SCOTLAND. 



573 



It is a little village on ilie English border, where, for a hundred years, fugitive lovers have 

 been accustomed to resort from England to avail themselves of the ready convenience of a 

 Scotch marriage. In this country, it is only required of a couple to declare their wish 

 before a justice of the peace, or other competent witness, and the mairiage is legally effected. 

 Sixty or seventy pair of runaways are usually married every year at Gretna Green. An 

 old blacksmith was, for a long time, the priest of Hymen at this noted spot. 



4. Jlgricullure. The articles cultivated are generally the same as in England. Oats are 

 -he principal crop, except in the most fertile districts. Potatoes are cultivated somewhat ex- 

 tensively, and in some places hemp. 



5. Commerce. Both the commerce and manufactures of Scotland have grown into im- 

 portance since the union with England. Commerce has flourished chiefly since the middle of 

 the last century. Greenock and Merdeen are the most important commercial places. The 

 shipping of Scotland amounts to 300,000 tons, or about one fourth less than that of the Stale 

 of Massachusetts ; annual value of imports, 24,000,000 ; of exports, 23,000,000. 



6. Manufactures. These consist of cotton, woolen, linen, iron, hats, paper, sailcloth, pot- 

 tery, and small quantities of most of the articles made in England. The localities of many of 

 these establishments have already been designated. At Carron., in the southern part of the 

 kingdom, are the most important iron founderies in Great Britain. They employ 2,000 woi k- 

 men, and cast above 4,000 cannon annually. The total value of the yearly manufactures of 

 Scotland is estimated at 70,000,000 dollars, employing 300,000 persons. 



7. Fisheries. The whale and heriing fisheries are considerable sources of wealth. The 

 whale ships are principally employed in the Northern Seas. The gathering of kelp on the 

 shores of the Western Islands once employed 120,000 persons ; but the business has now de- 

 clined in consequence of the substitution of a cheaper alkali in manufactures. The number of 

 herring taken on the coast is immense ; the fishermen go in small craft, called Busses. 



8. Inhahitanls. There are, in Scotland, but few residents except the natives ; though 

 these differ much in the lowlands and highlands. The Scotch are more bony and lean than the 

 English, and corpulence is rare. They have generally hard faces, and high cheek bones, and 

 their countenances have a hardy and sometimes a weather-beaten appearance. The classes are 

 substantially the same as in England, though, as there is much less wealth, there is less dis- 

 tinction between the rich and the poor. 



The Scotch fishwomen, or fishwives, as they are called, aie worthy of notice, forming a 

 distinct and separate race, who associate almost solely with one another ; and whose features, 

 dress, habits, and occupations are different from those of all the lower classes in Scotland. 

 They are of J^orse extraction ; and although their language is broad Scotch, it is distinguished 

 by a peculiar slang, understood only by themselves. They reside entirely at J^ewhaven. 

 When their husbands return from a fishing expedition, it is their ofiice to be in readiness to 

 mend and dry the nets, and to carry the fish up to the Edinbingh market in baskets, called 

 Creels. They also cry the fish through the streets, carrying the creels upon their backs, and 

 by these means collect a considerable quantity of money, which they usually spend in dress. 

 Their love of finery, and of bright, showy colors, is excessive. Their dress is a tri-cornered 

 handkerchief, of a bright color, pinned round the head in a very becoming manner ; short, red, 

 woolen petticoats, and checked aprons. There are several shops in the old town of Edin- 

 burgh, chiefly resorted to by these women, where they buy prints of the most extravagant and 

 showy pattern, to wear on Sundays. They are, when young, remarkable for the brightness ul 

 their complexion, fine eyes, and white teeth, and even for grace and regularity of features ; Imt 

 hard woik and intemperance render them prematurely old. They are an immoral race, pro- 

 verbial for their love of profanity, cheating, drinking, and fighting. When George the Fourili 

 visited Edinburgh, the first persons who congratulated him upon his arrival were a band ol 

 Newhaven fishwives, who rowed out in boats to the side of the royal yacht, attired in all their 

 finery, and saluted the royal ears with three cheers, more remarkable for noise than harmony. 



9. Dress. The dress of the higher and middling classes, in Scotland, is in every respect 

 similar to that of persons of the same rank in England, with perhaps this difference : that as 

 London takes the lead in all matters of taste, the Scotch may be a few days or weeks behind 

 their English neighbors with respect to the last fashionable novelties. The dress of the low 

 land peasants is also pretty similar to that of the lower classes among the English, although the 

 costume of the women in Scotland seems to retain a more marked and distinctive character. 

 It consists of a white mob cap, a short gown, made of coarse print, and a coarse, woolen pet- 



