204 r>R. JOHNSON'S CUPS OF TEA.

congregations together. The service began between eleven and twelve o'clock. Soon alter lour 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.

��UI.INISII AND TAI.LSKER (SEPTEMBKR 21-25).

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 Bracaclale, occupied by

���TALISKKR HEM) 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 for- gotten the quantity of tea which she filled out to Dr. Johnson, amounting to twenty-two dishes." 1 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.

1 Knox's Tour, p. 139.

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