HIGHLAND CIVILIZATION.

445

the exaggerated accounts of Dr. Johnson, which, flowing from the proud and unbending prejudice of a high authority, attracted the attention of the world to the condition of the north; the emigration of so many families, which alarmed the Government, and taught the rich to attend more to the comfortable employment of the poor at home; the great periodical visits of the gay and the opulent from the south, in pursuit of game or pleasure; the valuable elucidation of the coasts; the careful soundings of the channels; an indefatigable attention to the fisheries; the increased demand for kelp; the various societies which have made the amelioration of the condition of the Highlanders the object of their noble zeal ;---all these, and other and minor circumstances, in conjunction with the moral and national qualities of the people, have effected a change in their local character, which, I am informed, is truly astonishing to those who have the power of comparing what the Highlanders are, with what they were a few years since.

1

The Highlanders, after the rebellion, for a long time were prevented, by a severe, but perhaps necessary, provision of the Legislature, from wearing arms. This painful badge of disloyalty has been wisely removed by an Act to repeal the Statute which imposed the deprivation. Indeed his Majesty has not now to learn, that he could not place arms in the hands of any of his subjects more disposed to use them with intre

446

SCOTTISH LOYALTY.

pidity in the cause of loyalty. For the Scotch it may be said, that

"Their swords are a thousand, their bosoms but one."

It is generally believed that the Highlanders still preserve some vestiges of juridical forms peculiar to themselves, particularly with regard to the administration of an oath. Before the Union, a Highlander, upon his being sworn, did not kiss the Bible; but, holding up his right hand, repeated, "By God himself, and as I shall answer to God at the great day, I shall speak the truth. If I do not, may I never thrive while I live; may I go to hell, and be damned, when I die! May my land neither bear grass nor corn; may my wife and bairns never prosper! May my cows, calves, sheep, and lambs, all perish!" &c.

A Highlander, offering to appear as a witness against a delinquent, previously to his examination before a magistrate, was tendered the Low-Country oath, which, in consequence of his showing an eagerness to take, induced the magistrate to suspect that he was a Highlander, and suborned, upon which he changed his proceeding, and tendered him the Highland oath, when the man objected to swear at all, observing, that "Thar is a hautle o' difference betwixt blawing on a buke, and dam'ing one's saul." This parti

HIGHLAND OATH.

447

cular form has long been abolished, and only one form of oath now obtains in the courts of law in Scotland, viz. "I swear by Almighty God, and as I shall answer to God at the great day of judgment, I will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, as far as I know and shall be asked in this cause."

Formerly, when one clan went out to fight against another, a tune was played, which imported " To conquer or die," and all those who rallied were considered to be under a pledge equal to an oath.

With respect to the trades in the Highlands being hereditary by parental coercion, as far as I could learn no such coercion exists; and the same remark will apply with regard to religion. The trade of the father is frequently and generally followed by one of his sons, if he has more than one, as is often the case in England, from the influence of example and early direction.

The inns in the Highlands are much improved since Dr. Johnson's tour amongst them. Boswell mentions that they scarcely ever had bed-sheets. I was at many of these resting-places, and almost always had them, though not disposed at all times to enter them.

CHAP. XXIV.

HIGHLAND DRESS, ANCIENT AND MODERN-PIETY OF ANCIENT CHIEFTAINS DRY CLOTHES IN WET WEATHER A FOOLISH LAW REPEALED - HIGHLAND GENTLEMEN'S HOUSES-ANECDOTE-ESTABLISHMENT OF ANCIENT CHIEFTAINS ANECDOTE

OF A HAUNCHMAN-SECOND SIGHT-DR. JOHNSON-WITCHES -ANIMAL MAGNETISM-DIVINE REVELATION-GLAMOur, or SUPERSTITION- A VILLAGE SEER

BAD SIGHT HIGHLAND EMIGRATION-OLD HIGHLAND FARMERS-HIGHLAND GRAZING

RECRUITING SERVICE IN THE HIGHLANDS

HIGHLANDS

ADAPTED TO MANUFACTURES.

THE Highland dress is very manly and graceful, though it appears to be declining; when I expected to have seen it entire, I found it yielding, as it were piecemeal, to the habiliments of the south. Few gentlemen, except when they are sporting or farming, wear the kilt; the belted plaid is scarcely ever worn. The Scottish bonnet is also disappearing. It appears by history that the hat, and not the blue bonnet, used formerly to be the fashionable covering of the heads of the men. In an ancient ballad, commemorating the loss of several Scottish nobles in the Forth, in an expedition

HIGHLAND DRESS.

449

on which they were sent out in stormy weather, under Sir Patrick Spence, there is this verse :

About eighty years since, a Highland gentleman was seen without shoes, stockings, or breeches, in a short coat with a skirt, that just peeped below it, and scarcely concealed what decency seldom exposes in any country, although in his family he had daughters arrived at womanhood; at present, in the same rank of life, the greatest decorum of dress is observed. The undress of the gentlemen is generally a short coat of tartan, and trowsers of the same stuff. The females of respectability dress precisely as our ladies do. The dress of the common people of both sexes, in most parts of the Highlands, is made of a thin coarse woollen cloth, which they make and die of indigo colour blue. The men generally wear waistcoats and sometimes trowsers of the same stuff, or cloth, and beaver hats. They also frequently have a plaid in folds, part girt round the waist, to form a sort of short petticoat to reach half-way down the thighs, and the rest thrown over the shoulder, and fastened below the neck. Brogues and short tartan stockings are also much used. The very poor wear what are called mire