We passed over a spot, which is appropriated for the exercising
ground. In 1745, a hundred fighting men were reviewed here, as Malcolm
told me, who was one of the officers that led them to the field[505].
They returned home all but about fourteen. What a princely thing is it
to be able to furnish such a band! Rasay has the true spirit of a chief.
He is, without exaggeration, a father to his people.
There is plenty of lime-stone in the island, a great quarry of
free-stone, and some natural woods, but none of any age, as they cut the
trees for common country uses. The lakes, of which there are many, are
well stocked with trout. Malcolm catched one of four-and-twenty pounds
weight in the loch next to Dun Can, which, by the way, is certainly a
Danish name, as most names of places in these islands are.
The old castle, in which the family of Rasay formerly resided, is
situated upon a rock very near the sea. The rock is not one mass of
stone, but a concretion of pebbles and earth, so firm that it does not
appear to have mouldered. In this remnant of antiquity I found nothing
worthy of being noticed, except a certain accommodation rarely to be
found at the modern houses of Scotland, and which Dr. Johnson and I
sought for in vain at the Laird of Rasay's new built mansion, where
nothing else was wanting. I took the liberty to tell the Laird it was a
shame there should be such a deficiency in civilized times.
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