rs that led them to the field[505].
They returned home all but about fourteen. What a princely thing is it
to be able to furnish such a band! Rasay has the true spirit of a chief.
He is, without exaggeration, a father to his people.

There is plenty of lime-stone in the island, a great quarry of
free-stone, and some natural woods, but none of any age, as they cut the
trees for common country uses. The lakes, of which there are many, are
well stocked with trout. Malcolm catched one of four-and-twenty pounds
weight in the loch next to Dun Can, which, by the way, is certainly a
Danish name, as most names of places in these islands are.

The old castle, in which the family of Rasay formerly resided, is
situated upon a rock very near the sea. The rock is not one mass of
stone, but a concretion of pebbles and earth, so firm that it does not
appear to have mouldered. In this remnant of antiquity I found nothing
worthy of being noticed, except a certain accommodation rarely to be
found at the modern houses of Scotland, and which Dr. Johnson and I
sought for in vain at the Laird of Rasay's new built mansion, where
nothing else was wanting. I took the liberty to tell the Laird it was a
shame there should be such a deficiency in civilized times. He
acknowledged the justice of the remark. But perhaps some generations may
pass before the want is supplied. Dr. Johnson observed to me, how
quietly people will endure an evil, which they might at any time very
easily remedy; and mentioned as an instance, that the present family of
Rasay had possessed the island for more than four hundred years, and
never made a commodious landing place, though a few men with pickaxes
might have cut an ascent of stairs out of any part of the rock in a
week's time[506].

The north end of Rasay is as rocky as the south end. From it I saw the
little isle of Fladda, belonging to Rasay, all fine green ground;--and
Rona, which is of so rocky a soil that it appears to be a pavement. I
was told however that it has a great deal of grass in the interstices.
The Laird has it all in his own hands. At this end of the island of
Rasay is a cave in a striking situation. It is in a recess of a great
cleft, a good way up from the sea. Before it the ocean roars, being
dashed against monstrous broken rocks; grand and aweful _propugnacula_.
On the right hand of it is a longitudinal cave, very low at the
entrance, but higher as you advance. The sea having scooped it out, it