I left him and Sir Allan at breakfast in our barn, and stole back again to the cathedral, to indulge in solitude and devout meditation[902].  While contemplating the venerable ruins, I refleeted with much satisfaction, that the solemn scenes of piety never lose their sanctity and influence, though the cares and follies of life may prevent us from visiting them, or may even make us fancy that their effects are only ’as yesterday, when it is past[903],’ and never again to be perceived.  I hoped, that, ever after having been in this holy place, I should maintain an exemplary conduct.  One has a strange propensity to fix upon some point of time from whence a better course of life may begin[904].

Being desirous to visit the opposite shore of the island, where Saint Columba is said to have landed, I procured a horse from one M’Ginnis[905], who ran along as my guide.  The M’Ginnises are said to be a branch of the clan of M’Lean.  Sir Allan had been told that this man had refused to send him some rum, at which the knight was in great indignation.  ’You rascal! (said he,) don’t you know that I can hang you, if I please?’ Not adverting to the Chieftain’s power over his clan, I imagined that Sir Allan had known of some capital crime that the fellow had committed, which he could discover, and so get him condemned; and said, ‘How so?’ ‘Why, (said Sir Allan,) are they not all my people?’ Sensible of my inadvertency, and most willing to contribute what I could towards the continuation of feudal authority, ‘Very true,’ said I. Sir Allan went on:  ’Refuse to send rum to me, you rascal!  Don’t you know that, if I order you to go and cut a man’s throat, you are to do it?’ ‘Yes, an’t please your honour! and my own too, and hang myself too.’  The poor fellow denied that he had refused to send the rum.  His making these professions was not merely a pretence in presence of his Chief; for after he and I were out of Sir Allan’s hearing, he told me, ’Had he sent his dog for the rum, I would have given it:  I would cut my bones for him.’  It was very remarkable to find such an attachment to a Chief, though he had then no connection with the island, and had not been there for fourteen years.  Sir Allan, by way of upbraiding the fellow, said, ’I believe you are a Campbell.’

The place which I went to see is about two miles from the village.  They call it Portawherry, from the wherry in which Columba came; though, when they shew the length of his vessel, as marked on the beach by two heaps of stones, they say, ‘Here is the length of the Currach’, using the Erse word.

Icolmkill is a fertile island.  The inhabitants export some cattle and grain; and I was told, they import nothing but iron and salt.  They are industrious, and make their own woollen and linen cloth; and they brew a good deal of beer, which we did not find in any of the other islands[906].