[472] See Appendix B.

[473] ’I never was in any house of the islands, where I did not find books in more languages than one, if I staid long enough to want them, except one from which the family was removed.’  Johnson’s Works, ix. 50.  He is speaking of ‘the higher rank of the Hebridians,’ for on p. 61 he says:—­’The greater part of the islanders make no use of books.’

[474] There was a Mrs. Brooks, an actress, the daughter of a Scotchman named Watson, who had forfeited his property by ’going out in the ‘45.’  But according to The Thespian Dictionary her first appearance on the stage was in 1786.

[475] Boswell mentions, post, Oct. 5, ’the famous Captain of Clanranald, who fell at Sherrif-muir.’

[476] See ante, p. 95.

[477] By John Macpherson, D.D.  See post, Sept. 13.

[478] Sir Walter Scott, when in Sky in 1814, wrote:—­’We learn that most of the Highland superstitions, even that of the second sight, are still in force.’  Lockhart’s Scott, ed. 1839, iv. 305.  See _.ante_, ii. 10, 318.

[479] Of him Johnson wrote:—­’One of the ministers honestly told me that he came to Sky with a resolution not to believe it.’ Works, ix. 106.

[480] ’By the term second sight seems to be meant a mode of seeing superadded to that which nature generally bestows.  In the Erse it is called Taisch; which signifies likewise a spectre or a vision.’ Johnson’s Works, ix. 105.

[481] Gray’s Ode on a distant prospect of Eton College, 1. 44.

[482] A tonnage bounty of thirty shillings a ton was at this time given to the owners of busses or decked vessels for the encouragement of the white herring fishery.  Adam Smith (Wealth of Nations, iv. 5) shews how mischievous was its effect.

[483] The Highland expression for Laird of Rasay.  BOSWELL.

[484] ’In Sky I first observed the use of brogues, a kind of artless shoes, stitched with thongs so loosely, that, though they defend the foot from stones, they do not exclude water.’  Johnson’s Works, ix 46.

[485] To evade the law against the tartan dress, the Highlanders used to dye their variegated plaids and kilts into blue, green, or any single colour.  WALTER SCOTT.

[486] See post, Oct. 5.

[487] The Highlanders were all well inclined to the episcopalian form, proviso that the right king was prayed for.  I suppose Malcolm meant to say, ‘I will come to your church because you are honest folk,’ viz. Jacobites.  WALTER SCOTT.

[488] See ante, i. 450, and ii. 291.

[489] Perhaps he was thinking of Johnson’s letter of June 20, 1771 (ante, ii. 140), where he says:—­’I hope the time will come when we may try our powers both with cliffs and water.’

[490] ’The wind blew enough to give the boat a kind of dancing agitation.’ Piozzi Letters, i. 142.  ’The water was calm and the rowers were vigorous; so that our passage was quick and pleasant.’  Johnson’s Works, ix. 54.