INDEX. Page . . . . . 575, 690 . . . . Page 799 Holy Scriptures (Literary Characteristics of the), 412 Home Colonisation and Emigration ; by Goodwyn Barnby, 266 69 701 1 Howitt's Homes and Haunts of the Poets, Australia and New Zealand (Savage Life and Scenes Iberia Won, 566 130 Imperial Parliament and Ireland, Authors, Female ; by George Gilfillan, 359, 620, 850 Ireland and the Irish, 636 125 Ireland and her Present Necessities; by John O'Con- Bartenau, Panline, the Huguenot's Daughter, 595 nell, M.P., . Battle of Life and Mrs. Perkins's Ball, Brazil (Travels in the Interior of), 425 Buchapites (The), from First to Last, Bundelkund, Descriptive Sketch of, 184, 535 447 Lion and the Panther; by Percy B. St. John, 810 269 Literary History (Schlosser's) of the Eighteenth Campbell's (Lord) Lives of the English Chancellors, 26,88 Century; by Thomas De Quincey, Carlisle in 1745, 259 Child of Poverty, 765 678 MacDermots of Ballycloran, Copenhagen, 775 Counsellor's Family; by Madame Wolfensberger, 221 Crabbe, George ; by George Gilillan, 141 Milton *versus Southey and Landor, 202 Miranda: a Tale of the French Revolution ; by Percy Cromwell, Dr. Merle D'Aubigné's Life of, 459 Napoleon, Letters and Despatches of, Daniel, Late Robert Mackenzie, Dekkan, Impending Revolution in the, Direct Taxation and the Suffrage, 408 383 ruary, 1815, Education of the People (M. Willm and Professor Orthographic Mutineers; by Thomas De Quincey, 157 Educational Institute of Scotland, 371 289 | Pension List, Leigh Hunt on the; by George Gilfil- 284 522 410 Peru (History of the Conquest of), Favourite Haunts and Rural Studies, Fisher's Drawing-Room Scrap Book, 62 Politics of the Month, 65, 137, 285, 428, 500, 573, 641, 715, Florentine History, 789, 868 472 4 Pretty Mary; by John Merwyl, 111, 208 748, 821 Repeal of the Union, Notes on Mr. John O'Connell's Gleams of Thought, 117, 211 104 Residence in Portugal (Journal of a few months”), 496 Highland Wildernesses, 627 Rough Recollections of Rambles Abroad and at Home, 413 . . . . 513, 601 . Russia's Internal Life, 372 708 I Two Millionaires; translated from the German of 294, 306, 131, 503, 612, 633, 735, 733 Zschoske, by Sarah Fry, Secret Societies : by Thomas De Quincey, Ulster Teorini-Right, 46 ::6: War, Rance of; or the Highlanders in Spain, 178 564 Watson's (W. W. F.) Historical Portraits, Auto- Slobberly Hall, 855 Spain, Nautico-Military Nun of; by Thomas De Wayfaring Sketches among the Greeks and Turks, 786 324, 309, 431 Western asia, Condition and Prospects of, Speculative Philosophy, 097 24 | What is to be done with Ireland ? 790 :370) Willingham, Story of Luke; by Hannah Lawrance, 147 121 Wilson, Esq. (Thomas), Life and Character of, 420 Tennyson, Alfred; by George Gillillan, Tbeoria, 315 Thomas Chalmers and Daniel O'Connell, 413 Zelinda; or the Converted One, Thornton's (Mrs.) “ Truth and Falsehool," 238 234 . . . . Address to Crossfell, 332 The Death of the Poet, An Evening Reverie, The Exile of Culloden, 467 The Famine Stricken, 670 The Food-Rioter Banished, 41, 156 i The Infant Year, 171 The Inward Voice, 000 The Legend of Chambercombe, Chrysohoe, 273 The Lonely Oak, 052 The Magnolia of Mailliendiere, 310 The Song of the Locomotive, 774 The Sycamores of Scotland, “Good Niglit" and " Farewell," Lines on seeing a Painting of an Ancient Grecian This is Life, 632 Tombs of the Constantines, Night Thoughts, 376 | To My Study, 177 | To the Right Hon. the Earl of The Bereaved One, 778 “ Truth is at the Bottom of a Well,' The Burial of Richter, 268 Verses, The Corn Field, 471 Woman's Morn, Noon, and Evening, . 87 387 EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. JANUARY, 1817. A VISIT TO AUCH MELVICII. BY SIR THOMAS DICK LAUDER, BART. The site of the little township of Auch Melvich, I low rocky hillocks which shut it in from Loch in Sutherland, is, perhaps, one of the most sin- Roe, to the south, opened a passage for its evagular of the many spots which have been occupied cuation in that direction, and thus rendered its by thriving hamlets and villages around the ex- broad surface easily available for cultivation, by tensive coasts of that interesting country. It is the inhabitants of the cottages among whom it in the district of Assynt; and although we shall was lotted out, so that it now forms the most imattempt to describe it to the best of our power, portant and valuable part of their little agriculyet we have no great hope of doing so with such tural domain. success as to place it very vividly before the ima- Nothing can be more wild, or romantic, than gination of our readers. It consists of a con- the approach to this retired but populous little siderable cluster of cottages, flanking either side place, from the open sea. We had the good forof narrow, tortuous, irregular ways, which, as yet, tune to go thither, in company with the noble cannot very well claim the title of