Fàilte! (Welcome!)

Fàilte! (Welcome!)
This blog is the result of my ongoing research into the people, places and events that have shaped the Western Isles of Scotland and, in particular, the 'Siamese-twins' of Harris and Lewis.
My interest stems from the fact that my Grandfather was a Stornowegian and, until about four years ago, that was the sum total of my knowledge, both of him and of the land of his birth.
I cannot guarantee the accuracy of everything that I have written (not least because parts are, perhaps, pioneering) but I have done my best to check for any errors.
My family mainly lived along the shore of the Sound of Harris, from An-t-Ob and Srannda to Roghadal, but one family 'moved' to Direcleit in the Baighs...

©Copyright 2011 Peter Kerr All rights reserved

Wednesday 16 February 2011

A TREATISE ON THE SECOND SIGHT,...

...DREAMS AND APPARITIONS: WITH SEVERAL INSTANCES SUFFICIENTLY ATTESTED AND AN APPENDIX OF OTHERS EQUALLY AUTHENTIC: THE WHOLE ILLUSTRATED WITH LETTERS TO AND FROM THE AUTHOR ON THE SUBJECT OF HIS TREATISE, AND A SHORT DISSERTATION ON THE MISCHIEVOUS EFFECTS OF LOOSE PRINCIPLES
By Theophilus Insulanus, 1763

(Note: This was the nom de plume of William Macleod of Hamer )

ANGUS CAMPBELL, late tacksman of Eansay in Harris, a person of remarkable candour and probity, related, that in a fair sun-shining day, he saw a little fleet, consisting of nine vessels, with an easy leading gale, coming, under sail, to a place called Corminish, opposite to his house, where they dropt their anchors, having their long boats after them, and the crew of each walking the decks ; and that his children and severals of his domestics took particular notice of a large sloop among them: as the place where they moored in was not a safe harbour, nor that sound a frequented passage to the western ocean, he despatched an express to his servants, who were at a good distance about their labouring, with a view to send a boat to those ships, either to bring them to a safe harbour, or to pilot them out to sea, as they choosed; and, after his servants came up, all of them saw the vessels, as formerly described ; but while they were deliberating what to do, the scene disappeared gradually. In two years thereafter, the same number of ships, the remarkable sloop being among them, came and dropt anchor at Corminish, which was attended with all the circumstances above related, according as Eansay told the whole to Mr. Kenneth Macaulay, present Minister of the Harries, from whom I had this relation; and who says there are sevcrals still living witnesses of the above representation and its accomplishment.

JOHN CAMPBELL, on to the said Angus, now tacksman of Eansay, told me, he had seen two ships, cast on the shore of the north-west side of the island, he himself being on an eminence close to the shore, and that on the sudden both vanished from his sight; but was literally fulfilled at the same time, the first Second Sight (seen by his father) had its completion; there being two of the fleet before-mentioned, wrecked in the individual place, as he bad seen them by the Second Sight.

More on Second Sight: http://www.electricscotland.com/history/social/sh6.html .
Corminish' is, presumably, Cairminis on the Harris 'mainland' SE of An-t-Ob and 'Eansay' is Ensaigh, the Northernmost of the two islands at the left of the above map.


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