friends met at each other's houses to take tea at five
o'clock, and perhaps to listen to a little music; for the Edinburghers
were fond of music, and an annual concert which was established early
in the century lingered on till within three years of its close. But
this simplicity was not immortal, and we hear sad complaints as the
century grows old concerning the decadence of manners made manifest in
the luxurious practice of dining as late as four or five, the freer use
of wine, and other signs of over-civilization.

[Sidenote: 1714--Lowland agriculture]

Glasgow, in the Clyde valley, ranked next to Edinburgh in importance
among Scotch towns. More than twenty years later than the time of
which we treat, the author of a pamphlet called "Memoirs of the Times"
could write, "Glasgow is become the third trading city in the island."
But in 1714 the future of its commercial prosperity, founded upon its
trade with the West Indies and the American colonies, had scarcely
dawned. The Scotch merchants had not yet been able, from want of
capital, and, it was said, the jealousy of the English merchants, to
make much use of the privileges conferred upon them by the union, and
Glasgow was on the wrong side of the island for sharing in Scotland's
slight Continental trade. Still, Glasgow was fairly thriving, thanks
to the inland navigation of the Clyde. Some of its streets were broad;
many of its houses substantial, and even stately. Its pride was the
great minster of St. Mungo's, "a solid, weel-jointed mason-wark, that
will stand as lang as the warld keep hands and gunpowther aff it," to
quote the {87} enthusiastic words of Andrew Fairservice. The streets
were often thronged with the wild Highlanders from the hills, who came
down as heavily and as variously armed as a modern Albanian chieftain,
to trade in small cattle and shaggy ponies.

At this time the average Englishman knew little about the Lowlands and
nothing about the Highlands of Scotland. The Londoner of the age of
Anne would have looked upon any traveller who had made his way through
the Highlands of Scotland with much the same curiosity as his
descendants, a generation or two later, regarded Bruce when he returned
from Abyssinia, and would probably have received most of his statements
with a politer but not less profound disbelief. It was cited, as a
proof of the immense popularity of the _Spectator_, that despite all
the difficulties of intercommunication it fou