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[—HIGHLAND ABHORRENCE OF PORK
Pork, or swine's flesh, in any shape, was, till of late years, much abominated by the Scotch, nor is it yet a favourite food amongst them. King Jamie carried this prejudice to England, and is known to have abhorred pork almost as much as he did tobacco. Ben Jonson has recorded this peculiarity, where the gipsy in a masque, examining the king's hand, says,—
—'you should, by this line, Love a horse, and a hound, but no part of a swine.'—THE GYPSIES METAMORPHOSED.
James's own proposed banquet for the devil was a loin of pork and a poll of ling, with a pipe of tobacco for digestion.]
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[—A HIGHLAND CHIEF'S DINNER-TABLE
In the number of persons of all ranks who assembled at the same table, though by no means to discuss the same fare, the Highland Chiefs only retained a custom which had been formerly universally observed throughout Scotland. 'I myself,' says the traveller Fynes Morrison, in the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, the scene being the Lowlands of Scotland, 'was at a knight's house, who had many servants to attend him, that brought in his meat with their heads covered with blue caps, the table being more than half furnished with great platters of porridge each having a little piece of sodden meat. And when the table was served, the servants did sit down with us; but the upper mess, instead of porridge, had a pullet, with some prunes in the broth.'—TRAVELS, p. 155.
Till within this last century, the farmers, even of a respectable condition, dined with their work-people. The difference betwixt those of high degree was ascertained by the place of the party above or below the salt, or, sometimes, by a line drawn with chalk on the dining-table. Lord Lovat, who knew well how to feed the vanity and restrain the appetites of his clansmen, allowed each sturdy Fraser, who had the slightest pretension to be a Duinhe-wassel, the full honour of the sitting, but, at the same time, took care that his young kinsmen did not acquire at his table any taste for outlandish luxuries. His Lordship was always ready with some honourable apology, why foreign wines and French brandy—delicacies which he conceived might sap the hardy habits of his cousins—should not circulate past an assigned point on the table.]