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 the fresh air. The Scots 
cannot endure to hear their country or countrymen 
