Page:Footsteps of Dr. Johnson.djvu/249

 that very uncommon being, a fairy grandmother. Godmothers among the fairies have often been heard of, but grandmothers, we believe, never before or since. Had Puck peeped in and seen Johnson wearing his wig turned inside out and the wrong end in front as a substitute for a night-cap, he might well have exclaimed that his mistress kept a monster, not only near but in "her close and consecrated bower." From this room a winding stone staircase led up to the battlements, but without mounting so high Johnson commanded a fine view.

MACLEOD'S TABLES.

From his window he could see, far away across the lochs, Macleod's Tables, two lofty hills with round flat tops, which on all sides form a striking landmark. Much nearer was the Gallows Hill, where in the bad old times many a poor wretch, dragged from his dark and dismal dungeon, caught his last sight of loch and mountain and heath, doomed to death by the laird. Only thirty-three years before our travellers' visit a man was hanged there by the grandfather of their host. He was a Macdonald who had murdered his father, and escaped into Macleod's country. But the old tribal feuds were long since over, and