The peasantry of Scotland are certainly on a poor footing all over the
kingdom; and yet they look better, and are better cloathed than those
of the same rank in Burgundy, and many other places of France and Italy;
nay, I will venture to say they are better fed, notwithstanding
the boasted wine of these foreign countries. The country people of
North-Britain live chiefly on oat-meal, and milk, cheese, butter,
and some garden-stuff, with now and then a pickled-herring, by way of
delicacy; but flesh-meat they seldom or never taste; nor any kind of
strong liquor, except two-penny, at times of uncommon festivity--Their
breakfast is a kind of hasty pudding, of oat-meal or pease-meal, eaten
with milk. They have commonly pottage for dinner, composed of cale or
cole, leeks, barley or big, and butter; and this is reinforced with
bread and cheese, made of skimmed-milk--At night they sup on sowens or
flummery of oat-meal--In a scarcity of oats, they use the meal of barley
and pease, which is both nourishing and palatable. Some of them have
potatoes; and you find parsnips in every peasant’s garden--They are
cloathed with a coarse kind of russet of their own making, which is
both decent and warm--They dwell in poor huts, built of loose stones and
turf, without any mortar, having a fireplace or hearth in the middle,
generally made of an old mill-stone, and a hole at top to let out the
smoke.
These people, however, are content, and wonderfully sagacious--All of
them read the Bible, and are even qualified to dispute upon the
articles of their faith; which in those parts I have seen, is entirely
Presbyterian. I am told, that the inhabitants of Aberdeenshire are still
more acute. I once knew a Scotch gentleman at London, who had declared
war against this part of his countrymen; and swore that the impudence
and knavery of the Scots, in that quarter, had brought a reproach upon
the whole nation.
The river Clyde, above Glasgow, is quite pastoral; and the banks of it
are every where adorned with fine villas. From the sea to its source,
we may reckon the seats of many families of the first rank, such as the
duke of Argyle at Roseneath, the earl of Bute in the isle of that name,
the earl of Glencairn at Finlayston, lord Blantyre at Areskine, the
dutchess of Douglas at Bothwell, duke Hamilton at Hamilton, the duke of
Douglas at Douglas, and the earl of Hyndford at Carmichael. Hamilton is
a noble palace, magnificently furnished; and hard by is the village of
that name, one of the neatest little towns I have seen in any country.
The old castle of Douglas being burned to the ground by accident, the
late duke resolved, as head of the first family of Scotland, to have the
largest house in the kingdom, and ordered a plan for this purpose; but
there was only one wing of it finished when he died. It is to be hoped
that his nephew, who is now in possession of his great fortune, will
complete the design of his predecessor--Clydesdale is in general
populous and rich, containing a great number of gentlemen, who
are independent in their fortune; but it produces more cattle than
corn--This is also the case with Tweedale, through part of which
we passed, and Nithsdale, which is generally rough, wild, and
mountainous--These hills are covered with sheep; and this is the small
delicious mutton, so much preferable to that of the London-market. As
their feeding costs so little, the sheep are not killed till five years
old, when their flesh, juices, and flavour are in perfection; but their
fleeces are much damaged by the tar, with which they are smeared to
preserve them from the rot in winter, during which they run wild night
and day, and thousands are lost under huge wreaths of snow--‘Tis pity
the farmers cannot contrive some means to shelter this useful animal
from the inclemencies of a rigorous climate, especially from the
perpetual rains, which are more prejudicial than the greatest extremity
of cold weather.
