Danbury on Scottish Characteristics.
Clutha Leader, Rōrahi I, Putanga 38, 1 Paengawhāwhā 1875, Page 3
Mō tēnei niupepa
Danbury on Scottish Characteristics.
The Scotch have not, strictly speaking, a reputation for temperance. But they are really a temperate people. Nowhere else — not even in Maine— are there so many temperance hotels as exist in Scotland. I think lam safe in saying that one-third of the Edinburgh hotels are temperance. They abound in Glasgow, and are to be found in every Scotch town of any importance. The little city, of Stirling has several. I do not stop.at temperance hotels myself; they, are too. noisy. They live about as we have found the English. Roast meats, mutton chops, and cauliflower have the lead. ; Bxit they have a soup called Scotch broth, which takes the rag off — I niean it excels any soup I have eaten. Then they are isolated in another dish — the oat-meal cake; but we won't talk of the dreadful subject. The Highland woman of the lower classes— and it is these classes you find in abundance in the cities, as there are many poor in Britain — are of a masculine caste, and wonderfully healthy in appearance. They are mostly bare armed, and you meet them on every street. Their lungs would shame many a blacksmith's bellows ; and when one of them comes out of a close and calls " Sandy !" that young man promptly appears. The Scotch are even more strict in parental discipline than are the English, and that seems needless. The juveniles are got to bed at an early hour— those in the better classes retiring at eight o'clock in the summer, and even earlier in the winter And it is not only the fact that they are got to bed, but they go as promptly and as irresistibly as if fired out of a mortar. At the table they ask for what they want, and preserve a petrified tongue throughout the meal, unless spoken to. I have had the pleasure of 'being entertained by many families in this country, but I can recall no act of fretfulness by .children at the table. N o people are more, respected than these Scottish folk. A leading characteristic among them is cautiousness. ;They make better listeners than talkers. There is a spirit of independence engrafted in them that is strikingly observable. An English friend who was recently in Glasgow, called at a shop to purchase, a walking stick. He saw one near the door that suited him, and, learning its price, concluded to take it. Naturally enough, he wanted to look at some others to see. if he might not be better '.suitejd ; J but the. dealer,' an old man, did not offer to show him any more. Then he said, "Can't I look at some other sticks?" And the- dealer said, "If the stick in your hand please you, why should you lodk at others ?'* That closed the. interview. But the statement that the Scotch lower classes are. not open to fees, : a£d' scorn to earn money in that., way, is a bitter sell. iWhen we were in "Edinburgh, and out riding one day^my wife's hat blew off and sailed,dojvn_thej_treet. Thecarriage was stopped, and the, driver was getting down t^^°X%MM^ c^j?^6h a boy was observed to. pick.it" upl "' _'1 'put* my hand in ,my pocket to 'reward him ijbr his kindness/ but the momenttiejianded up the ! haty and/observed^ what I was doihjf,^he'left/'ah^ajfehough the driver, who sympathies w^~^tised b^ my a§fibhv-cflfed ! lustrlj't6- ; hi^i:vtio, £etu*n, i he wouldp^ot,^^ a^d r .we, "wept jon, ( the driver* sinking __ iM^-Li^ haoolly i silence. ! But it rplease|lrme very* much, and setpo Mme3^iubbe§ln^ltms|S(]a^ satisfied manner, r and eaoh timere- < 'ycm/ [That's the true Scotch spirit jfchg&yquj tez&o&zzd n^Mb w^ Qn P a y in & the driver, jjM, cWUtEe midst of it he bbser v#d^c- Would J %ou mind something &T WlS^er, sir ?" Then I stopped oSffi^- it, and hayen't felt well enougKt(oscio it again,.
