At times a boat came from the Castleton and brought
us a quarter of mutton, for the sheep upon the rock we must not
touch, these being specially fed to market. The geese were
unfortunately out of season, and we let them be. We fished
ourselves, and yet more often made the geese to fish for us:
observing one when he had made a capture and searing him from his
prey ere he had swallowed it.
The strange nature of this place, and the curiosities with which it
abounded, held me busy and amused. Escape being impossible, I was
allowed my entire liberty, and continually explored the surface of
the isle wherever it might support the foot of man. The old garden
of the prison was still to be observed, with flowers and pot-herbs
running wild, and some ripe cherries on a bush. A little lower
stood a chapel or a hermit's cell; who built or dwelt in it, none
may know, and the thought of its age made a ground of many
meditations. The prison, too, where I now bivouacked with Highland
cattle-thieves, was a place full of history, both human and divine.
I thought it strange so many saints and martyrs should have gone by
there so recently, and left not so much as a leaf out of their
Bibles, or a name carved upon the wall, while the rough soldier
lads that mounted guard upon the battlements had filled the
neighbourhood with their mementoes--broken tobacco-pipes for the
most part, and that in a surprising plenty, but also metal buttons
from their coats.
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