On the little river Nid, is situated the castle of Drumlanrig, one
of the noblest seats in Great-Britain, belonging to the duke of
Queensberry; one of those few noblemen whose goodness of heart does
honour to human-nature--I shall not pretend to enter into a description
of this palace, which is really an instance of the sublime in
magnificence, as well as in situation, and puts one in mind of the
beautiful city of Palmyra, rising like a vision in the midst of
the wilderness. His grace keeps open house, and lives with great
splendour--He did us the honour to receive us with great courtesy, and
detain’d us all night, together with above twenty other guests, with all
their servants and horses to a very considerable number--The dutchess
was equally gracious, and took our ladies under her immediate
protection. The longer I live, I see more reason to believe that
prejudices of education are never wholly eradicated, even when they
are discovered to be erroneous and absurd. Such habits of thinking as
interest the grand passions, cleave to the human heart in such a manner,
that though an effort of reason may force them from their hold for a
moment, this violence no sooner ceases, than they resume their grasp
with an increased elasticity and adhesion.
I am led into this reflection, by what passed at the duke’s table after
supper. The conversation turned upon the vulgar notions of spirits and
omens, that prevail among the commonalty of North-Britain, and all the
company agreed, that nothing could be more ridiculous. One gentleman,
however, told a remarkable story of himself, by way of speculation
‘Being on a party of hunting in the North (said he), I resolved to visit
an old friend, whom I had not seen for twenty years--So long he had been
retired and sequestered from all his acquaintance, and lived in a moping
melancholy way, much afflicted with lowness of spirits, occasioned by
the death of his wife, whom he had loved with uncommon affection. As he
resided in a remote part of the country, and we were five gentlemen with
as many servants, we carried some provision with us from the next market
town, lest we should find him unprepared for our reception. The roads
being bad, we did not arrive at the house till two o’clock in the
afternoon; and were agreeably surprised to find a very good dinner ready
in the kitchen, and the cloth laid with six covers. My friend himself
appeared in his best apparel at the gate, and received us with open
arms, telling me he had been expecting us these two hours. Astonished at
this declaration, I asked who had given him intelligence of our coming?
and he smiled without making any other reply. However, presuming upon
our former intimacy, I afterwards insisted upon knowing; and he told me,
very gravely, he had seen me in a vision of the second sight--Nay, he
called in the evidence of his steward, who solemnly declared, that his
master had the day before apprised him of my coming, with four other
strangers, and ordered him to provide accordingly; in consequence of
which intimation, he had prepared the dinner which we were now eating;
and laid the covers according to the number foretold.’ The incident
we all owned to be remarkable, and I endeavoured to account for it by
natural means. I observed, that as the gentleman was of a visionary
turn, the casual idea, or remembrance of his old friend, might suggest
those circumstances, which accident had for once realized; but that in
all probability he had seen many visions of the same kind, which were
never verified. None of the company directly dissented from my opinion;
but from the objections that were hinted, I could plainly perceive that
the majority were persuaded there was something more extraordinary in
the case.
Another gentleman of the company, addressing himself to me, ‘Without all
doubt (said he), a diseased imagination is very apt to produce visions;
but we must find some other method to account for something of this
kind, that happened within these eight days in my neighbourhood--A
gentleman of a good family, who cannot be deemed a visionary in any
sense of the word, was near his own gate, in the twilight, visited by
his grandfather, who has been dead these fifteen years--The spectre was
mounted seemingly on the very horse he used to ride, with an angry and
terrible countenance, and said something, which his grandson, in the
confusion of fear, could not understand. But this was not all--He lifted
up a huge horse whip, and applied it with great violence to his back
and shoulders, on which I saw the impression with my own eyes. The
apparition was afterwards seen by the sexton of the parish, hovering
about the tomb where his body lies interred; as the man declared to
several persons in the village, before he knew what had happened to the
gentleman--Nay, he actually came to me as a justice of the peace, in
order to make oath of these particulars, which, however, I declined
administering. As for the grandson of the defunct, he is a sober,
sensible, worldly minded fellow, too intent upon schemes of interest to
give in to reveries. He would have willingly concealed the affair; but
he bawled out in the first transport of his fear, and, running into
the house, exposed his back and his sconce to the whole family; so that
there was no denying it in the sequel. It is now the common discourse of
the country, that this appearance and behaviour of the old man’s spirit,
portends some great calamity to the family, and the good-woman has
actually taken to her bed in this apprehension.’
