-- I suppose the Scots affect
these monuments of grandeur. -- If I may be allowed to mingle
censure with my remarks upon a people I revere, I must observe,
that their weak side seems to be vanity. -- I am afraid that even
their hospitality is not quite free of ostentation. I think I
have discovered among them uncommon pains taken to display their
fine linen, of which, indeed, they have great plenty, their
furniture, plate, housekeeping, and variety of wines, in which
article, it must be owned, they are profuse, if not prodigal -- A
burgher of Edinburgh, not content to vie with a citizen of
London, who has ten times his fortune, must excel him in the
expence as well as elegance of his entertainments.
Though the villas of the Scotch nobility and gentry have
generally an air of grandeur and state, I think their gardens and
parks are not comparable to those of England; a circumstance the
more remarkable, as I was told by the ingenious Mr Phillip Miller
of Chelsea, that almost all the gardeners of South-Britain were
natives of Scotland. The verdure of this country is not equal to
that of England. -- The pleasure-grounds are, in my opinion, not so
well laid out according to the genius loci; nor are the lawns,
and walks, and hedges kept in such delicate order.
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