218 REMINISCENCES OF THE LEWS. 



should not go to town for the season, were I a 

 Lewisian, at that particular time of the year. 



The herring season was the stirring season 

 of Stornoway, which at other times was not ex- 

 ceedingly animating. I had many friends there, 

 who were always most kind and hospitable, too 

 much almost for one unaccustomed to their 

 mode of life. Stornoway is not given to early 

 rising, and when I come to describe life there, 

 this will be accounted for. 



Whatever Scotch breakfasts are in the Low- 

 lands and in the grand Highland counties, cer- 

 tainly in the far north I can't say much for 

 them. To make a good breakfast you must 

 have good provisions ; and in Stornoway, unless 

 imported, they are not first-rate. And what- 

 ever people may say, salt-fish, and ling, and 

 cod, and Scotch ham and eggs, are not exactly 

 appetisant ; and so I presume the Hebridean 

 thinks, for he is never in a hurry for his break- 

 fast. Wise man ! he knows what it is going to 

 be. Therefore you seldom see it before ten, 

 and then, in order to prepare for it, you are, 

 before setting down, invited to some bitters — 

 i.e. 9 a stifi* glass of whisky with something in 

 it, bitter and detestable enough to set your 

 teeth on edge, and which does so astonish your 

 poor little stomach that nothing it can possibly 



