Letter

Sir

I received your polite Letter by Last Post and sat down to write the Enclosed Papper, Which only contains what Offered itself at the time without that Regularity and Order which the Honour and Respect I bear You woud require at My hands. I had no Amanuensis near me and the Emigration now on foot to America And the Relaxation in Public Discipline Employs Many of Us not Much to our Taste. I am Upon the whole Obliged to send You the Papper As it came warm from my head — You can however Make Something of it And fil a Paragraph here And there from it, to Your Design. I will next send you some Account of the Monuments of Druidism which lie thick Scattered over the face of the Countrey And from their Numbers declare that the Antient Inhabitants were Religious over Much; yet before I give you further trouble I woud Incline to know Whether you Immagine that in My way of Writing, it may be worth your reading.

Your Humany [sic] and public Spirit determined you to take some Concern in the Misery of this Countrey — May Every Attempt for relieving it Prosper. Whatever Information My Prudence and Abilities will permitt me to good will not be wanting

As I am with
Sincere Esteem Dr Sir
Your most Obedient humble Servant

Don: Macqueen

Kilmuir January 15^th
1773.

Near the Seat of Every great Man, there stands a hill called Cnock an Eirich that is the hill of pleas, where they held their General Council and the Chieftain with the Assistance of his best friends, his Assessors determined all the differences that subsisted within his Tribe.² There is one of these hills at Kingsburgh, at Duntulm, at Ulimsk. When our King Malcom feūed out his Lands to his Barons, he Only reserved for himself Mote-hill, now called Muthill, of Scoon ^mons placiti de Sconâ where he determined the Pleas betwixt his Barons, for Mote is the Gaulic word for a Court.³ Of Old they held their Civil And Religious Assemblies in a grove or in the Top of a Mountain consecrated to the Supreme or to Some of the Subaltern Divinities, Which was a Sanctuary Where Peace And Civility Must be Observed Under the Eye And Protection of the Guardian of the State. A precaution the Absolutely Necessary Among these ferocious Military Mortals And from this practice surely our Cnock an Eirich derived all its Importance.

There is near the house of Aird in My Neighbourhood, a vein of Limestone of Considerable Extent Which is no Other than An Aggregate of Various Shells — Some of them we know And Others Are not to be met with on our Coasts.

Burning the Bodies of the dead was a practice in this Island in a very distant Period — It was done ^in honour of the great men among them Who had Signalised themselves in Military Prowess. Their Ashes were Laid up in Urns made of Clay which covered with a thin stone were put into a Stone-coffin covered over with a prodigious heap of stones. Many Urns have been found within One of these heaps. They Are very Numerous in this Island. called in our Language Barp, ^ or Cairn whence perhaps the English word Barrow.

I have been often Surprized to hear the Old men in the Isles Speak As if their Ancestors had Some faint Knowledge in Astronomy. They Are Still Acquainted with the Pole, Charles-wain Which they call Seackeran, ie the Seven Stars, the Pleiades And a few more. In the Heroic times when Robbery was attended with not Infamy but reckoned honourable if committed with out their own Tribe Men for the Sake of Secrecy were Obliged to keep the Sea All Night in their Long Boats Whither they carryed their Plunder from one Island to Another Or from the Continent. Necessity, the Mother of Invention Put them on takeing Up Some of the Stars for their Guides And for knowing the Progress of the Night. I woud indeed rather attribute their Knowledge in this Respect to Tradition but that I find no traces of it Upon the Main Land Where they had Litle or no Occasion for it, And Indeed that want of Occasion to Use it might be The Cause of the Tradition's dying away among them. Be that how it will, our People Regulate many of their Operations by the Course of the Moon. one thing Succeeds better in the Increase and another in the Decrease and of this Error, if it be an Error, the common Tennants cannot be cured, nor woud I presume to Extirpate it Altogether for if Dr mead's Theory of the flux and Reflux of the Atmosphere analogous to that of the Sea be true, as I believe it is, it must be a Matter of Certainty that the Increase and Decrease have a considerable Influence Upon Many things here below but As that Influence May be counteracted by several other Causes I am sure our people keep too close to their Rule.

