with stone, but now it is soft with green turf. I looked there for the false stone cannons which Boswell mentions, but I learnt that they had been moved to the top of one of the towers. In their place are some of iron, venerable by their antiquity, but unfit for service. Against one of the low walls which enclose this pleasant court leans a piece of old sculpture, the effigy probably of some lady of the family.
TERRACE.
Three or four miles down the loch, and out of sight of the castle, lies the little island of Isa or Issay, "which Macleod said he would give to Dr. Johnson, on condition of his residing on it three months in the year; nay, one month. Dr. Johnson was highly amused with the fancy. He talked a great deal of this island; how he would build a house there—how he would fortify it—how he would have cannon—how he would plant—how he would sally out, and take the Isle of Muck; and then he laughed with uncommon glee, and could hardly leave off. Macleod encouraged the fancy of Dr. Johnson's becoming owner of an island; told him that it was the practice in that country to name every man by his lands, and begged leave to drink to him in that mode, 'Island Isa, your health.' Ulinish, Talisker, M'Oueen, and I all joined in our different manners, while Dr. Johnson bowed to each with much good humour." To Mrs. Thrale he wrote: "Macleod has offered me an island; if it were not too far off I should hardly refuse it; my island would be pleasanter than Brighthelmstone if you and my master could come to it; but I cannot think it pleasant to live quite alone,
'Oblitusque meorum, obliviscendus et illis.'"[1]
Much as he wished to visit it, he was hindered even from seeing it
- ↑ "Your friends forgetting by your friends forgot."Francis's Horace, Epistles, i. xi. 9.
