+Source.+--_A Journey through Scotland, in familiar Letters from a
Gentleman here, to his Friend Abroad_, p. 269, by J. Macky. Second
edition. (London: 1729.)
There is no nation where a man hath fairer play for his liberty, than in
Scotland: Here are no Sheriffs Officers, and Marshal's men, that will
whip you off the street at London, and run you into a spunging-house at
once; but here if you owe money, you are summoned to show cause why you
don't pay it; which if you don't do, you have six days allowed you
before a caption comes out against your person; which is executed by
these messengers only, who are all put in by the Lord Lion,[78] and wear
a greyhound on a green ribbon, as a badge, when they are in the
execution of their office.
The ladies dress as in England, with this difference, that when they go
abroad, from the highest to the lowest, they wear a plaid, which covers
half of the face, and all their body. In Spain, Flanders, and Holland,
you know the women go all to church and market, with a black mantle over
their heads and body: But these in Scotland are all striped with green,
scarlet, and other colours, and most of them lined with silk; which in
the middle of a church, on a Sunday, looks like a _parterre de fleurs_.
I have been at several consorts of musick, and must say, that I never
saw in any nation an assembly of greater beauties, than those I have
seen at Edinburgh. The ladies are particular in a stately firm way of
walking, with their joints extended, and their toes out: But I cannot
say, that the common people are near so clean or handsome as the
English. The young ladies are all bred good housewives; and the
servant-maids are always kept at some work here: The spinning-wheels,
both for woollen and linnen, are always going in most houses; and a
gentleman of a good estate is not ashamed to wear a suit of cloaths of
his lady's and servants' spinning. They make a great deal of linnen all
over the Kingdom, not only for their own use, but export it to England,
and to the Plantations. In short, the women are all kept employed, from
the highest to the lowest of them.
But the men here are not so usefully employed as in England: There the
production of every county is improved by joint-stocks amongst the
inhabitants of the several counties. Iron-works, lead-works,
manufactories, and every thing else that may conduce to the common
welfare of the nation, are set on foot, and carried on. But here, altho
their rivers plentifully abound with salmon for exportation, their
coasts with white fish and herrings, more than any other in Europe; yet
the gentry, or landed men, never concern themselves about it, as a thing
below them; and leave those improvements to burghers of towns, who, for
want of a sufficient stock, are not able to carry it on.
Indeed, the nobility have of late run into parking, planting, and
gardening, which are great improvements of their estates; but what is
this to the bulk of a nation, which (if encouraged) hath as many natural
commodities for exportation as any whatsoever, and more than
South-Britain? But a finer education than what is necessary for trade,
hath been, in imitation of the French, the misfortune of this kingdom;
but perhaps the union with England may open their eyes to their own
interest.
The language of the Low-Countries of Scotland is the same with that
which is spoken all over England; only an Englishman will understand a
Scotchman better by his writing than speaking; for the difference in the
pronunciation of the vowels, which are the same in writing, makes a
great alteration in speaking.
The Scots pronounce the five vowels, a, e, i, o, u, just as the French,
Germans, and Italians do; and the English, according to that
pronunciation, make them [oe], i, y, o, u. This difference of sound in
the vowels, makes a great one in the pronunciation.
The Highlanders have a language of their own, which the Irish own to be
the purest of that Irish which they spake in the province of Ulster in
Ireland; which is also spoken in the greatest purity in the Western
Islands that lie between Scotland and Ireland: They being an unmixed
people, have preserved that language and the dress better than the Irish
have done, who have been over-run with Danes, English, etc.