104 TOUR IX THE WESTERN ISLES. 



' Billy Pitt/ So that from hence wherever we go 

 I am believed to be related to that 'excellent min- 

 ister/ You cannot conceive, therefore, how all these 

 items procured me respect and worship ; all the 

 island was at my nod in a second. While tea was 

 preparing, I marshalled them thus : servants at my 

 elbow, for aides-de-camp; provender in the rear; 

 male natives in front ; female ditto at some dis- 

 tance from our gentlemen a most necessary precau- 

 tion to prevent jealousy. To each native I distri- 

 buted a ration of tobacco and a dram their two 

 greatest prizes, though neither had been in the 

 island for two and a half years. We then drank 

 tea and fine milk till three in the morning. Several 

 of ours went to bed ; others slumbered over the fire. 

 I sat up with the clergyman, whom I instantly put 

 under the question, and talked over on all topics 

 (insular ones) till near five o'clock, when we sallied 

 forth to view the island in four different parties, the 

 priest with us. And now for the first time we had 

 a view of the city. Conceive, if you can, a sort of 

 green bosom, at a quarter of a mile's distance, with 

 steep green mountains, and on one side with a fine 

 bay opening into rocky scenery; at one corner the 

 dreadful pass, which I described before, and which 

 appeared almost as bad by daylight. The rest of 

 the scene is all ludicrous. The green bosom is di- 

 vided into 400 'rip' or fields of barley and oats and 

 potatoes 25 feet %3! in the centre several green 

 tufts of grassy sod, upon heaps of loose stones these 



