[480] 'By the term second sight seems to be meant a mode of seeing superadded to that which nature generally bestows. In the Erse it is called Taisch; which signifies likewise a spectre or a vision.' Johnson's Works, ix. 105.
[481] Gray's Ode on a distant prospect of Eton College, 1. 44.
[482] A tonnage bounty of thirty shillings a ton was at this time given to the owners of busses or decked vessels for the encouragement of the white herring fishery. Adam Smith (Wealth of Nations, iv. 5) shews how mischievous was its effect.
[483] The Highland expression for Laird of Rasay. BOSWELL.
[484] 'In Sky I first observed the use of brogues, a kind of artless shoes, stitched with thongs so loosely, that, though they defend the foot from stones, they do not exclude water.' Johnson's Works, ix 46.
[485] To evade the law against the tartan dress, the Highlanders used to dye their variegated plaids and kilts into blue, green, or any single colour. WALTER SCOTT.
[486] See post, Oct. 5.
[487] The Highlanders were all well inclined to the episcopalian form, proviso that the right king was prayed for. I suppose Malcolm meant to say, 'I will come to your church because you are honest folk,' viz. Jacobites. WALTER SCOTT.
[488] See ante, i. 450, and ii. 291.
[489] Perhaps he was thinking of Johnson's letter of June 20, 1771 (ante, ii. 140), where he says:—'I hope the time will come when we may try our powers both with cliffs and water.'