply them. I directed them to bring a bundle into the
room, and slept upon it in my riding coat. Mr. Boswell being more
delicate, laid himself sheets with hay over and under him, and lay in
linen like a gentleman.

SKY. ARMIDEL

In the morning, September the second, we found ourselves on the edge of
the sea. Having procured a boat, we dismissed our Highlanders, whom I
would recommend to the service of any future travellers, and were ferried
over to the Isle of Sky. We landed at Armidel, where we were met on the
sands by Sir Alexander Macdonald, who was at that time there with his
lady, preparing to leave the island and reside at Edinburgh.

Armidel is a neat house, built where the Macdonalds had once a seat,
which was burnt in the commotions that followed the Revolution. The
walled orchard, which belonged to the former house, still remains. It is
well shaded by tall ash trees, of a species, as Mr. Janes the fossilist
informed me, uncommonly valuable. This plantation is very properly
mentioned by Dr. Campbell, in his new account of the state of Britain,
and deserves attention; because it proves that the present nakedness of
the Hebrides is not wholly the fault of Nature.

As we sat at Sir Alexander's table, we were entertained, according to the
ancient usage of the North, with the melody of the bagpipe. Everything
in those countries has its history. As the bagpiper was playing, an
elderly Gentleman informed us, that in some remote time, the Macdonalds
of Glengary having been injured, or offended by the inhabitants of
Culloden, and resolving to have justice or vengeance, came to Culloden on
a Sunday, where finding their enemies at worship, they shut them up in
the church, which they set on fire; and this, said he, is the tune that
the piper played while they were burning.

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