ople quite appreciate the charms of their rocky island.
Coming down the cliff, I saw a notice--"Furnished Apartments to Let"--and
the price asked was quite conclusive on that head. Down by the harbour
an enterprising Scot, who had been a gentleman's servant in London, had
established a store for the sale of bottled beer and such pleasant
drinks, and seemed quite satisfied with the result of his experiment. At
any rate, he preferred Portree to residence further inland, where he said
even the very eggs were uneatable, so strongly did they taste of peat.
My lady friend--rather, I should say, "our lady"--is as much affected by
the gale that dolorous night as myself, and writes, plaintively begging
me to excuse the irregularity of the metre on account of the rolling of
the vessel, as follows:--

"Here off Skye,
The tide runs high;
Through hill and glen
Wind howls again.
The Coolan hills
No more we see,
Save through the mists
Of memory.
The sea birds float,
And seem to gloat,
With loud, shrill note,
Above our boat;
For they, like us,
Are forced to stay
For shelter in this friendly bay;
And now I seek, in balmy sleep,
Oblivion of the perils of the deep,
And wishing rocks and hills good night,
Let's hope to-morrow's log will be more bright."

A cottage in the Hebrides is by no means a cottage _ornee_. Its walls
are made of stone and clay of a tremendous thickness. On this wall, on a
framework of old oars or old wood, are laid large turfs and a roof of
thatch. In this roof the fowls nestle, and lay an infinite number of
eggs; but all things inside and out are tainted with turf in a way to
make them disagreeable. There is no chimney, and but one door, and the
floor is the bare earth, with a bench for the family formed of earth or
peat or stone. Beds and bedding are unknown. If the family keeps a cow,
that has the best corner, for it is what the pig is to the Irishman, the
gentleman that pays the rent. Small sheep, almost as horned and hardy as
goats, may be met with, but never pigs. Pork seems an abomination in the
eyes of the natives. Every cotter has a portion of the adjacent moor in
which to cut peat sufficient to supply his wants. Out of the homespun
wool the women make good warm garments--and they need them. Fish and
porridge seem their principal diet, and it agrees with them. The girls
are wonderfully fat and healthy; and co