Scotland; and when
we order dinner, we get no more than just serves, so that we have no cold
meat if a stranger were coming by chance, which makes an unco bare house.
The servan lasses I cannot abide; they dress better at their wark than
ever I did on an ordinaire week-day at the manse; and this very morning I
saw madam, the kitchen lass, mounted on a pair of pattens, washing the
plain stenes before the door; na, for that matter, a bare foot is not to
be seen within the four walls of London, at the least I have na seen no
such thing.

In the way of marketing, things are very good here, and considering, not
dear; but all is sold by the licht weight, only the fish are awful; half
a guinea for a cod's head, and no bigger than the drouds the cadgers
bring from Ayr, at a shilling and eighteenpence apiece.

Tell Miss Nanny Eydent that I have seen none of the fashions as yet; but
we are going to the burial of the auld king next week, and I'll write her
a particular account how the leddies are dressed; but everybody is in
deep mourning. Howsomever I have seen but little, and that only in a
manner from the window; but I could not miss the opportunity of a frank
that Andrew has got, and as he's waiting for the pen, you must excuse
haste. From your sincere friend,

JANET PRINGLE.

LETTER VII

_Andrew Pringle_, _Esq._, _to the Rev. Charles Snodgrass_
LONDON.

MY DEAR FRIEND--It will give you pleasure to hear that my father is
likely to get his business speedily settled without any equivocation; and
that all those prudential considerations which brought us to London were
but the phantasms of our own inexperience. I use the plural, for I
really share in the shame of having called in question the high character
of the agents: it ought to have been warrantry enough that everything
would be fairly adjusted. But I must give you some account of what has
taken place, to illustrate our provincialism, and to give you some idea
of the way of doing business in London.

After having recovered from the effects, and repaired some of the
accidents of our voyage, we yesterday morning sallied forth, the Doctor,
my mother, and your humble servant, in a hackney coach, to Broad Street,
where the agents have their counting-house, and were ushered into a room
among other legatees or clients, wai