Democratic Spirit in Scotland. -- One Scot as good as another.
-- Amiable Beggars. -- Familiarity of Servants. -- Shout all
together! -- A Scotchman who does not admire his Wife. --
Donald's Pride. -- The Queen and her Scotch People. -- Little
Presents keep alive Friendship.
The Scotch are an essentially democratic people. I take the word in its
social, not its political, sense; although it might be asserted without
hesitation, that if ever there was a nation formed for living under a
republic, it is the Scotch--serious, calm, wise, law-abiding, and ever
ready to respect the opinions of others. Yet the Scotch are perhaps the
most devoted subjects of the English crown.
The English and Scotch are republicans, with democratic institutions,
living under a monarchy.
When I say that the Scotch are a democratic people, I mean that in
Scotland, still more than in England, one man is as good as another.
The Scot does not admit the existence of demigods. In his eyes, the
robes of the priest or judge cover a man, not an oracle.
Always ready for a bit of argument, he criticises an order, a sermon, a
verdict even.
Religious as he is, yet he will weigh every utterance of his pastor
before accepting it. He respects the law; but if his bailie inflicts on
him a fine that he thinks unjust, he does not scruple to tell him a
piece of his mind; and if ever you wish to be told your daily duty at
home, you have but to engage a Scotch servant.
* * * * *
Donald knows how to accept social inferiority; he may perhaps envy his
betters, but he does not hate them. He never abdicates his manhood's
dignity: an obsequious Scotchman is unknown.
In Scotland, even a beggar has none of those abject manners that denote
his class elsewhere. His look seems to say:--
"Come, my fine fellow, listen to me a minute: you have money and I have
none; you might give me a penny."
I remember one in Edinburgh, who stopped me politely, yet without
touching his cap, and said:
"You look as if you had had a good dinner, sir; won't you give me
something to buy a meal with?"
I took him to a cook-shop and bought him a pork pie.
"If you don't mind," said he, "I'll have veal."
Why certainly! everyone to his taste, to be sure.
I acquiesced with alacrity. He was near shaking hands with me.
Donald is plain spoken with everyone. In Scotland, as in France, there
are still to be found old servants whose familiarity would horrify an
Englishman, but whom the _bonhomie_ of Scotch masters tolerates without
a murmur, in consideration of the fidelity and devotion of these honest
servants.
Like every man who is conscious of his strength, the Scot is
good-humoured; he rarely loses his temper.
The familiarity of the servant and good-humour of the master, in
Scotland, are delightfully illustrated in the two following anecdotes,
which were told me in Scotland.
Donald is serving at table. Several guests claim his attention at once:
one wants bread, another wine, another vegetables. Donald does not know
which way to turn. Presently, losing patience, he apostrophises the
company thus:
"That's it; cry a'together--that's the way to be served!"
* * * * *
A laird, in the county of Aberdeen, had a well-stocked fowl yard, but
could never get any new-laid eggs for breakfast.
He wanted to penetrate the mystery. So he lay in ambush, and discovered
that his gardener's wife went to the hen-roost every morning, filled her
basket with the eggs, and made straight for the market to sell them.
The first time he met his gardener, he said to him:
"James, I like you very weel, for I think you serve me faithfully; but,
between oursels, I canna say that I hae muckle admiration for your
wife."
"I'm no surprised at that, laird," replied James, "for I dinna muckle
admire her mysel!"
What could the poor laird say? This fresh union of sympathies united
them only more closely.
* * * * *
"Proud as a Highlander" is a common saying. His gait tells you what he
is. He walks with head thrown back, and shoulders squared; his step is
firm and springy. It is a man who says to himself twenty times a day:
"I am a Scotchman."
Such an exalted opinion has he of his race that when Queen Victoria gave
Princess Louise to the Marquis of Lorne in marriage, the general feeling
in the Highlands was, as everybody knows, "The Queen maun be a prood
leddy the day!"
The English were astonished at the Queen's consenting to give her
daughter to one of her subjects. They looked upon it as a _mesalliance_.
The Scotch were not far from doing the same--a Campbell marry a simple
Brunswick!
It is in the Highlands that this national pride is preserved intact.
Mountainous countries always keep their characteristics longer than
others.
Everyone knows that the Queen of England passes a great part of the
year in her Castle of Balmoral, in the heart of the Highlands, among her
worthy Scotch people, whom she appears to prefer to all her other
subjects. She visits the humblest cottages, and sends delicacies to the
sick and aged.
The good folk do not accept the bounty of their Queen without making her
a return for it in kind. Yes--in kind. The women knit her a pair of
stockings or a shawl, and the Queen delights them by accepting their
presents.