Books had been written and sermons preached about noses, and the longer the nose the greater the intellect of the owner was supposed to be.  We told our host that there was only one-sixteenth part of an inch between the length of Napoleon’s nose and that of Wellington’s.  We had forgotten which was the longer, but as Wellington’s was so conspicuous that he was nicknamed “Nosey” by his troops, and as he had won the great battle of Waterloo, we concluded that it was his, and gave him the benefit of the doubt.  We quoted the following lines: 

  Knows he, that never took a pinch,
  Nosey, the pleasure thence that flows? 
  Knows he the titillating joy
  Which my nose knows? 
  O Nose, I am as proud of thee
  As any mountain of its snows;
  I gaze on thee, and feel that pride
  A Roman knows.

Our host confided to us the reason why he was so anxious that we should not leave in the middle of the service.  The second service was originally intended for those who had to come long distances to reach the kirk, some of whom came from a place seven miles away, but in late years the two services had become continuous.  A few Sundays before our visit some persons had left the kirk at the end of the first part, and in his second sermon the minister had plainly described them as followers of the Devil! so we supposed our host was anxious that we should not be denounced in the same way.

We found our tea-dinner waiting our arrival at the inn.  We sat down to it at half-past four, and, as we rose from what was left of it at five o’clock, having worked hard meanwhile, we may safely be credited with having done our duty.

We had a walk with our host along the shore, and had not proceeded far before we saw a dark-looking object some distance away in the sea.  We thought it looked like a man in a boat, rising and falling with the waves, but Mr. Mackenzie told us that it was two whales following the herrings that were travelling in shoals round the coasts.  We were very much interested in their strange movements, as they were the only whales we ever saw alive, but we could not help feeling sorry for the fish.  Evening was coming on as we re-entered “Huna Inn,” and when we were again seated before our turf fire, joined by our host and hostess, our conversation was chiefly on the adventures we had already had, the great walk we were to begin on the morrow, and the pleasure it had given us to see the manifest and steadfast determination of the people at the kirk to observe the Commandment of the God of the Sabbath, “REMEMBER THAT THOU KEEP HOLY THE SABBATH DAY.”  We wondered how much the prosperity of the Scottish nation and its representatives in every part of the “wide, wide world” was attributable to their strict observance of the Sabbath.  Who knows?

WE BEGIN OUR JOURNEY

Monday, September 18th.