CHAPTER VII 



THE LEWS 



I SHALL now have a good deal to say about the Lews, 

 and I may mention that the oldest story that I know 

 concerning that interesting island is the following: 



About 1780 Lord Seaforth persuaded my grandfather, 

 Sir Hector, to accompany him over to Stornoway. The 

 Seaforth Lodge, which then stood nearly on the site of 

 the present castle, happening not to be in a very good 

 state of repair for the reception of its owner and his 

 guest, they repaired to the Stornoway Inn, and a queer 

 sort of hole it must have been in those days. It was a 

 great day for the landlady, and she did her very besir. 

 For dinner she proudly uncovered a big dish of boiled 

 grouse, but nearly fainted at the outcry made by his 

 lordship on seeing that his grouse had been poached 

 in May ! 



Let me now quote my uncle's experience of a Storno- 

 way whale-hunt: 



*' One day when I was fishing for salmon in the Ewe 



a lawyer came to me with a letter from a political coterie 



saying a county election was imminent, and I found it 



was decided that I was the proper party to go with this 



limb of the law to canvass the voters in a distant island, 



as being well known by name, person, or reputation to 



them all. A yacht waited to carry me there and back 



98 



