Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

332 FOOD OF THE HIGHLANDS.
laud bis temperance: 1 have lauded it: but I would
almost consent to see bim as fond of wbisky as be is re-
puted once to bave been, if, by bis own increased exer-
tions, be could procure tbe means of drinking it.
It was Chrysippus who said, first of course, and
therefore before Dr. Pangloss, that there was a ^v«j
a-vvTa^iq Twv oX«v; and as tbe concatenation of things has
brought me once more to the business of eating, which,
some bow or other, proves to be the end and object of
most dissertations, I may as well pursue the subject a
little further, if not " ab ovo usque ad mala."
To begin with bread, as tbe staff of life, and to take
no notice of the beauty and novelty of the metaphor, the
people of the Highlands, in general, and with reason, pre-
fer oatbread to barley ; and it is only in St. Kilda that I
have seen the latter prevail. When this is made into
thick cakes, as is tbe usual mode, it is a very heavy and
tenacious substance, and, to strangers, unpalatable. Tbe
thin cake, made of fine barley meal, is, on tbe contrary,
a delicacy ; but one, that is only met with at good tables.
England might borrow from its neighbours, both the
barley scon and tbe oatcake. The latter, in particular,
though a standing subject of ridicule among tbe English,
is far superior to tbe vile invention used in Cornwall,
called barley bread, or even to the wheaten bread of tbe
lower classes in Wales and in other remote parts. Com-
pared to the general bread of the poor on the continent
of Europe, at least in the northern division, it is an abso-
lute luxury. I cannot, however, speak in praise of the
pease bannock, which is occasionally met with in the
Highlands. It seems to me abominable; as is a cake
which I have also sometimes see-j, made from potatoes.
Nature seems to have ordained this root to foil the cook-
ing animal and all his cookery ; though old Gerard directs
it to be dressed with wine and spices, and though our