SCOTLAND. 



576 



second story, by means of exterior stairs, and the descent to the ground floor is within. The 

 cottages are nnany of them mere hovels, in which there is little comfort, and no attempt at 

 neatness. These are thatched, and the smoke is conducted out through a barrel placed in the 

 thatch. At the front door is the dunghill, which is often the favorite station for ihe children. 

 In the Highlands, which term includes all places where the Erse language is used, they are 

 more miserable still ; there is no chimney, and the smoke of the peat fires is left to escape by 

 a hole in the roof, which is not over the fire, lest the rain should extinguish it. The smoke is 

 allowed to circulate through the building, and the whole interior is glistening with soot. Some 

 have no other door than a blanket or hide. There is often but one small window, and this is 

 frequently without glass. 



12. Food and Drink. In these, the Scotch differ considerably from the English. Potatoes 

 are universal, and oatmeal is generally made into a coarse, but favorite cake, which is consid- 

 ered so national, that Scotland is sometimes called the Land of Cakes. It is preferred to the 

 bread of maize, which has been imported in seasons of scarcity. It is made, also, into a por- 

 ridge of a consistency rather less than that of mush or hasty-pudding. The haggis is a dish 

 peculiar to Scotland, where it is much esteemed, though it seldom has the favor of strangers. 

 It is made of the entrails of a sheep chopped small, with herbs, onions, suet, and spices ; it is 

 enclosed in the maw, boiled, and brought upon the table in the envelope. A slieep's head 

 singed is another peculiar dish ; it is not skinned, but the wool is burnt off with a hot iron. 

 Kail is more consumed than any vegetable of a similar kind. In Scotland, as in England, 

 there is less profusion of food than in the United States. 



Whisky, in the Erse language, signifies water, and, in the Highlands, it is almost used as 

 such. It is generally distilled from barley ; and no man there is so abstemious as to omit a 

 morning dram, which is called a stalk. The consumption of whisky is very great ; and this 

 spirit is perhaps the least deleterious of all the forms of alcohol, and less hurtful in the humid 

 climate of the Highlands, than elsewhere. It is drank in large quantities, yet there is 

 not a great proportion of the intemperate in Scotland. Even in Edinburgh and Glasgow, raw 

 whisky and punch are found at dinner parties ; and the ladies, as well as gentlemen, some- 

 times partake moderately of each. This, however, is less common than formerly ; amui. 

 the refined classes, there is little departure from the customs of England. 



13. Diseases. These are such as are common to a cold and humid climate, as pulmonary 

 complaints and rheumatism. Scotland is, however, in the main salubrious, and the people are 

 hardy and exempt from disease. 



14. Modes of Traveling. The roads in Scotland are excellent, and some of those made 

 over the mountains, designed to render intercourse with the Highlands more frequent, and thus 

 gradually remove the barbarism of the people, are monuments of labor and art. The coaches 

 and steamboats in the southern parts are good ; but the steamboats are, in no part of Great 

 Britain, so commodious and elegant as in the United States. The inns are of a lower grade 

 than those of England ; and in the Highlands there are few of any kind, and what there are, 

 are mere alehouses, little better in accommodations than the common huts. In some of them 

 there are no beds, and the beds that are found are not the exclusive privilege of one traveler. 

 Johnson relates, that as he was stepping into one of these, there started up from it " a High 

 lander, black as a Cyclops from the foige." Among the Highlands, and under this term we 

 include the Hebrides, there is no traveling but in boats and on horseback. The traveler 

 mounts one of the small ponies, and a Highlander runs by his side as an attendant. It is to be 

 remarked, that in Scotland the " real and nominal distances rarely agree," and when a traveler 

 asks the distance of one place from another, he seldom receives any very definite information. 



15. Character, Manners, &c. The Scotch are adventurous, yet cautious ; they have much 

 shrewdness, though they practise little cimning or deceit. They are persevering, thrifty, in- 

 telligent, and moral. They are grave and sedate, and the Highlanders so much so, that they 

 seem almost melancholy. The wild solitude in which they hve contr'bute to this. The 

 Scotch are much attached to their country, and are always reluctant emigrants ; in foreign coun- 

 tries they are distinguished for their attachment to each other. They are the most loyal subjects 

 of the crown, though they have heretofore been often in rebellion. They have, in a great de- 

 gree, the principle of fidelity ; and a Highlander, like an Arab, knows not how to betray. 



When Charles Edward was wandering about the Highlands, and a price of £30,000 was set 

 upon his head, his retreats were known to numbers, and he was sheltered for awhile by two com- 

 mon thieves, one of whom was afterwards hanged for stealing a cow of the value of 30 shillings 