I trouble you with too much of this Trash. Adieu.

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Enclosure

p. 1^st

of Buildings.

I amused myself for a Peice of a day very Lately in opening up one or two of our Subterraneous houses Which are numerous on the Face on the face of the Islands — the dreary unwholesome habitations of the first Adventurers into it. They are something about six and twenty feet Long, three feet wide And four feet deep. The Side are regularly faced with stone to keep the Earth from falling in And covered over with Flags which are overlaid with Turf so As to be Upon a Level with the Ground around it. There is a passage to it at one of the Ends two feet And one half Square, by two Steps of a Stone-stair, which if covered with Turf or bundle of heather woud bid defiance to the Narrowest Search for discovery. A rising ground And a dry Mould were chosen for these dismal Seats. I can Easyly see they never Made Use of Feuel within them, for a blast of Smoak woud Smother the Whole Miserable family within the narrow Vault; And it is Uncertain whether the Savage Inhabitant knew Any thing of the Use of fire for it is Certain the forced fire with which they burned their Sacrifices in a Later Period was raised Up by the Uninterrupted burning of a stake or wimble of hard wood into a peice of Oak; at which Operation Nine Men Assisted. Be that how it will, this retreat of Security from the Inclemency of Winter, which must have been very Severe in a Northern Uncultivated Countrey, And from the bloody violence of a starving undisciplined Neighbourhood, was, when Society was a Litle more Regularly formed and some faint rude Attempts made in the Art of Husbandry, converted into a Granary for keeping Up their Corn. To Secure it from the Ravenous Claws of their Neighbours And to keep ^it for Long preservation, at a distance from the heat of the Sun, Untill they returned from any of their foreign Expeditions it was properly Judged to Lay it Up in these dark Recesses. In the Gaulic Language Gradan the burnt corn is called Gradan, the Kiln-dryed Tirigh. You will find by Q. Curtius Pliny And others that the Artificial Caves of which I speak were by the Antient Inhabitants of Europe called Siros or Siris; it is then Natural to Suppose that the Kiln-dryed which is latest for keeping derived it's name from the common name of the Granary And that Aran-(bread)-Tirigh is the bread of Siros or Siris. for Immediate Use they burned the Corn, As we do to this day, tho indeed in face of the Proprietors Commands. But I return from this digression to consider the Habitations of our Ancestors. Nature indeed offered them caves for their Lurking places but As commodious ones of that Sort are not Numerous And Might be Easyly found out, Necessity taught them to Make Use of their hands on dry Ground As Above or to fortify the Cave with a Stone wall where that coud be conveniently done. There is a remarkable

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p.2^d.

One of this kind on the East Side of Troternish. It is a Cave in the face of a Rock towards ^the Sea, to which they might Scramble up by climbing but As the mouth of it was wide they raised a Strong wall Upon the Precipice which brought it to a narrow compass And by a few steps of stone stair on the Inside they got into a Warm Spacious Hall. They must have made Use of Ladders to get Up to the top of the Wall or have Learned the Art of Climbing better ^than We of this Generation. One man with a Lap-ful of Small Stones coud keep off a [...] Army furnished with all the Artillery of that day.

The next Improvement in building of which there are I must Observe here that the Gaulic vocable for a Cave is Ŭagh And that the Only word which our Copious Language affords for Giant is Uagher, that is, the Inhabitant of a Cave. In the old tales & poems in which these savages Are Mentioned, they Are represented As Cannibals who Eat all sort of Fleshes raw in No degree better Civilized than Polypheme in the Odessey And if they knew Any thing about fire they were quite Ignorant of the Principal use of it. Men unfurnished with suiteable Arms for hunting or with tacle for fishing sticks And Stones being the Only Weapons of that Time And when afterwards they Invented Arrows they were only pointed with flints I say, with these clumsy weapons they must often have been Exposed to the horrors of Famine the more so, that they did not know the Way of Laying up provisions Against a time of Scarcity. In a terrible Extremity when Every Source of Relief was shut up we cannot wonder that they devoured their visitors; what Unnatural Motions hath Famine in time of a Siege raised in the Human heart And in the heart of that Mother in 2^d Kings Chap. 6. v29. These Savages are represented in Fable as Men of Mighty Stature — Fear hath Also taught the Grecians & Romans to point out the Scythians And Gauls After the Same Manner.

