RAY. 139 



of them wear hats, but a party-coloured blanket, 

 which they call a plad, over their heads and shoul- 

 ders. The women generally to us seemed none of 

 the handsomest. They are not very cleanly in their 

 houses, and but sluttish in dressing their meat. 

 Their way of washing linens 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 another, in which are often made many 

 round holes or windows to put out their heads. In 

 the best Scottish houses, even the king's palaces, the 

 windows are not glazed throughout, but the up- 

 per part only, the lower have two wooden shuts or 

 folds to open at pleasure, and admit the fresh air. 

 The Scots cannot endure to hear their country or 

 countrymen spoken against. They have neither 

 good bread, cheese, nor drink. They cannot make 

 them, nor will they learn. Their butter is very in- 

 different, and one would wonder how they could 

 contrive to make it so bad. They use much pot- 

 tage made of coal- wort, which they call keal, some- 

 times broth of decorticated barley. The ordinary 

 country houses are pitiful cots, built of stone, and 

 covered with turves, having in them but one room, 

 many of them no chimneys, the windows very small 

 holes, and not glazed. In the most stately and fa- 

 shionable houses, in great towns, instead of cieling, 

 they cover the chambers with firr boards, nailed on 

 the roof within side. They have rarely any bel- 

 lows, or warming-pans. It is the manner in some 

 places there, to lay on but one sheet as large as two, 

 turned up from the feet upwards. The ground in 

 the valleys and plains bears good corn, but especially 



