THE HIGHLANDS. 131 



check their predatory inroads. Their mountains not 

 affording them the means of fubfiftcnce, and being 

 utterly unacquainted with the arts of civil life, they 

 partly lived by plunder and the fpoils of the unpro* 

 tected frontiers. Having concerted the plan of 

 operations, they ifTiied forth in the night time, flept 

 amidft the heaths and rocks through the day, and 

 thus reaching the fcene of action, while mankind 

 were at reft, they drove off the cattle and fheep into 

 the defiles and labyrinths of the mountains, far be- 

 yond the reach of purfuit, with any profpedt of fuc- 

 cefs, or perfonal fafety.* 



Thofe habits having been handed down from 

 father to fon, were confidered as laudable induftry, 

 the incumbent duty of the young and the brave* 

 the atchievements of valour, by which lovers re- 

 commended themfelves to the favour of their mif- 

 trefies j and fo far were the Highlanders from hav- 

 ing any idea of criminality in fuch practices, that 

 prayers were made to heaven for fuccefs to every 

 intended enterprize, and for the fafe return of thofe 

 who were to embark in them. The parent who 

 could not beftow much dowry with his daughter 

 upon her marriage, confoled the bridegroom with the 

 produce of the next full moon, and thus he por- 

 tioned off his family, f 



Such were the mariners and modes of life in the 

 Highlands, fo late as the year 1748, when the le- 



* Thefe irregularities were not, however, univerfal in later 

 limes. Theeltatesof Argyle, Breadalbane, Athole, Gordon, Sun- 

 derland, and other great proprietors, were plundered equally with 

 thole of the Low Countries. 



A Rob Roy, Glengyle, and other petty lairds, countenanced thefe 

 practices amongil their tenants, in order to extort a contribution from 

 their neighbours, on pretence of protecting their cattle. They 

 collected their tribute annually in money and meal, and were re- 

 markably faithful to their engagements. 



f " The law hath come the length of Rofsfhtre, " faid one 

 neighbour, by way of news, to another ; *' O ho ! " replied he-. 

 ** ii God doth not ftop it, you will foon have it nearer home. " 

 very clan had, however, laws of their own enacting, to which they 

 paid implicit obedience. Thefe laws were few and general, and 

 Itrongly mark the fimplkify of rude ages, 



.1 a giflature 



