There is a large tract of land, possessed as a common, in Rasay.  They have no regulations as to the number of cattle.  Every man puts upon it as many as he chooses.  From Dun Can northward, till you reach the other end of the island, there is much good natural pasture unincumbered by stones.  We passed over a spot, which is appropriated for the exercising ground.  In 1745, a hundred fighting men were reviewed here, as Malcolm told me, who was one of the officers that led them to the field[505].  They returned home all but about fourteen.  What a princely thing is it to be able to furnish such a band!  Rasay has the true spirit of a chief.  He is, without exaggeration, a father to his people.

There is plenty of lime-stone in the island, a great quarry of free-stone, and some natural woods, but none of any age, as they cut the trees for common country uses.  The lakes, of which there are many, are well stocked with trout.  Malcolm catched one of four-and-twenty pounds weight in the loch next to Dun Can, which, by the way, is certainly a Danish name, as most names of places in these islands are.

The old castle, in which the family of Rasay formerly resided, is situated upon a rock very near the sea.  The rock is not one mass of stone, but a concretion of pebbles and earth, so firm that it does not appear to have mouldered.  In this remnant of antiquity I found nothing worthy of being noticed, except a certain accommodation rarely to be found at the modern houses of Scotland, and which Dr. Johnson and I sought for in vain at the Laird of Rasay’s new built mansion, where nothing else was wanting.  I took the liberty to tell the Laird it was a shame there should be such a deficiency in civilized times.  He acknowledged the justice of the remark.  But perhaps some generations may pass before the want is supplied.  Dr. Johnson observed to me, how quietly people will endure an evil, which they might at any time very easily remedy; and mentioned as an instance, that the present family of Rasay had possessed the island for more than four hundred years, and never made a commodious landing place, though a few men with pickaxes might have cut an ascent of stairs out of any part of the rock in a week’s time[506].

The north end of Rasay is as rocky as the south end.  From it I saw the little isle of Fladda, belonging to Rasay, all fine green ground;—­and Rona, which is of so rocky a soil that it appears to be a pavement.  I was told however that it has a great deal of grass in the interstices.  The Laird has it all in his own hands.  At this end of the island of Rasay is a cave in a striking situation.  It is in a recess of a great cleft, a good way up from the sea.  Before it the ocean roars, being dashed against monstrous broken rocks; grand and aweful propugnacula.  On the right hand of it is a longitudinal cave, very low at the entrance, but higher as you advance.  The sea having scooped it out, it seems strange and