ST. KILDA 127 



the indifferent opinion held of him by the great lexico- 

 grapher, Samuel Johnson.* 



2. The Rev. Kenneth Macaulay, or McAulay, as it was 

 sometimes spelledt who visited St. Kilda in June, 1758 

 — sixty-one years after Martin was there — has also left 

 us a narrative;!: which can surely only be that of a man 

 who had himself ascended one of the Gannet Stacks ; unless 

 he allowed it to be very much over-edited by Macpherson, 

 who, according to Johnson, put his materials into shape. 

 As I have quoted at length from Martin, one extract from 

 Macaulay will suffice : — 



" The nests of the solan geese, not to mention those of 

 other fowls, are so close that when one walks between them, 

 the hatching fowls on either side can always take hold of 

 one's cloths ; and they will often sit until they are attacked, 

 rather than expose their eggs to the danger of being destroyed 

 by the sea-gulls ; at the same time, an equal number fly 

 about, and furnish food for their mates that are employed 

 in hatching." 



3. In "A Description of St. Kilda," by the Rev. 



* " No man now writes so ill as ' Martin's Account of the Hebrides ' is 

 written. A man could not write so ill if he should try." (" Life of 

 Samuel Johnson," by James Boswell, IV., p. 97). 



t Set! Boswell's " Life of Samuel Johnson," II., p. 350 (Croker's 

 edition, 1831). 



X " A Voyage to and History of St. Kilda," 1704. 



