358 A FARMER'S YEAR 



the steamer go hooting past. It is told, indeed, that people 

 have been detained for six weeks ; but this was in the old days 

 of the sailing packet, when there was no possibility of commu- 

 nicating with other shores even by telegraph. As the boatmen, 

 however, were of opinion that the steamer would put in, we 

 followed the mails and luggage into a large flat-bottomed boat 

 and were rowed away across the harbour to the shelter of some 

 rocks upon the further side. Here we lay for three-quarters of an 

 hour or more, until, to our relief, we heard the FingaVs siren 

 going beyond the point, and knew that thereby she was warning 

 us to be ready. 



Presently in she came and dropped anchor, and we started 

 towards her, pitching and tossing across the stormy water. It 

 requires a good deal of skill to bring a boat alongside without 

 accident in such heavy weather, and when he jumps for the vessel 

 as she rolls towards him the passenger needs agility and decision. 

 However, we all scrambled aboard without mishap, and steamed 

 to Oban in pouring rain. 



And so good-bye to the Hebrides and holidays. ' Coll for my 

 money,' said Dr. Johnson before he had been there and after 

 experience heartily do I endorse his remark. It is a delightful spot, 

 and, to say nothing of much kindness, he who sojourns there 

 meets Nature face to face. 



September 29. Yesterday I arrived at Upp Hall, in Hertford- 

 shire, and to-day I walked with my host, Mr. Charles Longman, 

 to inspect a neighbouring farm. Leaving Oban in pouring rain, I 

 find the home counties absolutely dried up by drought. The swede 

 crop is blue with blight, few of the bulbs being larger than apples ; 

 a strange contrast indeed to the magnificent roots which I saw 

 in Coll. The mangolds also are going back, and the land is so 

 hard that no plough can work the fields. As we passed, two horses 

 were dragging a harrow over a^ploughed fallow, and I could see 

 that they simply spent their strength in turning the lumps of soil 

 without breaking up one of them. It is not, however, the lack 



