The Expedition of Humphry Clinker

240 TOBIAS SMOLLETT
above all the velvets, brocards, and tissues of Europe and Asia.
They now lounge along in loose great coats, of coarse russet,
equally mean and cumbersome, and betray manifest marks of
dejection—Certain it is, the government could not have taken a
more effectual method to break their national spirit.
We have had princely sport in hunting the stag on these moun-
tains—These are the lonely hills of Morven, where Fingal and his
heroes enjoyed the same pastime: I feel an enthusiastic pleasure
when I survey the brown heath that Ossian wont to tread; and hear
the wind whistle through the bending grass—When I enter our
landlord’s hall, I look for the suspended harp of that divine bard,
and listen in hopes of hearing the aerial sound of his respected
spirit—The Poems of Ossian are in every mouth—A famous
antiquarian of this country, the laird of Mackfarlane, at whose
house we dined a few days ago, can repeat them all in the original
Gaelick, which has a great affinity to the Welch, not only in the
general sound, but also in a great number of radical words; and
I make no doubt but that they are both sprung from the same
origin. I was not a little surprised, when asking a Highlander one
day, if he knew where we should find any game? he replied, ‘hu
niel Sassenagh,’ which signifies no English: the very same answer
I should have received from a Welchman, and almost in the same
words. The Highlanders have no other name for the people of the
Low-country, but Sassenagh, or Saxons; a strong presumption,
that the Lowland Scots and the English are derived from the same
stock—The peasants of these hills strongly resemble those of
Wales in their looks, their manners, and habitations; every thing
I see, and hear, and feel, seems Welch—The mountains, vales, and
streams; the air and climate; the beef, mutton, and game, are all
Welch—It must be owned, however, that this people are better
provided than we in some articles—They have plenty of red deer
and roebuck, which are fat and delicious at this season of the year—
Their sea teems with amazing quantities of the finest fish in the
world; and they find means to procure very good claret at a very
small expence.
Our landlord is a man of consequence in this part of the country;
a cadet from the family of Argyle, and hereditary captain of one of
his castles—His name, in plain English, is Dougal Campbell; but
as there is a great number of the same appellation, they are dis-
tinguished (like the Welch) by patronimics; and as I have known