The next improvement in building of which there are Any traces remaining, is that of the Danish Dūns. History (Torfæūs) bears testimony to the Arrivals of the Danes or rather Norwegians, in the Western Isles in the beginning of the Ninth Century. If Ossian's Authority can be depended on they made Several Descents on them And on Irland in a much Earlyer Period for the Sake of Plunder or of shewing their Heroism in these Military days; but in the Ninth Century After conquering the Islands they setled in the [...] ^where they were and governed them by a Viceroy from the Mother-countrey. A litle Experience woud have Instructed them in the propriety of Living within Strong holds among their Enemies who 'tho they were Obliged

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p.3^d

To yield to a Superior force preserved that Spirit of Liberty and Independancy which was Natural to all Celtic Tribes. A rising ground faced on all sides with A Rock was generally chosen for the seat of the Burgh for so our Duns were called in the Language of the Builders And the word is preserved and frequent in the compound Names of these places Where Such buildings have been Erected. on the brink of this Rock they put up a thick Strong Wall of Uncommon height And thickness, in which they Employed ^stones of a prodigious Size by mere Strength of Arm for they knew of no Machine proper for raising And transporting Weighty bodies. The Inclosure is perfectly Circular and the Stones Laid on the out and Inside with great Art And Skill for tho they were Ignorant of the Use of Cement it stands firm And Unmoved to this day Except where ^it is pulled down for modern work. There is an opening in the heart of the wall all round, thro which they coud get Up to the Top by an Easy Ascent from a passage near ^or Entry near the foundation. This vacancy served to keep their Arms and Utensils safe from the Injuries of the Weather As well as to give them access to the Summit of the wall to Observe the Motions of their Enemies or drive them off in case of a near approach. In the wide Space which is surrounded by this fortification they built their huts or Cabins where the men with their wives And Children Lodged together And this is what they called a Burgh or Town in the same Manner as the Antient Brittans cut a Large Circle within a wood where after they had fortifyed it with a ditch And heaped Up trees all round they built huts And Stables for themselves And their Catle And this they Called a Town (Cæsar 5.21. and strabo 4.200).These Duns are very numerous in this Island And Each within sight of Another that in case of Any Sudden Assault they might convey a general Alarm to their friends by the signal of a Torch. They had besides much more Spacious Duns for their Cows, called Boaghun Answering in point to the Cuballum of Livy among the Gallogræcians, for the Use names mean an Inclosure for Cows and I reckon they were as well contrived for the Security of the Catle among these ferocious, Lawless Itinerants into Asia, As here, tho they might happen to need cow's dung for feuels in the Absolute want of better.

The Monastery on Columbas Lake in My Neighbourhood, mentioned in the Chronicle of Man under the year 1223 If I remember, did not trust ^so far to the Sanctity of the Inhabitants or the place, tho Surrounded with water, As to neglect the Precaution

