M'Leod was so
much captivated by his eloquence, that she told me 'I was a good
advocate for a bad cause.'
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24.
This was a good day. Dr. Johnson told us, at breakfast, that he rode
harder at a fox chace than any body[695]. 'The English (said he) are the
only nation who ride hard a-hunting. A Frenchman goes out, upon a
managed[696] horse, and capers in the field, and no more thinks of
leaping a hedge than of mounting a breach. Lord Powerscourt laid a
wager, in France, that he would ride a great many miles in a certain
short time. The French academicians set to work, and calculated that,
from the resistance of the air, it was impossible. His lordship however
performed it.'
Our money being nearly exhausted, we sent a bill for thirty pounds,
drawn on Sir William Forbes and Co.[697], to Lochbraccadale, but our
messenger found it very difficult to procure cash for it; at length,
however, he got us value from the master of a vessel which was to carry
away some emigrants. There is a great scarcity of specie in Sky[698].
Mr. M'Queen said he had the utmost difficulty to pay his servants'
wages, or to pay for any little thing which he has to buy. The rents are
paid in bills[699], which the drovers give. The people consume a vast
deal of snuff and tobacco, for which they must pay ready money; and
pedlars, who come about selling goods, as there is not a shop in the
island, carry away the cash.
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