Most of the Scotch people are intelligent, and so far advanced in
education, that even the miners in the south have a library, where
they read, and improve their minds; and yet these poor miners were
little better than in a state of slavery two hundred years since. The
favourite musical instrument, with the Scotch, is the bag-pipe; which
does not, however, sound quite so well to our English ears, as it does
to theirs. Their national dances are the Highland reel, and fling,
which they perform with great agility and grace. The sheep and cattle
are rather small, but give exceedingly good meat; and the sheep, in
particular, are valued for their fleece, which is almost as fine as
the best Spanish wool.

Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is, in the new parts of it, a
fine clean city; the houses in the old town are excessively high, and
the streets inconvenient; but the streets of the new town are very
broad, and almost all in straight lines; some of them are a mile long.
Most of the houses are built of white stone, which sparkles as if it
was inlaid with diamonds when the sun shines on it.

The manufactures carried on in the city, are mostly cabinet-work,
furniture, carriages, musical instruments, linens, shawls, silks,
glass, marble, brass, and iron work. There are also many breweries,
for Edinburgh has long been celebrated for its ale, large quantities
of which are sent to London, and other parts of the kingdom, Glasgow,
which is the principal manufacturing and trading town, contains
extensive cotton factories.

In many parts of the Highlands, the natives are employed in feeding
sheep and cattle, for the markets; and in the valleys, and other
sheltered places, hemp, barley, flax, and potatoes, are cultivated,