rocks on the other, and a ditch in front, made it
impervious. But the late Macleod built a bridge over the stream, and the
present laird is executing an entrance suitable to the character of this
remarkable fortalice, by making a portal between two advanced towers,
and an outer court, from which he proposes to throw a draw-bridge over
to the high rock in front of the castle.' Lockhart's _Scott_, ed.
1839, iv. 303.

[641]

'Bella gerant alii; tu, felix Austria, nube;
Quae dat Mars aliis, dat tibi regna Venus.'

[642] Johnson says of this castle:--'It is so nearly entire, that it
might have easily been made habitable, were there not an ominous
tradition in the family, that the owner shall not long outlive the
reparation. The grandfather of the present laird, in defiance of
prediction, began the work, but desisted in a little time, and applied
his money to worse uses.' _Works_, ix. 64.

[643] Macaulay (_Essays_, ed. 1843, i. 365) ends a lively piece of
criticism on Mr. Croker by saying:--'It requires no Bentley or Casaubon
to perceive that Philarchus is merely a false spelling for Phylarchus,
the chief of a tribe.'

[644] See _ante_, i. 180.

[645] Sir Walter Scott wrote in 1814:--'The monument is now nearly
ruinous, and the inscription has fallen down.' Lockhart's _Scott_,
iv. 308.

[646] 'Wheel carriages they have none, but make a frame of timber, which
is drawn by one horse, with the two points behind pressing on the
ground. On this they sometimes drag home their sheaves, but often convey
them home in a kind of open pannier, or frame of sticks, upon the
horse's back.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 76. 'The young Laird of Col has
attempted what no islander perhaps ever thought on. He has begun a road
capable of a wheel-carriage. He has carried it about a mile.' _Ib_.
p. 128.

[647] Captain Phipps had sailed in May of this year, and in the
neighbourhood of Spitzbergen had reached the latitude of more than 80 deg..
He returned to England in the end of September. _Gent. Mag_. 1774,
p. 420.

[648] _Aeneid_, vi. II.

[649] 'In the afternoon, an interval of calm sunshine courted us out to
see a cave on the shore, famous for its echo. When we went into the
boat, one of our companions was asked in Erse by the boatmen, who they
were that came with him. He gave us characters, I suppose to our
advantage, and was asked, in the spirit of the Highlands, whether I
could recite a long series of ancestors. The boat