i.0 MEMOIR OP DR. WALKER. 
room, where a wheel was scarce ever known before. 
They seemed quite happy at their work, and all 
joined in a Highland song, which gave me more 
pleasure, if it be safe to own such an unpolite no- 
tion, than any concert I was ever present at. 
“ The spinning-mistress, who is a woman from 
Fife, I found under real, I may say, bodily amaze- 
ment, at the quick apprehension and docility of her 
scholars, who, though they understood not her lan- 
guage, comprehended in a day or two every thing 
she meant. I w-as not, however, so much surprised 
at this as the good woman seemed to be, having 
been for two months past more and more convinced, 
that the mind of man is to be observed more and 
more perfect as one moves northwards ; that a pene- 
trating air seems to produce penetrating souls, and 
that wind and weather, the keener they are, appear 
to give the sharper edge to the human understand- 
ing. 
“ I have met witli a strong confirmation of my 
notion of raising hemp in the Western Islands. I 
was on Tuesday last on board of a herring-buss on 
Loch Shell, bound from Stornoway to the rendez- 
vous at Campbelton, whose nets are wholly made 
of hemp which grew in the Lew T es ; but there is not 
a stalk of it in any other of the islands. 
“ I inquired carefully after the plant which dyes 
black without burning the cloth, and found it at 
length in South Uist, where, indeed, they make 
a fine black with it. I hope to have the pleasure 
of showing it to your lordship in great plenty in 