Though I did not pretend to explain this mystery, I said, I did not at
all doubt, but it would one day appear to be a deception; and, in all
probability, a scheme executed by some enemy of the person who had
sustained the assault; but still the gentleman insisted upon the
clearness of the evidence, and the concurrence of testimony, by which
two creditable witnesses, without any communication one with another,
affirmed the appearance of the same man, with whose person they were
both well acquainted--From Drumlanrig we pursued the course of the Nid
to Dumfries, which stands seven miles above the place where the river
falls into the sea; and is, after Glasgow, the handsomest town I have
seen in Scotland. The inhabitants, indeed, seem to have proposed that
city as their model; not only in beautifying their town and regulating
its police, but, also in prosecuting their schemes of commerce and
manufacture, by which they are grown rich and opulent.
We re-entered England, by the way of Carlisle, where we accidentally
met with our friend Lismahago, whom we had in vain inquired after at
Dumfries and other places--It would seem that the captain, like the
prophets of old, is but little honoured in his own country, which he
has now renounced for ever--He gave me the following particulars of his
visit to his native soil--In his way to the place of his nativity, he
learned that his nephew had married the daughter of a burgeois, who
directed a weaving manufacture, and had gone into partnership with his
father-in-law: chagrined with this information, he had arrived at the
gate in the twilight, where he heard the sound of treddles in the great
hall, which had exasperated him to such a degree, that he had like to
have lost his senses: while he was thus transported with indignation,
his nephew chanced to come forth, when, being no longer master of his
passion, he cried, ‘Degenerate rascal! you have made my father’s house a
den of thieves;’ and at the same time chastised him with his
horse-whip; then, riding round the adjoining village, he had visited
the burying-ground of his ancestors by moon-light; and, having paid
his respects to their manes, travelled all night to another part of
the country--Finding the head of the family in such a disgraceful
situation, all his own friends dead or removed from the places of their
former residence, and the expence of living increased to double of what
it had been, when he first left his native country, he had bid it an
eternal adieu, and was determined to seek for repose among the forests
of America.
I was no longer at a loss to account for the apparition, which had
been described at Drumlanrig; and when I repeated the story to the
lieutenant, he was much pleased to think his resentment had been so much
more effectual than he intended; and he owned, he might at such an hour,
and in such an equipage, very well pass for the ghost of his father,
whom he was said greatly to resemble--Between friends, I fancy Lismahago
will find a retreat without going so far as the wigwams of the Miamis.
My sister Tabby is making continual advances to him, in the way of
affection; and, if I may trust to appearances, the captain is disposed
to take opportunity by the forelock. For my part, I intend to encourage
this correspondence, and shall be glad to see them united--In that case,
we shall find a way to settle them comfortably in our own neighbourhood.
I, and my servants, will get rid of a very troublesome and tyrannic
gouvernante; and I shall have the benefit of Lismahago’s conversation,
without being obliged to take more of his company than I desire; for
though an olla is a high-flavoured dish, I could not bear to dine upon
it every day of my life.
I am much pleased with Manchester, which is one of the most agreeable
and flourishing towns in Great-Britain; and I perceive that this is
the place which hath animated the spirit, and suggested the chief
manufactures of Glasgow. We propose to visit Chatsworth, the Peak,
and Buxton, from which last place we shall proceed directly homewards,
though by easy journies. If the season has been as favourable in Wales
as in the North, your harvest is happily finished; and we have nothing
left to think of but our October, of which let Barns be properly
reminded. You will find me much better in flesh than I was at our
parting; and this short separation has given a new edge to those
sentiments of friendship with which I always have been, and ever shall
be,
Yours, MATT. BRAMBLE MANCHESTER, Sept. 15.
To Mrs GWILLIM, house-keeper at Brambleton-hall.