322

HISTORY OP ENGLAND.

CHAP.

XIII.

1689 .

houses were such as would now be called hovels; though thebest roofs were of thatch; though the best ceilings were of barerafters; though the best windows were, in bad weather, closedwith shutters for want of glass; though the humbler dwellingswere mere heaps of turf, in which barrels with the bottomsknocked out served the purpose of chimneys; yet to the moun-taineer of the Grampians this city was as Babylon or as Tyre.Nowhere else had he seen four or five hundred houses, twochurches, twelve maltkilns, crowded close together. Nowhereelse had he been dazzled by the splendour of rows of booths,where knives, horn spoons, tin kettles, and gaudy ribandswere exposed to sale. Now'here else had he been on board ofone of those huge ships which brought sugar and wine over thesea from countries far beyond the limits of his geography.* Itis not strange that the haughty and warlike Macdonalds,despising peaceful industry, yet envying the fruits of thatindustry, should have fastened a succession of quarrels on thepeople of Inverness. In the reign of Charles the Second, ithad been apprehended that the town would be stormed andplundered by those rude neighbours. The terms of peacewhich they offered showed how little they regarded the autho-rity of the prince and of the law. Their demand was that aheavy tribute should he paid to them, that the municipalmagistrates should bind themselves by an oath to deliver up tothe vengeance of the clan every burgher who should shed theblood of a Macdonald, and that every burgher who should any-where meet a person wearing the Macdonald tartan shouldground arms in token of submission. Never did Lewis the

* See Burt’s Third and Fourth Letters. In the early editions is an en-graving of the market cross of Inverness, and of that part of the streetwhere the merchants congregated.

I ought here to acknowledge my obligations to Mr. Robert Carruthcrs,who kindly furnished me with much curious information about Invernessand with some extracts from the municipal records.