28 MEMOIR OF RAY. 



gard, or produce agreeable associations. He states 

 that while he was in Scotland, divers women were 

 burnt for witches, to the number, it was reported, 

 of about 120! And during his walks about Edin- 

 burgh, one of the spectacles that presented itself 

 was the heads of Argyle and Guthry fixed on the 

 gates of the tollbooth. The following extract con- 

 tains his opinion of the Scotch, and is of consider- 

 able interest in a historical point of view. 



" The Scots generally (that is the poorer sort), 

 wear, the men blue bonnets on their, heads, and 

 some russet ; the women only white linnen, which 

 hangs down their backs as if a napkin were pinned 

 about them. When they go abroad none of them 

 wear hats, but a party-coloured blanket, which they 

 call a plad, over their heads and shoulders. The 

 women generally to us seemed none of the hand- 

 somest. They are not very cleanly in their houses, 

 and but sluttish in dressing their meat. Their way 

 of washing linnen is to tuck up their coats, and tread 

 them with their feet in a tub. They have a custom 

 to make up the fronts of their houses, even in their 

 principal towns, with firr boards nailed one over ano- 

 ther, in which are often made many round holes or 

 windows to put out their heads. In the best Scot- 

 tish houses, even the king's palaces, the windows 

 were not glazed throughout, but the upper part on- 

 ly, the lower have two wooden shuts or folds to open 

 at pleasure, and admit tke fresh air. The Scots 

 cannot endure to hear their uJuntry or countrymen 



