That the immediate motives of their desertion must be imputed to their landlords, may be reasonably concluded, because some Lairds of more prudence and less rapacity have kept their vassals undiminished.  From Raasa only one man had been seduced, and at Col there was no wish to go away.

The traveller who comes hither from more opulent countries, to speculate upon the remains of pastoral life, will not much wonder that a common Highlander has no strong adherence to his native soil; for of animal enjoyments, or of physical good, he leaves nothing that he may not find again wheresoever he may be thrown.

The habitations of men in the Hebrides may be distinguished into huts and houses.  By a house, I mean a building with one story over another; by a hut, a dwelling with only one floor.  The Laird, who formerly lived in a castle, now lives in a house; sometimes sufficiently neat, but seldom very spacious or splendid.  The Tacksmen and the Ministers have commonly houses.  Wherever there is a house, the stranger finds a welcome, and to the other evils of exterminating Tacksmen may be added the unavoidable cessation of hospitality, or the devolution of too heavy a burden on the Ministers.

Of the houses little can be said.  They are small, and by the necessity of accumulating stores, where there are so few opportunities of purchase, the rooms are very heterogeneously filled.  With want of cleanliness it were ingratitude to reproach them.  The servants having been bred upon the naked earth, think every floor clean, and the quick succession of guests, perhaps not always over-elegant, does not allow much time for adjusting their apartments.

Huts are of many gradations; from murky dens, to commodious dwellings.

The wall of a common hut is always built without mortar, by a skilful adaptation of loose stones.  Sometimes perhaps a double wall of stones is raised, and the intermediate space filled with earth.  The air is thus completely excluded.  Some walls are, I think, formed of turfs, held together by a wattle, or texture of twigs.  Of the meanest huts, the first room is lighted by the entrance, and the second by the smoke hole.  The fire is usually made in the middle.  But there are huts, or dwellings of only one story, inhabited by gentlemen, which have walls cemented with mortar, glass windows, and boarded floors.  Of these all have chimneys, and some chimneys have grates.

The house and the furniture are not always nicely suited.  We were driven once, by missing a passage, to the hut of a gentleman, where, after a very liberal supper, when I was conducted to my chamber, I found an elegant bed of Indian cotton, spread with fine sheets.  The accommodation was flattering; I undressed myself, and felt my feet in the mire.  The bed stood upon the bare earth, which a long course of rain had softened to a puddle.