SCOTLAND. 269 



the fifes, an instrument for which they are remarkably well suited. 

 It has been ridiculously supposed that Rizzio, the unhappy Italian, 

 secretary of Mary queen of Scots, reformed the Scotch music. This, 

 is a falsehood invented by his country, in envy to the Scots. Their 

 finest tunes existed in their church music, long before Rizzio's arrival; 

 nor does it appear that Rizzio, who was chiefly employed by his mis- 

 tress in foreign dispatches, ever composed an air during the short 

 time he lived in Scotland : but were there no other evidences to con- 

 fute this report, the original character of the music itself is sufficient. 

 The common people of Scotland retain the solemn decent manner of 

 their ancestors at burials. When a relation dies in a town, the parish 

 beadle is sent round with a passing-bell ; but he stops at certain places, 

 and with a slow melancholy tone announces the name of the party 

 deceased, and the time of his interment, to which he invites ail his 

 fellow countrymen. At the hour appointed, if the deceased was beloved 

 in the place, vast numbers attend. The procession is sometimes 

 preceded by the magistrates and-their officers, and the body is carried 

 in a coffin, covered by a velvet pall, with chair-poles, to the grave, 

 where it is interred without any oration or address to the people, or 

 prayers, or further ceremony, than the nearest relation thanking the 

 company for their attendance. The funerals of the nobility and gentry 

 are performed in much the same manner as in England, but without 

 any funeral service. The Highland funerals were generally preceded 

 by bagpipes which played certain dirges, called coronachs, and were 

 accompanied by the voices of the attendants of both sexes. 



Dancing is a favourite amusement in this country ; but little regard 

 is paid to art or gracefulness : the whole consists in agility, and in 

 keeping time to their own tunes, which they do with great exactness. 

 One of the peculiar diversions practised by the gentlemen, is the 

 Gaff, which requires an equal degree of art and strength : it is played 

 with a bat and a bail, and resembles that of the Mall, which was com- 

 mon in England in the middle of the seventeenth century The diver- 

 sion of Curling is, perhaps, peculiar to the Scots. It is performed 

 upon ice, with large flat stones, often from twenty to two hundred 

 pounds weight each, which they hurl from a common stand towards 

 a mark at a certain distance ; and whoever is nearest the mark is the 

 victor. These two may be called the standing winter and summer 

 diversions in Scotland. 



The dress of the Highlanders is a kind of national characteristic^ a 

 description of wl ich must not be omitted. The Highland plaid is 

 composed of a woollen stuff, sometimes very fine, called tartan. This 

 consists of various colours, forming stripes which cross each other at 

 right angles; and the natives value themselves on the judicious ar- 

 rangement, or what they call sets of those stripes and colours, which, 

 when skilfully managed, produce a pleasing effect to the eye. Above 

 the shirt, the Highlander wears a waistcoat of the same composition 

 with the plaid, which commonly consists of twelve yards in width, and 

 which they throw over the shoulder nearly in the form of a Roman 

 toga, as represented in ancient statues ; sometimes it is fastened 

 round the middle with a leathern belt, so that part of the plaid hangs 

 down before and behind like a petticoat, and supplies the want of 

 breeches. This they call being dressed in a fihelig; but the Lowland- 

 ers call it a kilt, which is probably the same word with Celt. Some- 

 times they wear a kind of petticoat of the same variegated stuff, buck- 

 led round the waist ; and this they term the p-hdibeg^ which seems to 



