l have chimneys,
and some chimneys have grates.

The house and the furniture are not always nicely suited. We were driven
once, by missing a passage, to the hut of a gentleman, where, after a
very liberal supper, when I was conducted to my chamber, I found an
elegant bed of Indian cotton, spread with fine sheets. The accommodation
was flattering; I undressed myself, and felt my feet in the mire. The
bed stood upon the bare earth, which a long course of rain had softened
to a puddle.

In pastoral countries the condition of the lowest rank of people is
sufficiently wretched. Among manufacturers, men that have no property
may have art and industry, which make them necessary, and therefore
valuable. But where flocks and corn are the only wealth, there are
always more hands than work, and of that work there is little in which
skill and dexterity can be much distinguished. He therefore who is born
poor never can be rich. The son merely occupies the place of the father,
and life knows nothing of progression or advancement.

The petty tenants, and labouring peasants, live in miserable cabins,
which afford them little more than shelter from the storms. The Boor of
Norway is said to make all his own utensils. In the Hebrides, whatever
might be their ingenuity, the want of wood leaves them no materials. They
are probably content with such accommodations as stones of different
forms and sizes can afford them.

Their food is not better than their lodging. They seldom taste the flesh
of land animals; for here are no markets. What each man eats is from his
own stock. The great effect of money is to break property into small
parts. In towns, he that has a shilling may have a piece of meat; but
where there is no commerce, no man can eat mutton but by killing a sheep.

Fish in fair weather they need not want; but, I believe, man never lives
long on fish, but by constraint; he will rather feed upon roots and
berries.

The only fewel of the Islands is peat. Their wood is all consumed, and
coal they have not yet found. Peat is dug out of the marshes, from the
depth of one foot to that of six. That is accounted the best which is
nearest the surface. It appears to be a mass of black earth held
together by vegetable fibres. I know not whether the earth be
bituminous, or whether the fibres be not the only combustible part;
which, by heating the interposed earth red hot, make a burning mass. The
heat is not very strong