The Scotch people are remarkable for their thrift and prudence; the lower orders are in general well-educated, and it is the height of ambition in a Scottish mechanic, to appear with his family in neat, clean dresses, on Sundays and other holidays.
The costume of the Highlanders is very picturesque; the plaid is made of woollen stuff, of various colours, with a jacket, and a short petticoat called a kilt, which leaves the knees bare; the stockings are also a plaid, generally red and white, and do not reach up to the knees, but are tied round the legs with scarlet garters. The head-dress is a flat blue bonnet, as it is called, ornamented round with scarlet and white plaid, and frequently adorned with eagle's feathers. The Highland women go without shoes or stockings, and wear short petticoats, a plaid jacket, and a plaid scarf.
Most of the Scotch people are intelligent, and so far advanced in education, that even the miners in the south have a library, where they read, and improve their minds; and yet these poor miners were little better than in a state of slavery two hundred years since. The favourite musical instrument, with the Scotch, is the bag-pipe; which does not, however, sound quite so well to our English ears, as it does to theirs. Their national dances are the Highland reel, and fling, which they perform with great agility and grace. The sheep and cattle are rather small, but give exceedingly good meat; and the sheep, in particular, are valued for their fleece, which is almost as fine as the best Spanish wool.
Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is, in the new parts of it, a fine clean city; the houses in the old town are excessively high, and the streets inconvenient; but the streets of the new town are very broad, and almost all in straight lines; some of them are a mile long. Most of the houses are built of white stone, which sparkles as if it was inlaid with diamonds when the sun shines on it.
The manufactures carried on in the city, are mostly cabinet-work, furniture, carriages, musical instruments, linens, shawls, silks, glass, marble, brass, and iron work. There are also many breweries, for Edinburgh has long been celebrated for its ale, large quantities of which are sent to London, and other parts of the kingdom, Glasgow, which is the principal manufacturing and trading town, contains extensive cotton factories.
In many parts of the Highlands, the natives are employed in feeding sheep and cattle, for the markets; and in the valleys, and other sheltered places, hemp, barley, flax, and potatoes, are cultivated, though unfortunately most of the barley is made into whiskey. In the more northernly parts the general employment is fishing.
Ireland is a much warmer and more fertile island; it is celebrated, in point of industry, for its wool, butter, beef, hides, tallow, cows, horses, pigs, sheep, potatoes, wheat, barley, oats, and linen. Linen is the chief manufacture. There are numerous mines, from which are obtained gold, silver, iron, copper, and lead; all very useful metals, I think.
There are also quarries of marble, slate, and freestone; and in various parts are found coal and turf. In Ireland, turf is the principal fuel used. The brewing of stout, and a strong bittered beer, for exportation; and the distilling of whiskey, another strong but spirituous drink, are other branches of Irish industry.