Bonnie Scotland: Painted by Sutton Palmer; Described by A.R. Hope Moncrieff — John Shaqi
Bonnie Scotland: Painted by Sutton Palmer; Described by A.R. Hope MoncrieffMoncrieff, A. R. Hope (Ascott Robert Hope)
History
Bonnie Scotland: Painted by Sutton Palmer; Described by A.R. Hope Moncrieff
Moncrieff, A. R. Hope (Ascott Robert Hope)
Scotland -- Description and travel
Though in the eyes of busy Glasgow Edinburgh may pass as a retired
capital, living on its means of attraction, it has in fact several
industries from which to earn a livelihood. Along with the lodging and
amusing of strangers, it must do a good business in the tartans,
pebbles, silver-work, and other showy wares displayed in Princes Street
shop windows. “Edinbury Rock,” done up in tartan wrappers, is much
pressed upon the notice of tourists; the same indeed being sold in other
towns under their own name. As for shortbread, scones, biscuits, and
other manufactures of the “Land of Cakes,” these have invaded London,
where every baker not a German is like to be a Scot. It will be noted by
Cockney revilers as a proof of Scotch thriftiness, which might bear
another interpretation, that what costs a penny in a London baker’s shop
is here sold for a halfpenny. Well known to strangers are the Princes
Street confectioners’ shops, several of them extensive restaurants like
that one which, crowning its storeys of accommodation, has a roof garden
looking upon the Castle opposite.
The staple trades of Edinburgh have come to be printing and publishing,
and, as the nettle grows near the dock, brewing and distilling. The
great Scottish publishing firms have of late years shown a tendency to
gravitate towards London; but more than one still keeps its
headquarters here, beside some of the largest and best printing
establishments in the kingdom. It must be confessed that what is spoken
of as “_the_ trade,” is whisky, too much consumed about the premises, as
visitors are apt to note. The worst shame a Scotsman need take for
Scotland is on account of what Englishmen specially distinguish as
“Scotch.” I never heard sadder jest than the laughing comment of a group
of Dundee lasses, as they passed a braw lad wallowing in the gutter at
mid-day--“He’s having his holidays!” Yet as to this reproach, something
might be said in plea for mitigation of judgment. Something to the
purpose was said by that experienced toper who explained how “whusky
makes ye drunk before ye are fu’, but yill makes ye fu’ before ye are
drunk.” The whisky drunk by the lower classes here is a demon that takes
no disguise. It seems that, while there is more brutal intoxication in
Scotland, there may be less toping sottishness than in England. Men seen
so helplessly overcome at the ninth hour of a holiday are perhaps of
ordinarily sober habits, all the more readily affected by occasional
indulgence in fiery spirit. A woman frequenting public-houses implies a
lower depth of degradation. In the north, a larger proportion of the
population are abstainers; young people and the class of domestic
servants for instance, drink water where in English families they would
expect beer. In all classes, there are still too many Scotsmen religious
in the worship of their native Bacchus, vulgar and violent deity as he
is; but every year adds to the number of Protestants against this
perverted fanaticism.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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