Whiskey was served
round in a shell, according to the ancient Highland custom. Dr. Johnson
would not partake of it; but, being desirous to do honour to the modes
'of other times,' drank some water out of the shell.
In the forenoon Dr. Johnson said, 'it would require great resignation to
live in one of these islands.' BOSWELL. 'I don't know, Sir; I have felt
myself at times in a state of almost mere physical existence, satisfied
to eat, drink, and sleep, and walk about, and enjoy my own thoughts; and
I can figure a continuation of this.' JOHNSON. 'Ay, Sir; but if you were
shut up here, your own thoughts would torment you. You would think of
Edinburgh or London, and that you could not be there.'
We set out after dinner for _Breacacha_, the family seat of the Laird of
Col, accompanied by the young laird, who had now got a horse, and by the
younger Mr. M'Sweyn, whose wife had gone thither before us, to prepare
every thing for our reception, the laird and his family being absent at
Aberdeen. It is called _Breacacha_, or the Spotted Field, because in
summer it is enamelled with clover and daisies, as young Col told me. We
passed by a place where there is a very large stone, I may call it a
_rock_;--'a vast weight for Ajax[789].' The tradition is, that a giant
threw such another stone at his mistress, up to the top of a hill, at a
small distance; and that she in return, threw this mass down to
him[790].
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