68 Transactions. 



holes in the deals everything transacted in a room was visible 

 from that above it. " The windovrs that remain unsashed," he 

 goes on to say, "have two shutters for the lower half," and the 

 upper only is glazed ; so that when it is necessary to keep out the 

 weather nothing can be seen in the street. This manner of con- 

 structing their windows is not altogether the effect of penury or 

 parsimony ; for in the clan quarrels many were shot from the 

 opposite side of the way, who were discovered sitting in their 

 chambers through the glass." This is a description of the 

 principal houses in Inverness ; those of the middling sort are yet 

 lower, and have generally a close wooden staircase before the 

 front, which is lighted by small round or oval holes just big 

 enough for the head to come through, and in summer, or when 

 anything in the street excites the curiosity of those within, they 

 look like so many people with their heads in the pillory. The 

 extreme parts of the town consist of wretched hovels faced and 

 covered with turf, with a bottomless tub or basket in the roof for 

 a chimney. 



With all this poverty and meanness our tourist finds much 

 "affectation." ''As in London," he says, " many petty retailers 

 dignify their shopo with the title of warehouse, so the people 

 beyond the Tweed aggrandise many things in imitation of their 

 ancient allies, the French. A peddling shopkeeper who sells a 

 pennyworth of thread is called a ' merchant,' the person who is 

 sent to buy that thread ' has received a commission,' and, bringing 

 it to the sender, is ' making a report.' A bill to signify that there 

 is a single room to let is called a ' placard,' the doors are called 

 * ports,' an inclosure of two acres is a ' park,' the wife of a laird of 

 £15 a year is a lady, an alehouse is called a ' change,' and the per- 

 son who keeps it a ' gentleman.' " The greater part of these 

 " affectations," it is needless to say, are simply adaptations from 

 the French, and many of them still subsist. 



There seems to have been abundance of animal food even in 

 the Highlands at this period ; but the scarcity of corn, cheap as 

 it was, must have put it out of the reach of the mass of the people, 

 so wretchedly poor were they. " There are salmon and trout," 

 we are told, " in abundance; also hares, partridge, grouse, plover, 

 duck, mallard, woodcook, and snipes ; but after Christmas no 

 mutton is to be procured till August, nor any beef till September, 

 and then they may be bought for a penny a pound." This scarcity 



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