When Washington Irving visited Abbotsford, Sir Walter Scott introduced
him to many of his friends and favorites, not only among the neighboring
farmers, but the laboring peasantry. "I wish to show you," said Scott,
"some of our really excellent plain Scotch people. The character of a
nation is not to be learnt from its fine folks, its fine gentlemen and
ladies; such you meet everywhere, and they are everywhere the same."
--_Smiles._
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