Western Islen.

1557 Earl of Surrey et al. Songes & Sonettes sig. B The Western yle, whose pleasaunt shore dothe face Wilde Cambers clifs, did geue her liuely heate.

1640 W. Vaughan Church Militant 104 That Humid Westerne Isle, whose Soile resists Snakes, Toads, and Moules.

1716 ‘W. M.’ (title) Hesperi-neso-graphia: or, a description of the Western Isle.

1776 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall I. i. 5 The western isle might be improved into a valuable possession.

1812 C. Phillips Emerald Isle 49 Refuse not, thou, one summer smile Upon the lonely western isle.

1888 Western Galaxy Mar. 111/2 It [sc. Downpatrick] gained a name and a high standing in the nation long before St. Patrick set foot on the verdant soil of the Western Isle.

1911 Eng. Hist. Rev. Oct. 763 That this did not mean that Ireland was to become merely an architectural province of England is..shown by the subsequent development of the art in the western isle.

1996 Tuam (County Galway) Herald & Western Advertiser 17 Aug. 6/5 With joy we've left our own beloved western isle. Our prayer rising and falling in soft Connacht cadence.

1577 R. Holinshed Hist. Irelande i. 7/2 in Chron. I The Scottes, as yet inhabiting in Irelande, and in the westerne Isles called by the Romayne writers Hebrides..dyd vse to make often inuasions vppon the Britons.

1611 A. Munday Briefe Chron. 446 The Isles anciently called Ebonides..but now (by the Scots) the Westerne Isles, lying on the West halfe of Scotland.

1675 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 10 398 'Tis very ordinary to find Molucco Beans on the shoar of the Lewes or other our Western Isles.

1727 A. Buchan (title) A description of St. Kilda, the most remote Western Isle of Scotland.

1758 J. Armstrong Let. 21 Oct. in Notes & Queries (1979) Feb. 44/2 I hope you have had an agreeable View of the Western Isles.

1812 Caledonian Mercury 13 Aug. (advt.) They are situated on the Peninsula of North Knapdale, commanding an extensive view of the Western Isles.

1876 W. F. Skene Celtic Scotl. I. i. ix. 495 The results of the battle of Largs and the death of King Hakon substantially left the Western Isles at the mercy of King Alexander.

1936 H. A. L. Fisher Europe 181 By their control of the Western Isles and the Irish Sea a barrier was interposed between Ireland and Scotland, preventing migration.

1976 Scotsman 15 Dec. The rents of the 2000 local authority houses in the Western Isles are to be increased by £39 a year from April.

2002 J. Bindloss & C. Lucas Scotland's Highlands & Islands 80/1 Lobsters, crabs, langoustines and queenies are everywhere in Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.

1676 E. Coles Eng. Dict. Tercera, a Western Isle.

1760 F. Fauquier Let. 28 Oct. in G. Reese Official Papers (1980) 422 The Vessel is cleared out for Gibraltar, and then under pretence of being drove by stress of Weather into Madeira or some of the western Isles.

1813 T. Ashe Hist. Azores xliii. 305 In all other respects the ruling manners and principles are similar to those of the rest of the Western Isles.

1848 M. Gonsalves Let. 12 June in Amer. Protestant Aug. 80/1 This day I heard from one who is now at Flores, in the Western Isles.

1911 ‘E. Mordaunt’ Ship of Solace vi. 61 ‘There are the Azores—the Western Isles,’ mused Charlotte dreamily.