92 EARLY LIFE, 



of Leinster's daughter. He had attended the Col- 

 lege of Glasgow under Professor Miller, and occasion- 

 ally came to Edinburgh, where I became acquainted 

 with him. Charles Stuart, who was at Glasgow 

 under Professor Young, also knew him, and joined 

 the expedition. * Its purpose was to visit Iceland, 

 and examine the various objects of interest in that 

 island. But after cruising about the Western Islands, 

 lona, Staffa, St Kilda, and others, it appeared to 

 Stuart and myself manifest that the season was too 

 far advanced, and that the voyage to Iceland must 

 be given up, as in fact proved to be the case. While, 

 however, we were among the Western Isles, I wrote 

 the following letters to my kinsman, Lord Kobert- 

 son : 



"ISLAY, August , 1799. 



" MY DEAR SIK, Here we are safely moored in a 

 comfortable berth, for which we gladly exchanged our 

 good ship and bad cabins. You must excuse various 

 things in this letter, want of arrangement, poverty of 

 matter, and bad, or at least careless, style. As for the 

 egotism of the epistle, debit it all to the traveller, and 

 to my confidence in the interest which you are pleased 

 to take in my rambles. 



" We made a much longer stay in Glasgow than I 

 either wished or expected. Gents of 16,000 per an- 

 num are always in a hurry, and do little always busy, 

 and lose time. However, I believe you will agree 

 with me in thinking my time neither disagreeably 



* See Appendix XII. 



