liberty, than in
Scotland: Here are no Sheriffs Officers, and Marshal's men, that will
whip you off the street at London, and run you into a spunging-house at
once; but here if you owe money, you are summoned to show cause why you
don't pay it; which if you don't do, you have six days allowed you
before a caption comes out against your person; which is executed by
these messengers only, who are all put in by the Lord Lion,[78] and wear
a greyhound on a green ribbon, as a badge, when they are in the
execution of their office.

The ladies dress as in England, with this difference, that when they go
abroad, from the highest to the lowest, they wear a plaid, which covers
half of the face, and all their body. In Spain, Flanders, and Holland,
you know the women go all to church and market, with a black mantle over
their heads and body: But these in Scotland are all striped with green,
scarlet, and other colours, and most of them lined with silk; which in
the middle of a church, on a Sunday, looks like a _parterre de fleurs_.

I have been at several consorts of musick, and must say, that I never
saw in any nation an assembly of greater beauties, than those I have
seen at Edinburgh. The ladies are particular in a stately firm way of
walking, with their joints extended, and their toes out: But I cannot
say, that the common people are near so clean or handsome as the
English. The young ladies are all bred good housewives; and the
servant-maids are always kept at some work here: The spinning-wheels,
both for woollen and linnen, are always going in most houses; and a
gentleman of a good estate is not ashamed to wear a suit of cloaths of
his lady's and servants' spinning. They make a great deal of linnen all
over the Kingdom, not only for their own use, but export it to England,
and to the Plantations. In short, the women are all kept employed, from
the highest to the lowest of them.

But the men here are not so usefully employed as in England: There the
production of every county is improved by joint-stocks amongst the
inhabitants of the several counties. Iron-works, lead-works,
manufactories, and every thing else that may conduce to the common
welfare of the nation, are set on foot, and carried on. But here, altho
their rivers plentifully abound with salmon for exportation, their
coasts with white fish and herrings, more than any other in Europe; yet
the gentry, or landed men, never concern themselves about it, as a thing
below