The Expedition of Humphry Clinker

214 TOBIAS SMOLLETT
ignorant in this particular. What, between want of curiosity, and
traditional sarcasms, the effect of ancient animosity, the people at
the other end of the island know as little of Scotland as of Japan.
If I had never been in Wales, I should have been more struck
with the manifest difference in appearance betwixt the peasants
and commonalty on different sides of the Tweed. The boors of
Northumberland are lusty fellows, fresh complexioned, cleanly,
and well cloathed; but the labourers in Scotland are generally lank,
lean, hard-featured, sallow, soiled, and shabby, and their little
pinched blue caps have a beggarly effect. The cattle are much in the
same stile with their drivers, meagre, stunted, and ill equipt. When
I talked to my uncle on this subject, he said, ‘Though all the
Scottish hinds would not bear to be compared with those of the rich
counties of South Britain, they would stand very well in competi-
tion with the peasants of France, Italy, and Savoy—not to mention
the mountaineers of Wales, and the red-shanks of Ireland.’
We entered Scotland by a frightful moor of sixteen miles, which
promises very little for the interior parts of the kingdom; but the
prospect mended as we advanced. Passing through Dunbar, which
is a neat little town, situated on the sea-side, we lay at a country inn,
where our entertainment far exceeded our expectation; but for this
we cannot give the Scots credit, as the landlord is a native of
England. Yesterday we dined at Haddington, which has been a
place of some consideration, but is now gone to decay; and in the
evening arrived at this metropolis, of which I can say very little.
It is very romantic, from its situation on the declivity of a hill,
having a fortified castle at the top, and a royal palace at the bottom.
The first thing that strikes the nose of a stranger, shall be nameless;
but what first strikes the eye, is the unconscionable height of the
houses, which generally rise to five, six, seven, and eight stories,
and, in some places, (as I am assured) to twelve. This manner of
building, attended with numberless inconveniences, must have
been originally owing to want of room. Certain it is, the town seems
to be full of people; but their looks, their language, and their
customs, are so different from ours, that I can hardly believe my-
self in Great-Britain.
The inn at which we put up, (if it may be so called) was so filthy
and disagreeable in all respects, that my uncle began to fret, and his
gouty symptoms to recur—Recollecting, however, that he had a
letter of recommendation to one Mr. Mitchelson, a lawyer, he