strangers to discover.

Of the general condition of the country at this time a vivid picture has
been given by AEneas Sylvius, one of the Piccolomini, afterwards Pius II.,
who visited Scotland in the year 1413. He thus writes:--"Concerning
Scotland he found these things worthy of repetition. It is an _island
joined_ to England, stretching two hundred miles to the North, and about
fifty broad: a cold country, fertile of few sorts of grain, and generally
void of trees, but there is a sulphureous stone dug up which is used for
firing. The towns are unwalled, the houses commonly built without lime,
and in villages roofed with turf, while a cow's hide supplies the place of
a door. The commonalty are poor and uneducated, have abundance of flesh
and fish, but eat bread as a dainty. The men are small in stature, but
bold; the women fair and comely, and prone to the pleasures of love,
kisses being esteemed of less consequence than pressing the hand is in
Italy. The wine is all imported; the horses are mostly small ambling nags,
only a few being preserved entire for propagation; and neither curry-combs
nor reins are used. From Scotland are imported into Flanders hides, wool,
salt, fish, and pearls. _Nothing gives the Scots more pleasure than to
hear the English dispraised._ The country is divided into two parts, the
cultivated lowlands, and the region where agriculture is not used. The
wild Scots have a different language, and sometimes eat the bark of trees.
There are no wolves. Crows are new inhabitants, and therefore the tree in
which they build becomes royal property. At the winter, when the author
was there, the day did not exceed four hours."

That there are several inaccuracies in this account goes without saying,
but they are just such mistakes as a person making a hurried run through
the country would very naturally commit. Wolves and crows were much more
plentiful at that period than the inhabitants wished, as may be seen from
various Acts of Parliament which were passed in order to promote their
destruction. But the general description of the country here given agrees,
in its main details, with other contemporary records, and presents a truly
dismal picture of the poverty of the people.

Even as late as the 16th century there were few well-formed roads, other
than those already mentioned. There were no posts, either for letters or
for travelling. Education was confined to the library of the Convent,
where the sons of