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p.4^th

of being fortifyed in the same manner With the Danes within a Strong wall without Cement Where the Several Cells And appartments Are still very apparent. From Which Circumstance I conclude that at the time of founding it Druidism prevailed in the Islands, for the Superstition of the People, the common attendant of Barbarity and Ignorance, woud have Otherwise been fence Enough without the trouble of Lending an Immense heap of Large Stones for their further protection from the bands of Ruffians. The Chapel Upon the Island adjacent to this Monastery is made Up with Lime which is Argument Enough for its being a much Later Work for the Chapels round the Countrey Which ^are Many in Number, one in Every district And in Every Island Upon the Coast Are for the most part built without Cement. to these Chapels a monk from the Monastry repaired, Each in his turn, for the Performance of Religious Services to the Inhabitants in the Neighbourhood. The place Where the Monks Landed when Entering Upon their Mission is called Pein-oran, that is, the Land of Prayer, Whence they Set out Every one to his Appointment, After Solemnly committing themselves And their Work to the Blessing And Protection of the Most High. This Monastery As well As all the Monasteries And Bishops too in the Kingdom And North of England was Under the Jurisdiction of that of Whence Christianity was first propagated Amongst Us. From the Monasteries, Abbacies And Priories Established by that Antient And Religious Community Missionaries were Ordered out to the different districts where they were thought Most Necessary for the Division of Parishes is a Late Work And did not take place in this Island Untill the End of the Reign of King James the 6^th or the beginning of K. Charles his Reign. It is Certain the Priests, preceeding that Period, did not take the vow of Celibacy for Many of them were Marryed. Besides the Tradition which Assures Us of this fact the names of Several Clans bear testimony to it — MacNab (the Abbot's son) Macphrier (the prior son) MacPherson (the Parsons son) Macvean, the Vicars son. ^macHaggart the Priests Son. I am Much of Opinion that the distinguishing Tenets of the Popish Superstition were never deeply rivetted in this Part of the Highlands for Icolumbkill conformed to them very Late And that faintly. And when our Kings and some of our Nobles began to travell Abroad & imported that Expensive ruinous Superstition, the Western Isles were As independant of the Public Seat of Administration As of the See of Rome itself, And may Justly be supposed to have kept by the Instructions they received at first, which were founded on the writings of the prophets Evangelists And Apostles As were those of all the Culdees in the Kingdom (in the Charters called Killedei that is, Gille-dhe, the Servants of God) who wore out in the fourteenth Century As did the Monastery of Icolumbkill being gradually striped of all its Extensive Possessions, for the Monastery of Holy-rude house As appears by the

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p.5^th

Foundation Charter was Endued with the Lands belonging to it in Galloway. The Church of Snizort which stands on an Island in the River which divides the Estate of Macdonald from that of MacLeod is a Large Fabric made Up of Stone & Lime and was dedicated to Columba And Possessed by a Parcel of his Monks but at Length fell into the hands of the Templars who, it is said, were burned together with it for Stealing the Cows in the Neighbourhood, much about the time, I suppose when Pope Clement the 5^th suppressed that Order at the desire & by the Contrivance of Philip the fair of France.

Here I will remark that the ^oldest Churches have been dedicated to the Family of Christ or to Columba, Such As the Church of the Family in Carenish of Uist, Kil-Christ of Strath And to Columba, Many. In the Later times when Saintship peeped in to our Corner. St Mary St Clement¹ St Asaph and more of them were honoured with Religious Edifices. The Gaulic name of a Church is Clachan, from a Stone which was originaly put up in the place and consecrated, next, Kile from Cella where a ^hut was put up for some Culdee but now it is Generally called Eglish which is Surely derived from the Greek.

Some of our Lakes have been Also consecrated — there is a remarkable one of them in this Parish, Loch Shiant, which is distilled from Other two Lakes from which there is no Visible Run, thro a hill, by four And twenty Springs Which fall into a pretty bason And so the Lightest And most transparent Water I Ever saw. Sick people have often come to bath in it And by the power of Imagination As much As by the virtue of the Water have returned home in much better health than before.

Of Incantations

There is none of the common Maladies or distressful Accidents incident to Man or Beast but they had a particular Charm cut out for Each of them. And tho they Are Mostly made Up of Unmeaning Jargon And a Religious Address to the Deity or to Some of the Saints, the Love of Health and the power of Superstition have reconciled many to the Use of them but they are now thorowly cured of that folly. I have picked up Several of these Charms When I was a boy And will here Subjoin the translation of that for the Toothach: "Abraham Stood on the Summit of Mount Pesselane (Montpelier) grievously tormented with the Toothach And complained. Jesus Christ answered And said, Let Neither Worm, nor Cold Rheum, nor pain Lodge in you Gums Any Longer — All Countries, the most Civilized have had their Vulgar Errors And Incantations were Every Where Much practised. Those amongst Us Seem to have been fitted by designing priests to the Religious System they taught.