streets, and proprietor himself, whose sole enjoyment, during which run hither and thither over a gently swell- his annual residence of some months in Suthering, sandy piece of ground, chiefly covered with land, consists in devoting his time to visiting bent grass. This slopes easily towards the north every village, hamlet, and, we may almost say, into a flat, formed of the same white calcareous cottage, in his widely-extended territories. When sand, all of which has been accumulated by the we had the honour of meeting him, some little wind drifting it inwards from the shelly shore of time ago, at Loch Inver, he had already been a bay which bounds it in that direction. To the through all the townships on his northern coasts, west the hamlet is sheltered from the sea by a doing good wherever he went, and he was now range of high grounds, running from this bay on engaged in the same work of love and benevothe north to the entrance of Loch Roe on the lence with regard to those of his western coasts. south. These present rugged, rocky points to Although now somewhat advanced in life, and, the ocean; and their eastern side, towards the we regret to say, with health and a frame by no hamlet, affords a perfeet sample of the general means very robust, the anxiety and solicitude he face of the Assynt country, being very irregular displays in inquiring, personally, into the wants in its surface, and covered with rounded blisters of his people, and the pleasure he takes in making of primitive rock, rising all over it in numerous provision for all their little requirements, leads krolls, and having the intervening hollows all him to undergo fatigue upon these occasions ealtivated, in patches of oats, bear, and pota- which might be supposed to be greatly beyond toes, so that not even the smallest portion of soil, his strength. When bent on such errands, he not of a few feet square, is left without culture. only appears indefatigable, both in boating and. These bright green spots, which are of the most in walking, but he seems to care little for stormy whimsical shapes, some of them being like polypi, weather or weeping skies, and, defended by an and others like stockings, or shirts, or other more oilskin coat, he sits in the stern of his boat, unmentionable articles of apparel, give a most bounding over the billows, or he makes his way extraordinary appearance to the general face of over the rugged hillocks and boggy ground, in the hill side, whilst they speak well for the in- defiance of all such impediments, and with an dustry of the people by whose hands they were activity hardly to be expected from his years. erected. To the east of the hamlet the moun- We mean to give a short sketch of that visit to tain rises in a bold craggy steep, where Nature Auch Melvich, in which we accompanied him, for, bids defiance to the efforts of man to put any simple as the narration may be, we are led to betrace of his dominion upon it. To the south of lieve that it may be gratifying to the philanthrothe hamlet there lies a considerable mossy flat, of pist; and it affords a fair specimen of his daily a circular form, surrounded by the features we life during the whole of the time he spends in have described. This is the dried alveus of a Sutherland. fresh-water lake, which occupied it until within Having sailed from Loch Inver in a little yacht, these few years back, when the Duke of Suther- we got into the boat, and rowed into the small land, by cutting, at his own expense, through the haven of Bad-na-brad, just within the southern A TOL, X1,-0. CLVII. horn of the Loch, which we had taken upon us to we returned and proceeded to the place where suggest to his Grace as a fit and proper place for the people were assembled, and there landed. the establishment of a fishing station, and around The moment the Duke put his foot on shore, he which some comfortable detached cottages and was surrounded by men, women, and children, patches of cultivation had already begun to show their countenances beaming with joy and delight symptoms of its aptitude for the formation of a to behold him, and blessings were poured out settlement. We mention this place, however, by upon their benefactor's head from all mouths, the way, for no other reason than to enable us to both in Gaelic and in English, as they pressed notice a circumstance which occurred as we were eagerly towards him. His eyes glistened with berowing in towards its shore. Pointing to one of the nevolence as he kindly returned their salutations; cottages at some distance inland, the Duke asked and, as they lighted on old friends among those his factor—“Pray, Mr. MacIver, did you give the around him, he readily recognised them, and adman who lives in that house,” naming him, “ the dressing them individually by their names, he wood I promised him last year, for the roof of his shook hands cordially with them, and inquired byre?” The circumstanceof wood having been pro- after their own health, and that of the various mised to another man inhabiting a different cottage members of their families. It has been our lot, having occurred at the moment to the factor's mind, in this life, more than once to witness well-perto the exclusion of the other, he pointed to it, and formed scenes of interchange of feigned affection, said—“ That was the house where your Grace but this was a sight, indeed, most pleasant to bepromised the wood.”