In CARSTARE’S STATE PAPERS we find an authentick narrative of Connor [Conn], a catholick priest, who turned protestant, being seized by some of Lord Seaforth’s people, and detained prisoner in the island of Herries several years; he was fed with bread and water, and lodged in a house where he was exposed to the rains and cold.  Sir James Ogilvy writes (June 18, 1667 [1697]), that the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Advocate, and himself, were to meet next day, to take effectual methods to have this redressed.  Connor was then still detained; p. 310.—­This shews what private oppression might in the last century be practised in the Hebrides.

In the same collection [in a letter dated Sept. 15, 1700], the Earl of Argyle gives a picturesque account of an embassy from the great M’Neil of Barra, as that insular Chief used to be denominated:—­’I received a letter yesterday from M’Neil of Barra, who lives very far off, sent by a gentleman in all formality, offering his service, which had made you laugh to see his entry.  His style of his letter runs as if he were of another kingdom.’—­Page 643 [648].  BOSWELL.

Sir Walter Scott says:—­’I have seen Lady Grange’s Journal.  She had become privy to some of the Jacobite intrigues, in which her husband, Lord Grange (an Erskine, brother of the Earl of Mar, and a Lord of Session), and his family were engaged.  Being on indifferent terms with her husband, she is said to have thrown out hints that she knew as much as would cost him his life.  The judge probably thought with Mrs. Peachum, that it is rather an awkward state of domestic affairs, when the wife has it in her power to hang the husband.  Lady Grange was the more to be dreaded, as she came of a vindictive race, being the grandchild [according to Mr. Chambers, the child] of that Chiesley of Dalry, who assassinated Sir George Lockhart, the Lord President.  Many persons of importance in the Highlands were concerned in removing her testimony.  The notorious Lovat, with a party of his men, were the direct agents in carrying her off; and St. Kilda, belonging then to Macleod, was selected as the place of confinement.  The name by which she was spoken or written of was Corpach, an ominous distinction, corresponding to what is called subject in the lecture-room of an anatomist, or shot in the slang of the Westport murderers’ [Burke and Hare].  Sir Walter adds that ’it was said of M’Neil of Barra, that when he dined, his bagpipes blew a particular strain, intimating that all the world might go to dinner.’  Croker’s Boswell, p. 341.

[629] I doubt the justice of my fellow-traveller’s remark concerning the French literati, many of whom, I am told, have considerable merit in conversation, as well as in their writings.  That of Monsieur de Buffon, in particular, I am well assured, is highly instructive and entertaining.  BOSWELL.  See ante, iii. 253.