'
I must own, I was at first a little nettled to find myself
schooled in so many particulars. -- Though I did not receive all
his assertions as gospel, I was not prepared to refute them; and
I cannot help now acquiescing in his remarks so far as to
think, that the contempt for Scotland, which prevails too much on
this side the Tweed, is founded on prejudice and error. -- After
some recollection, 'Well, captain (said I), you have argued
stoutly for the importance of your own country: for my part, I
have such a regard for our fellow-subjects of North-Britain, that
I shall be glad to see the day, when your peasants can afford to
give all their oats to their cattle, hogs, and poultry, and
indulge themselves with good wheaten loaves, instead of such
poor, unpalatable, and inflammatory diet.' Here again I brought
my self into a premunire with the disputative Caledonian. He said
he hoped he should never see the common people lifted out of that
sphere for which they were intended by nature and the course of
things; that they might have some reason to complain of their
bread, if it were mixed, like that of Norway, with saw dust and
fish-bones; but that oatmeal was, he apprehended, as nourishing
and salutary as wheat-flour, and the Scots in general thought it
at least as savoury.
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