Probably he had been thinking of the whole of the simile in Cato, of which that is the concluding line; the sandy desart had struck him so strongly.  The sand has of late been blown over a good deal of meadow, and the people of the island say, that their fathers remembered much of the space which is now covered with sand, to have been under tillage[793].  Col’s house is situated on a bay called Breacacha Bay.  We found here a neat new-built gentleman’s house, better than any we had been in since we were at Lord Errol’s.  Dr. Johnson relished it much at first, but soon remarked to me, that ’there was nothing becoming a Chief about it:  it was a mere tradesman’s box[794].’  He seemed quite at home, and no longer found any difficulty in using the Highland address; for as soon as we arrived, he said, with a spirited familiarity, ’Now, Col, if you could get us a dish of tea.’  Dr. Johnson and I had each an excellent bed-chamber.  We had a dispute which of us had the best curtains.  His were rather the best, being of linen; but I insisted that my bed had the best posts, which was undeniable.  ’Well, (said he,) if you have the best posts, we will have you tied to them and whipped.’  I mention this slight circumstance, only to shew how ready he is, even in mere trifles, to get the better of his antagonist, by placing him in a ludicrous view.  I have known him sometimes use the same art, when hard pressed in serious disputation.  Goldsmith, I remember, to retaliate for many a severe defeat which he has suffered from him, applied to him a lively saying in one of Cibber’s comedies, which puts this part of his character in a strong light.—­’There is no arguing with Johnson; for, if his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of it[795].’

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6.

After a sufficiency of sleep, we assembled at breakfast.  We were just as if in barracks.  Every body was master.  We went and viewed the old castle of Col, which is not far from the present house, near the shore, and founded on a rock.  It has never been a large feudal residence, and has nothing about it that requires a particular description.  Like other old inconvenient buildings of the same age, it exemplified Gray’s picturesque lines,

     ’Huge[796] windows that exclude the light,
      And passages that lead to nothing.’

It may however be worth mentioning, that on the second story we saw a vault, which was, and still is, the family prison.  There was a woman put into it by the laird, for theft, within these ten years; and any offender would be confined there yet; for, from the necessity of the thing, as the island is remote from any power established by law, the laird must exercise his jurisdiction to a certain degree.