We were shewn, in a corner of this vault, a hole, into which Col said greater criminals used to be put.  It was now filled up with rubbish of different kinds.  He said, it was of a great depth, ’Ay, (said Dr. Johnson, smiling,) all such places, that are filled up, were of a great depth.’  He is very quick in shewing that he does not give credit to careless or exaggerated accounts of things.  After seeing the castle, we looked at a small hut near it.  It is called Teigh Franchich, i.e. the Frenchman’s House.  Col could not tell us the history of it.  A poor man with a wife and children now lived in it.  We went into it, and Dr. Johnson gave them some charity.  There was but one bed for all the family, and the hut was very smoky.  When he came out, he said to me, ’Et hoc secundum sententiam philosophorum est esse beatus[797].’  BOSWELL.  ’The philosophers, when they placed happiness in a cottage, supposed cleanliness and no smoke.’  JOHNSON.  ’Sir, they did not think about either.’

We walked a little in the laird’s garden, in which endeavours have been used to rear some trees; but, as soon as they got above the surrounding wall, they died.  Dr. Johnson recommended sowing the seeds of hardy trees, instead of planting.

Col and I rode out this morning, and viewed a part of the island.  In the course of our ride, we saw a turnip-field, which he had hoed with his own hands.  He first introduced this kind of husbandry into the Western islands[798].  We also looked at an appearance of lead, which seemed very promising.  It has been long known; for I found letters to the late laird, from Sir John Areskine and Sir Alexander Murray, respecting it.

After dinner came Mr. M’Lean, of Corneck, brother to Isle of Muck, who is a cadet of the family of Col.  He possesses the two ends of Col, which belong to the Duke of Argyll.  Corneck had lately taken a lease of them at a very advanced rent, rather than let the Campbells get a footing in the island, one of whom had offered nearly as much as he.  Dr. Johnson well observed, that, ’landlords err much when they calculate merely what their land may yield.  The rent must be in a proportionate ratio of what the land may yield, and of the power of the tenant to make it yield.  A tenant cannot make by his land, but according to the corn and cattle which he has.  Suppose you should give him twice as much land as he has, it does him no good, unless he gets also more stock.  It is clear then, that the Highland landlords, who let their substantial tenants leave them, are infatuated; for the poor small tenants cannot give them good rents, from the very nature of things.  They have not the means of raising more from their farms[799].’  Corneck, Dr. Johnson said, was the most distinct man that he had met with in these isles:  he did not shut his eyes, or put his fingers in his ears, which he seemed to think was a good deal the mode with most of the people whom we have seen of late.