Page:Footsteps of Dr. Johnson.djvu/258

204 congregations together. The service began between eleven and twelve o'clock. Soon after four we saw the people come trooping down to the shore. The boats were launched, sails were set, and with a gentle breeze they were slowly carried down the loch and round the headland out of our sight.

On the morning of Tuesday, September 21, our travellers took advantage of a break in the stormy weather to continue their journey to Ulinish, a farm-house on Loch Bracadale, occupied by

TALISKER HEAD AND ORONSAY.

"a plain honest gentleman," the Sheriff-substitute of the island. Here they passed the night, and here, if we may trust report, Johnson's powers as a drinker of tea were exerted to their utmost pitch. "Mrs. Macleod of Ulinish," writes Knox, "has not forgotten the quantity of tea which she filled out to Dr. Johnson, amounting to twenty-two dishes." Surely for this outrageous statement some of those excuses are needed "by which," according to Boswell, "the exaggeration of Highland narratives is palliated." From an old tower near the house a fine view was had of the Cuillin, or Cuchullin Hills, "a prodigious range of mountains, capped with rocky pinnacles in a strange variety of shapes," which with good reason reminded Boswell of the mountains he had seen near Corte in Corsica.