I not only started late , but I must have wandered nearly half the time . True , I met plenty of people , grubbing in little miserable fields that would not keep a cat , or herding little kine about the bigness of asses . The Highland dress being forbidden by law since the rebellion , and the people condemned to the Lowland habit , which they much disliked , it was strange to see the variety of their array . Some went bare , only for a hanging cloak or great-coat , and carried their trousers on their backs like a useless burthen : some had made an imitation of the tartan with little parti-coloured stripes patched together like an old wife 's quilt ; others , again , still wore the Highland philabeg , but by putting a few stitches between the legs transformed it into a pair of trousers like a Dutchman 's . All those makeshifts were condemned and punished , for the law was harshly applied , in hopes to break up the clan spirit ; but in that out-of-the-way , sea-bound isle , there were few to make remarks and fewer to tell tales . They seemed in great poverty ; which was no doubt natural , now that rapine was put down , and the chiefs kept no longer an open house ; and the roads -LRB- even such a wandering , country by-track as the one I followed -RRB- were infested with beggars . And here again I marked a difference from my own part of the country . For our Lowland beggars -- even the gownsmen themselves , who beg by patent -- had a louting , flattering way with them , and if you gave them a plaek and asked change , would very civilly return you a boddle . But these Highland beggars stood on their dignity , asked alms only to buy snuff -LRB- by their account -RRB- and would give no change . To be sure , this was no concern of mine , except in so far as it entertained me by the way . What was much more to the purpose , few had any English , and these few -LRB- unless they were of the brotherhood of beggars -RRB- not very anxious to place it at my service . I knew Torosay to be my destination , and repeated the name to them and pointed ; but instead of simply pointing in reply , they would give me a screed of the Gaelic that set me foolish ; so it was small wonder if I went out of my road as often as I stayed in it . At last , about eight at night , and already very weary , I came to a lone house , where I asked admittance , and was refused , until I bethought me of the power of money in so poor a country , and held up one of my guineas in my finger and thumb . Thereupon , the man of the house , who had hitherto pretended to have no English , and driven me from his door by signals , suddenly began to speak as clearly as was needful , and agreed for five shillings to give me a night 's lodging and guide me the next day to Torosay . I slept uneasily that night , fearing I should be robbed ; but I might have spared myself the pain ; for my host was no robber , only miserably poor and a great cheat . He was not alone in his poverty ; for the next morning , we must go five miles about to the house of what he called a rich man to have one of my guineas changed . This was perhaps a rich man for Mull ; he would have scarce been thought so in the south ; for it took all he had -- the whole house was turned upside down , and a neighbour brought under contribution , before he could scrape together twenty shillings in silver . The odd shilling he kept for himself , protesting he could ill afford to have so great a sum of money lying `` locked up . '' For all that he was very courteous and well spoken , made us both sit down with his family to dinner , and brewed punch in a fine china bowl , over which my rascal guide grew so merry that he refused to start . I was for getting angry , and appealed to the rich man -LRB- Hector Maclean was his name -RRB- , who had been a witness to our bargain and to my payment of the five shillings .
But XXXXX had taken his share of the punch , and vowed that no gentleman should leave his table after the bowl was brewed ; so there was nothing for it but to sit and hear Jacobite toasts and Gaelic songs , till all were tipsy and staggered off to the bed or the barn for their night 's rest .
English Maclean alms by-track guineas louting night screed snuff tartan