28 MEMOIR OF DR. WALKER. 



room, where a wheel was scarce ever known before. 

 They seemed quite happy at their work, and all 

 joined in a Highland song, which gave me more 

 pleasure, if it be safe to own such an unpolite no- 

 tion, than any concert 1 was ever present at. 



u The spinning-mistress, who is a woman from 

 Fife, I found under real, I may say, bodily amaze- 

 ment, at the quick apprehension and docility of her 

 scholars, who, though they understood not her lan- 

 guage, comprehended in a day or two every thing 

 she meant. I was not, however, so much surprised 

 at this as the good woman seemed to be, having 

 been for two months past more and more convinced, 

 that the mind of man is to be observed more and 

 more perfect as one moves northwards ; that a pene- 

 trating air seems to produce penetrating souls, and 

 that wind and weather, the keener they are, appear 

 to give the sharper edge to the human understand- 

 ing. 



" I have met with a strong confirmation of my 

 notion of raising hemp in the Western Islands. I 

 was on Tuesday last on board of a herring-buss on 

 Loch Shell, bound from Stornoway to the rendez- 

 vous at Campbelton, whose nets are wholly made 

 of hemp which grew in the Lewes ; but there is not 

 a stalk of it in any other of the islands. 



" I inquired carefully after the plant which dyes 

 black without burning the cloth, and found it at 

 length in South Uist, where, indeed, they make 

 a fine black with it. I hope to have the pleasure 

 of showing it to your lordship in great plenty in 



