 gave Mrs. Tabitha some
disturbance. At Newcastle, the servants had been informed by some wag, that
there was nothing to eat in Scotland, but oat-meal and sheep's-heads; and
lieutenant Lismahago being consulted, what he said served rather to confirm than
to refute the report. Our aunt being apprised of this circumstance, very gravely
advised her brother to provide a sumpter horse with store of hams, tongues,
bread, biscuit, and other articles for our subsistence, in the course of our
perigrination, and Mr. Bramble as gravely replied, that he would take the hint
into consideration: but, finding no such provision was made, she now revived the
proposal, observing that there was a tolerable market at Berwick, where we might
be supplied; and that my man's horse would serve as a beast of burthen - The
'squire, shrugging up his shoulders, eyed her askance with a look of ineffable
contempt; and, after some pause, »Sister, (said he) I can hardly persuade myself
you are serious.« She was so little acquainted with the geography of the island,
that she imagined we could not go to Scotland but by sea; and, after we had
passed through the town of Berwick, when he told her we were upon Scottish
ground, she could hardly believe the assertion - If the truth must be told, the
South Britons in general are woefully ignorant in this particular. What, between
want of curiosity, and traditional sarcasms, the effect of ancient animosity,
the people at the other end of the island know as little of Scotland as of
Japan.
    If I had never been in Wales, I should have been more struck with the
manifest difference in appearance betwixt the peasants and commonalty on
different sides of the Tweed. The boors of Northumberland are lusty fellows,
fresh complexioned, cleanly, and well cloathed; but the labourers in Scotland
are generally lank, lean, hard-featured, sallow, soiled, and shabby, and their
little pinched blue caps have a beggarly effect. The cattle are much in the same
stile with their drivers, meagre, stunted, and ill equipt. When I talked to my
uncle on this subject, he said, »Though all the Scottish hinds would not bear to
be compared with those of the rich counties of South Britain, they would stand
very well in competition with the peasants of France, Italy, and Savoy - not to
mention the mountaineers of Wales, and the red-shanks of Ireland«.
    We entered Scotland by a frightful moor of sixteen miles, which promises
very
