r. The spirit drunk in the North is
drawn from barley. I never tasted it, except once for experiment at the
inn in Inverary, when I thought it preferable to any English malt brandy.
It was strong, but not pungent, and was free from the empyreumatick taste
or smell. What was the process I had no opportunity of inquiring, nor do
I wish to improve the art of making poison pleasant.

Not long after the dram, may be expected the breakfast, a meal in which
the Scots, whether of the lowlands or mountains, must be confessed to
excel us. The tea and coffee are accompanied not only with butter, but
with honey, conserves, and marmalades. If an epicure could remove by a
wish, in quest of sensual gratifications, wherever he had supped he would
breakfast in Scotland.

In the islands however, they do what I found it not very easy to endure.
They pollute the tea-table by plates piled with large slices of cheshire
cheese, which mingles its less grateful odours with the fragrance of the
tea.

Where many questions are to be asked, some will be omitted. I forgot to
inquire how they were supplied with so much exotic luxury. Perhaps the
French may bring them wine for wool, and the Dutch give them tea and
coffee at the fishing season, in exchange for fresh provision. Their
trade is unconstrained; they pay no customs, for there is no officer to
demand them; whatever therefore is made dear only by impost, is obtained
here at an easy rate.

A dinner in the Western Islands differs very little from a dinner in
England, except that in the place of tarts, there are always set
different preparations of milk. This part of their diet will admit some
improvement. Though they have milk, and eggs, and sugar, few of them
know how to compound them in a custard. Their gardens afford them no
great variety, but they have always some vegetables on the table.
Potatoes at least are never wanting, which, though they have not known
them long, are now one of the principal parts of their food. They are
not of the mealy, but the viscous kind.

Their more elaborate cookery, or made dishes, an Englishman at the first
taste is not likely to approve, but the culinary compositions of every
country are often such as become grateful to other nations only by
degrees; though I have read a French author, who, in the elation of his
heart, says, that French cookery pleases all foreigners, but foreign
cookery never satisfies a Frenchman.

Their suppers are, like