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 little for the interior parts of the kingdom; but
the prospect mended as we advanced. Passing through Dunbar, which
is a neat little town, situated on the sea-side, we lay at a
country inn, where our entertainment far exceeded our
expectation; but for this we cannot give the Scots credit, as the
landlord is a native of England.
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