e ruinous house,--the
melancholy rain-fretted tides eddying along the strip of brown tangle in
the foreground,--and, dim over all, the thick, slant lines of the
beating shower!--I know not that of themselves they would have furnished
materials enough for a finished picture in the style of Hogarth's "End
of all Things;" but right sure am I that in the hands of Bewick they
would have been grouped into a tasteful and poetic vignette. We set out
for church a little after eleven,--the minister encased in his
ample-skirted storm-jacket of oiled canvas, and protected atop by a
genuine _sou-wester_, of which the broad posterior rim eloped half a
yard down his back; and I closely wrapped up in my gray maud, which
proved, however, a rather indifferent protection against the penetrating
powers of a true Hebridean drizzle. The building in which the
congregation meets is a low dingy cottage of turf and stone, situated
nearly opposite to the manse windows. It had been built by my friend,
previous to the Disruption, at his own expense, for a Gaelic school, and
it now serves as a place of worship for the people.

We found the congregation already gathered, and that the very bad
morning had failed to lessen their numbers. There were a few of the male
parishioners keeping watch at the door, looking wistfully out through
the fog and rain for their minister; and at his approach nearly twenty
more came issuing from the place,--like carder bees from their nest of
dried grass and moss,--to gather round him, and shake him by the hand.
The islanders of Eigg are an active, middle-sized race, with
well-developed heads, acute intellects, and singularly warm feelings.
And on this occasion at least there could be no possibility of mistake
respecting the feelings with which they regarded their minister. Rarely
have I seen human countenances so eloquently vocal with veneration and
love. The gospel message, which my friend had been the first effectually
to bring home to their hearts,--the palpable fact of his sacrifice for
the sake of the high principles which he has taught,--his own kindly
disposition,--the many services which he has rendered them, for not only
has he been the minister, but also the sole medical man, of the Small
Isles, and the benefit of his practice they have enjoyed, in every
instance, without fee or reward,--his new life of hardship and danger,
maintained for their sakes amid sinking health and great
privation,--their frequent fea