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p.6^th

The Extreme Ignorance of the people made way for the most Extravagant Superstition without fearing Any contradiction on the part of Phylosophy, to which Palmistry, presages by the flying of Birds, the prophecy of Dumb persons, the Second Sight, the taking away the Substance of a Neighbour's Milk &c owed ^also their Existence and a Long-lived Custom prolonged their date When we were a Little more Enlightened, but of all this Trumpery their are no traces now remaining, tho in my Memory the Belief of some Silly persons was Strongly Tinctured with it.

Of Salt

In all the Islands their Salt was Originally made of burnt Sea ware. I have Often Eaten Cheese cured with it. They Seldom Use it now Except in St Kilda And Among poor people in the Smaller Isles. I remember Old Kingsburgh told me that he Saw flesh Cured after this Manner in his Stepfather's House in the Long Island. We call it in our Language Mur-Luah that is the Ashes of Mur. Any Solid body fallen into Ashes or Small particles is Mur. Thus we Learn from Pliny that the Germans burned Oaks And Other woods And Extinguished the Coals with Salt water or When at a distance from the Sea with Mineral Water And Used the Ashes for Such under the Name of Muria. They thought a Well impregnated with Nitre so very Necessary in An Operation of this sort that Tacitus informs Us that the Hermondurians & Catti fought a horrid rather than a bloody batle for the property of One of them. From this it appears that this kind of Salt was once in general Use.

Of Husbandry

When a Stranger comes in to the Isles in the summer season and sees our fine Expansive fields, Such as we have in this Parish where I now reside, he will be Apt to imagine that it is owing to the Ignorance or Indolence of the People or to both together that they can want bread from themselves or provender for their Catle: but no Conclusion can be more Unjust than this, for they have As much Sense And Sagacity As Any common people can pretend to And it is owing to their health And Strength that they Are Able to beat the toil they Undergo. The soil they strugle with in my Neighbourhood is not of the Light Loose kind which they coud Easyly turn With the Plough, it is for the Most Part, of a deep Clay of a Strong texture which they must till with crooked Spades that it might be fairly Laid out before the Sun And Air, Which by this Management yields a plentiful Crop without Any Manure. The Second And third Crop they raise by Means of the Plough And Where they think its Necessary help the Growth

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p.7^th

By laying on Dung from their Bires or Middens or if they Are near the Shores & mean to raise Barley by plenty of Seaware. This Expence of Labour on a rich Soil woud seem to promise a Plentiful harvest but nothing can be more uncertain than that. Indeed When the spring is dry, the Summer warm And fine harvest free of continual rains & storms we have not only plenty for ourselves but Are Able to Supply our Neighbours but this Seldom ^is the Case. In this very Island of Sky, we rarely have one Week of fair Weather If I Except the Summer Season. We Seldom Sow our Seeds Untill our fields begin to dry Up in the month of April And As Seldom have a hot Summer Which must needs retard our Harvest. Our Hay, which is for the most part the Natural Growth is Generally gathered ^in About the End of August And then Rains beginn [sic] attended with Moderate Winds which blow stronger as the Season proceeds Untill the Equinoxial Storms, who seldom fail to visit Us, come on And Shake all our Standing Corn And damage Such As Are cut down. When the Weather casts up in this stile As it often doth, there remains great Scarcity for Man And Beast. It may be Said that the Injuries of the Climate might be in a great Measure ^ be prevented by skillful Management; And that the Fields shoud be twice tilled over, — that great Quantities of Manure shoud be Laid on them And that they shoud be plated with the Earliest Corn. Experience is the best Guide in Every Countrey — our Landlords And others have sometimes been very Unsuccessful in Attempts of that kind And indeed the Generality of the People are by this time too poor to quit the beaten Track And must decline to run into Uncertainties. That Maxim of old Cato's holds good here in a Particular Manner Nihil Minus Expedire, quam Agrūm Optime colere. The Small oats hath, by the Experience of Ages, been found the fitest for our Climate, as being less lyable to Shakeing; the Barley indeed woud prevent the storms but they are deficient the Article of Manure to raise Any considerable Stock of it. In short the people drudge's on in mending their Inclosures which are made of Turf, in makeing folds for their Catle, in Cutting And drying their Peats, in weeding their Corns, in Mowing their hay, in Shearing in thatching their houses And tillage And if thorow bad weather or Any other Accident they Are Late in Any of these Articles that Inconvenience rūns tho' the whole work of the year. I must not forget that potatoes, the best present we Ever had from America, is Lately become a great source of Relief — that And the Herring-fishing when it casts Up in a Neighbourhood is now a Mighty preservative from Want.

