I had desired to visit the Hebrides, or Western
Islands of Scotland, so long, that I scarcely remember how the wish was originally
excited; and was in the Autumn of the year 1773 induced to undertake the journey, by
finding in Mr. Boswell a companion, whose acuteness would help my inquiry, and whose
gaiety of conversation and civility of manners are sufficient to counteract the
inconveniences of travel, in countries less hospitable than we have passed.On the eighteenth of August we left Edinburgh, a city too well known to admit
description, and directed our course northward, along the eastern coast of Scotland,
accompanied the first day by another gentleman, who could stay with us only long enough to
shew us how much we lost at separation.
As we crossed the Frith of Forth, our curiosity was attracted by
Inch Keith, a small island, which neither of my companions had ever visited, though, lying
within their view, it had all their lives solicited their notice. Here, by climbing with
some difficulty over shattered crags, we made the first experiment of unfrequented coasts.
Inch Keith is nothing more than a rock covered with a thin layer of earth, not wholly bare
of grass, and very fertile of thistles. A small herd of cows grazes annually upon it in
the summer. It seems never to have afforded to man or beast a permanent habitation.
We found only the ruins of a small fort, not so injured by time but
that it might be easily restored to its former state. It seems never to have been intended
as a place of strength, nor was built to endure a siege, but merely to afford cover to a
few soldiers, who perhaps had the charge of a battery, or were stationed to give signals
of approaching danger. There is therefore no provision of water within the walls, though
the spring is so near, that it might have been easily enclosed. One of the stones had this
inscription: 'Maria Reg. 1564.' It has probably been neglected from the time that the
whole island had the same king.
We left this little island with our thoughts employed awhile on the
different appearance that it would have made, if it had been placed at the same distance
from London, with the same facility of approach; with what emulation of price a few rocky
acres would have been purchased, and with what expensive industry they would have been
cultivated and adorned.
When we landed, we found our chaise ready, and passed through
Kinghorn, Kirkaldy, and Cowpar, places not unlike the small or straggling market-towns in
those parts of England where commerce and manufactures have not yet produced opulence.
Though we were yet in the most populous part of Scotland, and at so small a distance from
the capital, we met few passengers.
The roads are neither rough nor dirty; and it affords a southern
stranger a new kind of pleasure to travel so commodiously without the interruption of
toll-gates. Where the bottom is rocky, as it seems commonly to be in Scotland, a smooth
way is made indeed with great labour, but it never wants repairs; and in those parts where
adventitious materials are necessary, the ground once consolidated is rarely broken; for
the inland commerce is not great, nor are heavy commodities often transported otherwise
than by water. The carriages in common use are small carts, drawn each by one little
horse; and a man seems to derive some degree of dignity and importance from the reputation
of possessing a two-horse cart.
