ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND CONTRASTED (1725[77]).
+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.