ells me that the natives still wear the kilt! The very day she passed
through Edinburgh she met five hundred men without trousers! To be
sure, they had guns on their shoulders, and someone told her they were
soldiers; but the sight was so appalling that she could not get rid of
the impression; she shut her eyes, and ordered the coachman to drive
straight through the town, and let her know when she was quite beyond
its walls. She has no doubt whatever that most, if not all, of the
other inhabitants of that place were clothed--perhaps I should say
unclothed--in the same way. What surprised poor Lady Knownothing most
was, that she did not see nearly so many kilts in the Highlands as she
saw on that occasion in Edinburgh, from which she concluded that the
natives of Scotland are less barbarous in the north than they are in the
south. But she _did_ see a few. One man who played those hideous
things called the pipes--which, she says, are so very like little pigs
being killed--actually came into her presence one day, sat down before
her with bare knees, and took a pinch of snuff with a salt-spoon!"

"That is a dreadful account, no doubt," said Mr Sudberry, "but you must
remember that Lady Knownothing is given to exaggerating, and is
therefore not to be depended on. Have you done with the _cons_?"

"Not nearly done, John, but my nervous system cannot stand the sustained
contemplation of such things. I should like to recover breath, and hear
what you have to say in favour of this temporary expatriation, I had
almost said, of your family."

"Well, then, here goes for the _pros_," cried Mr Sudberry, while a
gleam of excitement shot from his eyes, and his clinched hand came
heavily down on the table.

"The sixteenth cup--_as near as possible_," observed his wife,
languidly.

"Never mind the cups, my dear, but listen to me. The air of the
Highlands is salubrious and bracing--"

"And piercingly cold, my dear John," interrupted Mrs Sudberry.

"In summer," pursued her husband, regardless of the interruption, "it is
sometimes as clear and warm as it is in Italy--"

"And often foggy, my dear."

"The mountain scenery is grand and majestic beyond description--"

"Then why attempt to describe it, dear John?"

"The hotels in most parts of the Highlands, though rather expensive--"

"Ah! think of _that_, my dear."

"Though rather expensive, are excellent; the food is of the best
quality, and the wines are passable. Bed