their attachment to their most useless and most injurious usages. Having procured horses in the evening, we set out set out by Kilmartine to view the remains of Carnassary Castle, founded by Bishop Carswell.* On our way we observed a Druidical circle consisting of thirteen stones, none of them very large, in a state of great perfection. Advancing, we saw by the roadside a very large tumulus or cromlech of small stones, many of which had been removed from one side and exposed the interior central vault, which I entered and found vaulted with large stones and terminated by a tall rough standing stone, like that which is frequently seen standing alone in fields. The vaulted chamber or pit in the centre of the tumulus is about the size of a large grave. * John Carswell, Bishop of Argyle and the Isles, author of a Gaelic translation of Knox's Liturgy (Edin. 1567), the first book printed in that language. Carnassary Castle displays great elegance of structure for the time of its erection. It is rather a strong house of defence than a castle, and combines elegance with strength better than any ruin I have seen. The finishing of the windows, the staircase, and various borders and cornices, are conceived with great happiness. I could not perceive any vestiges of inscription, but the evening was too far advanced when we viewed it. The common people still repeat proverbial distichs in Gaelic concerning Carswell, one of which appeared to be satirical, and was translated, "Was not Carswell a strong man who required five quarters of cloth to his hose, though he paid his labouring masons with a plack per day." August 7.-I visited the ancient Castle of Duntroon this morning. It is a very clumsy, inelegant structure, and has been modernised by Mr Malcolm to very little advantage, as the walls, of seven feet in thickness, resist every attempt to alleviate the prison-like gloom which they throw around them. It stands upon a high rock upon Loch Crinan-side, and is defended towards the land by a strong courtyard. Having procured a boat, we coasted directly to Oban without perceiving any object of importance except some very beautiful walls of horizontal basalt, between Easdale and Oban, which we had not hitherto had an opportunity of observing. On the shores of Knapdale, Jura, and various parts of Argyleshire, the manufacture of kelp has been carried on to great advantage during the war with Spain. It is sold at present for twelve guineas per ton, but in time of peace it is only worth five, as it is almost superseded by the Spanish barilla. The agriculture of lower Lorn is susceptible of very great improvement; much waste land might be cultivated at little expense, and very good corn land is barely scratched with the light trivial Scotish plough. In many places the distillation of whiskey presents an irresistible temptation to the poorer classes, as the boll of barley, which costs thirty shillings, produces by this process, when the whiskey is smuggled, between five and six guineas. This distillation has had the most ruinous effects in increasing the scarcity of grain last year, particularly in Isla and Tiree, where the people have subsisted chiefly on fish and potatoes. Mr Campbell of Ross informed me that, when young, he recollected to have heard the poems of Ossian recited several successive evenings for several hours by some shepherds in Perthshire; but he did not remember the titles of the poems, nor could he say whether they had ever been translated. TO DR R[OBERT] A[NDERSON]. OBAN, August 11, 1800. spirits, listening to the sound of a bagpipe and the dunning of some very alert Highlanders dancing the Highland Fling with great glee. Though I have acquired a few Gaelic words and phrases, I am really in considerable danger of mistaking the house where I write for the tower of Babel, for such a jargon of sounds as that produced by a riotous company bawling Gaelic songs and chattering something very like Billingsgate, blending with English oaths and the humstrum of a Highland bagpipe, seldom assails any ears but those of the damned. No |