The Foggy Uncertain Climate hath Certainly contrived this Country for Pasturage — that high Cluster of hills in the heart of the Island ^(Kullen) us So very prolific of Rain And Storms that we can depend Upon Nothing but our Catle And that Only in a

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p.8^th

Good or Middling year for if the Crops set upon the Ground or the hay — harvest is too Late, they will certainly yield to the Severity of a bad Spring. Yet our Rents, our implements for tillage, our drink, our Everything must be derived from the Sale of black Catle. The General Marrain which prevailed Among the in Spring Last, the great fall in the price of those that remained the purchasing of meal from distant Countries And the Absolute want of Specie' which hath all gone to America hath reduced the people to a Most dismal Situation.

You are So good As to Mention the Hospitality you met with; had You come ten years Ago you had Seen Every thing wear a different face — You had been conveyed from district to district by a Cavalcade of the better sort of Men And their Sincere attempts to make you happy woud make you really So. The people seem apprehensive that these days will not soon return — they are much fallen from their Usual Chearfulness and Industry, being Uncertain whether it is their fate to Pass the Atlantic after their Friends or Stay at home Strugling with difficulties Among the Beggars & Bastards And Other Silly Connections of those who went Abroad As well As Among the poor which naturally cast up And must Multiply pretty fast in Such a Land As ours.

There is an Emigration to America Sett on foot on the 30^th past in this Countrey to Which Some from Kintail on the Continent have acceded tho there is no Return from the Ship which Sett out in September Last for N. Carolina. The spirit of Emigration is now become a distemper of a Most ^contagious Kind — the Enthusiasm flies from face to face, Which took it's rise from an Injudicious Augmentation of Rents. Add to this that the Leading Clan or in other words the Cadets of the Proprietor's family had more Respect And favour Shewed them than the Inferior Tribes And in particular Made up their Chief's Privy Council And were Generally Employed As his Factors and Drovers, the Only Offices of profit & Respect in his Gift. If one were all at once to break with his olds [sic] friends & put himself into the hands of a few of the Smaller Tribes the Former had no Cause to Look for Mercy or favour And woud probably put themselves at the head of the discontented and Lead them Away While Any One of them Remained. Amicitiæ Magis Sunt descendæ quam descindendæ is a good General Rule. How these Evils can be remedyed is to the wrong side of My comprehension — I was one of the very few who declined to declined to buy Repentance at the rate at which it Sold at our Sell.

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M^r Macqueen
skye.

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Editorial notes

1. Possibly a reference to St Clement's Church, Rodel, Harris. The exact identity of the dedicatee is uncertain.
2. MacQueen's account of the 'hill of pleas' is integrated into Pennant's description of Duntulm in A tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides 1772 (1774), p.350.
3. The legend of an ancient constitution Scottish constitution founded on a feudal community of the realm as an important article of Boece's Scotorum historiae and the fourteenth-century legal digest Regiam Majestatem. These documents form the basis of Pennant's account of the Moot Hill of Scone in A tour in Scotland 1772, part II (1776), p.115. See also Colin Kidd, Subverting Scotland's Past (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).