ng is comparative. We in Middlesex may not have the warm
sunshine and blue skies of France or Italy, but we have weather which
admits of garden parties, and country sports, and pastimes; up in this
region of mountain, rock, and river, it is perpetually blowing big guns
or raining cats and dogs, and the Scotchman, as he can't go out, must sit
at home and improve his mind. In dull weather Oban is not a lively spot,
but here at Tobermory dulness fails adequately to express the thorough
stagnation of the place. Few of my readers have ever heard of Tobermory;
yet Tobermory is the principal town--indeed, the only one that is to be
found in all Mull. It rose to its present height of greatness as far
back as the year 1788, when it was developed under the auspices of the
Society for the Encouragement of British Fisheries. But the place was
founded before then, as three or four miles off there are the remains of
a monastery, and in a niche in the wall of one of the hotels there was,
evidently, a crucifix or an image of the Virgin Mary, whose name seems to
be connected with the town. Tobermory means Well of St. Mary, and up at
the top of the town there is shown to you the well of that name. The
_Florida_, one of the ships of the Spanish Armada, was sunk off
Tobermory, and some of her timbers and her brass and iron guns have
occasionally been fished up. The place must be valuable, as the present
proprietor gave 90,000 pounds for the estate, which had been bought by
the former owner for about a third of that sum. The house and ground are
on the left, and his yacht lies in the bay as we enter. By our side are
a few trading vessels which have entered the harbour for shelter. On the
right, at the entrance of the harbour, is a rock, on which some one has
had painted, in large red letters, "God is love." In rough seas, on this
rock-bound coast, where the wind howls like a hurricane as it rushes down
the gorges of the hills, and where the Atlantic seems to gather up its
strength, here and there, at fitful intervals, ere it becomes still and
tame--under the soothing influence of Scotch bag-pipes--it is well to
remind the traveller on the deep that He, who holds the waters in the
hollow of His hands, is love. Tobermory is, I imagine, a very religious
place; on a Sunday night the Sheriff preaches in the Court House, and
there, on our left, is a Baptist chapel--where, once upon a time, the
Doctor preached, and in his warmth upset th