6*2 Transactions. 



custom of tlie gentry for the whole company to sup broth out of 

 one large plate. For some years after 1745 most families break- 

 fasted between eight and nine, dined precisely at two, and supped 

 at eight. The dining at two was then regarded as a mark of 

 fashion and figure. 



In the beginnimg of the century, there being few grass 

 enclosures, the fat cows intended for winter provision were 

 slaughtered at Martinmas, and no fresh beef or mutton could be 

 had for money after the middle of December until well on in 

 summer. There seems to have been no scarcity of salt provisions, 

 however, at least in the Stirling district ; for fat cattle were 

 there very cheap, and it is said that it was the custom of the 

 substantial burgesses of that historic town to lay in at Martinmas 

 a cow for every person in the family, the sucking child not 

 excepted. Broth was a standing dish in every family, but there 

 was no barley in the country except what was imported from 

 Holland. Its place was supplied by groats, and knocked bere. 

 Every family had a knocking-stone, on which the bere was beat 

 each morning by the kitchen maid. The garden stuff consisted 

 chiefly of kail and leeks. It was believed that onions would not 

 grow in the country, and they were brought from Holland and 

 France. They cost about half-a-crown a firkin. At the present 

 day large supplies come to Edinburgh from the Continent, and 

 are sold from house to house by the sailors. Sugar was originally 

 considered as a cordial, but, by degrees, was substituted for 

 honey, as being a better sweetener. The breakfasts of the gentry 

 consisted of coUops, fish, cold meat, eggs, milk porridge, skink, 

 a species of soup, strong ale, or a glass of wine and water. Tea 

 ■was at first regarded as an expensive and unpleasant drug. The 

 precise time of its introduction cannot now be ascertained, but it 

 made rapid progress after 1715, and before 1745 it was the 

 common breakfast in most gentlemen's families in the country. 

 At the first introduction of tea it was common for the young 

 ladies of a family to have great tea-drinkings after the old folks 

 were gone to bed. 



The expense of funerals used to be enormous, reaching some- 

 times to a full year's rent of an estate, and the almost universal 

 custom was to drink at them to excess. A person staggering 

 home from the house where a very worthy neighbour was lying 

 a corpse, being asked whence he had come in that condition. 



