The Laird insists that this is the proper name. It was formerly
church-land belonging to Icolmkill, and a hermit lived in it. It is two
miles long, and about three quarters of a mile broad. The Laird said, he
had seven score of souls upon it. Last year he had eighty persons
inoculated, mostly children, but some of them eighteen years of age. He
agreed with the surgeon to come and do it, at half a crown a head. It is
very fertile in corn, of which they export some; and its coasts abound
in fish. A taylor comes there six times in a year. They get a good
blacksmith from the isle of Egg.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19.
It was rather worse weather than any that we had yet. At breakfast Dr.
Johnson said, 'Some cunning men choose fools for their wives, thinking
to manage them, but they always fail. There is a spaniel fool and a mule
fool. The spaniel fool may be made to do by beating. The mule fool will
neither do by words or blows; and the spaniel fool often turns mule at
last: and suppose a fool to be made do pretty well, you must have the
continual trouble of making her do. Depend upon it, no woman is the
worse for sense and knowledge.[623]' Whether afterwards he meant merely
to say a polite thing, or to give his opinion, I could not be sure; but
he added, 'Men know that women are an over-match for them, and therefore
they choose the weakest or most ignorant.
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