Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

ROADS. 449
be admitted that you are often obliged to pay for your
information, as in America, by a particular, if not a true,
accountof yourself in all your various relations; however
little important you may think these are to the inquirer.
It is true, that the miles are somewhat long; and the
" bitty," which is a sort of postscript, often contains, as
ladies' postscripts have been sometimes said to do, the
quintessence of the whole journey. "How many miles
to—Duntulm—as on the present occasion."— " Sax and
a bitty." You proceed soberly, sure that you have time
enough to pass the wolds before dark, and meet another
guide to whom you repeat the question.— " It will be
about twalve statute miles."— "And how many Scotch."
" Oh, there "ill be gude acht."— " Only eight."— " Na
na, acht and a bitty." You find it time then to accele-
rate your speed, and the next question, perhaps, pro-
duces the general answer, " a gay bit :" an undefined
space, oflTering little consolation to those who know its
full and possible value. Night now begins to threaten,
and you become no less anxious for the real number of
miles than for the value of the indefinite bitty. A fresh
geographer appears ; and after having ridden twelve or
fourteen miles, you find that it is still a gay bitty, or a
weary lang gait, or that ye'll gang it in an hour; so that
the miscalculations of Scotch and statute miles, errors of
reckoning, and the bitty put together, have left you
more to perform than you had at the commencement of
your career. The fact is, that the term mile is out of its
place in the Highlands ; it is an unknown quantity. In
the Lowlands, it is about double that of England; and
as the Highlander must, from his very nature, answer
every question, a certain number of miles is named at
hazard, and the bitty forms a mental reservation for all
possible and probable errors ; for him as for the Low-
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