- —“True,” replied the Duke, hold ; for here there was no acting on either “ I promised wood there too, but it was for a side. The outpouring of feeling was general different purpose ; and I remember you after- from every breast. The effect was extremely wards told me that the man had got it. But I touching, and, for our part, we are by no means likewise recollect promising the man who lives in ashamed to confess that we experienced a certain that house wood for the roof of his byre, and, you grappling at our throat, and a dimness in our know, I like to keep my word.” The circum- eyes, as we stood aside in gratified observation of stances regarding this promise then recurred to the pleasing scene. the memory of the factor, and the Duke was sa- As the good man--for high as is his rank, this tisfied by learning that it had been duly ful- is the well-merited title which does him most filled. When we find that three straight lines honour—as the good man, we say, proceeded drawn with a ruler outside of the headlands over the rugged, rocky pathway, which wound of the west, north, and south-east coasts of among the hillocks, towards Auch Melvich, folthe map of Sutherland, would measure about lowed and pressed upon by the elders of its town120 miles ; and when we consider the many ship, and stopping at every two or three yards of large lochs, bays, and inlets which cut every- the way, as his unfortunate deafness compelled where into that wild and picturesque country, him to do, in order to listen to their petitions, or it will appear that a chain carried all round to whatsoever they might have to say to him, the high-water mark of its several coasts would that he might the more certainly and correctly produce a measurement probably four or five gather their words, he was besieged by a tall, times that number of miles ; and when we think wiry, scraggy-necked, sharp-visaged, and very of the numerous townships, thickly clustered with impudent-looking woman, who, in defiance of the houses, with which these so extensive coasts are narrowness and unevenness of the way, forced everywhere planted, the little anecdote we have herself close up to him, and strode, and hopped just mentioned will not appear altogether insig- over the stones and bushes, so as to jostle out nificant, when taken in proof of the strong in- every one else, and to maintain her own unriterest which the Duke feels in the welfare of his valled proximity to his side, and with her mouth people, and the wonderful memory he displays in thrust, every now and then, quite into his ear, treasuring up every little circumstance that may she, with a voice that resembled the grinding of contribute to their comfort. flints, shrieked into it, in one continued discharge As the Duke's visit to the township of Auch of impertinent questions, and fulsome compliMelvich had been, in some measure, expected by ments regarding him and his family, and espeits inhabitants, we had no sooner rounded the cially regarding his two elder sons, who were prehigh head called Ard Roe, and entered the nar- sent, which, without waiting for replies, flew faster row passage that leads into the romantic Loch from her mouth than the shots from the steamRoe, than we descried a crowd of the people stand-gun. So offensive an annoyance as this appeared ing on the rocks near a landing place on its to us to be much more than any mortal, howerer northern side, close to the spot where the cut was patient, could have well borne ; but although he made for the discharge of the Auch Melvich lake. who suffered under it seemed to feel it to its fullest They seemed to be in a state of eager expecta- extent, yet his good nature never gave way under tion. After rowing about for some time, to en- it, and, smiling as he went, he bore his persecujoy the beauties of Loch Roe, and to inspect its tion with a meekness and a mildness that was as interesting shores, during which we visited most wonderful as it was exemplary, till the hag was at of its retired bays, and threaded the narrow last indignantly elbowed out of her position by channel that runs up among the rocks at its some of the more resolute of the elder men, and upper end, till we got quite into a beautiful he was thus relieved from the infliction of her fresh-water lake, there communicating with it, more immediate and continuous assault. |