【英文原著类】a journey to the western islands of scotland(苏格兰西部群岛).pdf

A JOURNEY TO THE WESTERN ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND
A JOURNEY TO THE
WESTERN ISLANDS OF
SCOTLAND
INCH KEITH
1
A JOURNEY TO THE WESTERN ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND
I had desired to visit the Hebrides, or Western Islands of Scotland, so
long, that I scarcely remember how the wish was originally excited; and
was in the Autumn of the year 1773 induced to undertake the journey, by
finding in Mr. Boswell panion, whose acuteness would help my
inquiry, and whose gaiety of conversation and civility of manners are
sufficient to counteract the inconveniences of travel, in countries less
hospitable than we have passed.
On the eighteenth of August we left Edinburgh, a city too well known
to admit description, and directed our course northward, along the eastern
coast of Scotland, panied the first day by another gentleman, who
could stay with us only long enough to shew us how much we lost at
separation.
As we crossed the Frith of Forth, our curiosity was attracted by Inch
Keith, a small island, which neither of panions had ever visited,
though, lying within their view, it had all their lives solicited their notice.
Here, by climbing with some difficulty over shattered crags, we made the
first experiment of unfrequented coasts. Inch Keith is nothing more than
a rock covered with a thin layer of earth, not wholly bare of grass, and
very fertile of thistles. A small herd of cows grazes annually upon it in
the summer. It seems never to have afforded to man or beast a permanent
habitation.
We found only the ruins of a small fort, not so injured by time but that
it might be easily restored to its former state. It seems never to have been
intended as a place of strength, nor was built to endure a siege, but merely
to afford cover to a few soldiers, who perhaps had the charge of a battery,
or were stationed to give signals of approaching danger. There is
therefore no provision of water within the walls, though the spring is so
near, that it might have been eas