第5章 LETTER IV(1)

THROUGH THE SOUNDS--STORNAWAY--THE SETTING UP OF THEFIGURE-HEAD--FITZ'S FORAY--OH WEEL MAY THE BOATIE ROW,THAT WINS THE BAIRNS'S BREAD--SIR PATRICK SPENS JOINS--UPANCHOR.

Stornaway,Island of Lewis,Hebrides,June 9,1856.

We reached these Islands of the West the day before yesterday,after a fine run from Oban.

I had intended taking Staffa and Iona on my way,but it came on so thick with heavy weather from the south-west,that to have landed on either island would have been out of the question.So we bore up under Mull at one in the morning,tore through the Sound at daylight,rounded Ardnamurchan under a double-reefed mainsail at two P.M.,and shot into the Sound of Skye the same evening,leaving the hills of Moidart (one of whose "seven naen"was an ancestor of your own),and the jaws of the hospitable Loch Hourn,reddening in the stormy sunset.

At Kylakin we were obliged to bring up for the night;but getting under weigh again at daylight,we took a fair wind with us along the east coast of Skye,passed Raasa and Rona,and so across the Minch to Stornaway.

Stornaway is a little fishing-town with a beautiful harbour,from out of which was sailing,as we entered,a fleet of herring-boats,their brown sails gleaming like gold against the dark angry water as they fluttered out to sea,unmindful of the leaden clouds banked up along the west,and all the symptoms of an approaching gale.

The next morning it was upon us;but brought up as we were under the lea of a high rock,the tempest tore harmlessly over our heads,and left us at liberty to make the final preparations for departure.

Fitz,whose talents for discerning where the vegetables,fowls,and pretty ladies of a place were to be found,Ihad already had occasion to admire,went ashore to forage;while I remained on board to superintend the fixing of our sacred figure-head--executed in bronze by Marochetti--and brought along with me by rail,still warm from the furnace.

For the performance of this solemnity I luckily possessed a functionary equal to the occasion,in the shape of the second cook.Originally a guardsman,he had beaten his sword into a chisel,and become carpenter;subsequently conceiving a passion for the sea,he turned his attention to the mysteries of the kitchen,and now sails with me in the alternate exercise of his two last professions.

This individual,thus happily combining the chivalry inherent in the profession of arms with the skill of the craftsman and the refinement of the artist--to whose person,moreover,a paper cap,white vestments,and the sacrificial knife at his girdle,gave something of a sacerdotal character--I did not consider unfit to raise the ship's guardian image to its appointed place;and after two hours'reverential handiwork,I had the satisfaction of seeing the well-known lovely face,with its golden hair,and smile that might charm all malice from the elements,beaming like a happy omen above our bows.

Shortly afterwards Fitz came alongside,after a most successful foray among the fish-wives.He was sitting in the stern-sheets,up to his knees in vegetables,with seven elderly hens beside him,and a dissipated-looking cock under his arm,with regard to whose qualifications its late proprietor had volunteered the most satisfactory assurances.I am also bound to mention,that protruding from his coat-pocket were certain sheets of music,with the name of "Alice Louisa,"written therein in a remarkably pretty hand,which led me to believe that the Doctor had not entirely confined his energies to the acquisition of hens and vegetables.The rest of the day was spent in packing away our newly-purchased stores,and making the ship as tidy as circumstances would admit.I am afraid,however,many a smart yachtsman would have been scandalized at our decks,lumbered up with hen-coops,sacks of coal,and other necessaries,which,like the Queen of Spain's legs,not only ought never to be seen,but must not be supposed even to exist,on board a tip-top craft.