Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-11-05
Scotland.

Justin AIcCarty, in a letter to the New York
Mail, draws this unaatterng picture of Scotland
and its people:
To 20 IS from England into Scotland is to 90
from prose into poetry, But the poetical in real
life is not usually the comfortable. In the build
ing of cities Charles Dickens observes that chOl-
era and the picturesque are commonly found to
be associated Scotland pays for her beauty by
having to turn herself into a show place, as |
set out in a former letter, and for her poetry by
Il great deal of feudalism, discomfort and power
ty. ! know no country where the distinction of
casts is more Sterny or even coarsely marked
out. The local duke or marquis seems every
where to be regarded almost exactly as he might
have been in the feudal times-as a sort of heaven
appointed ruler and king. In England, after all,
nobody cares much about lord, except people
who stand a chance of being invited to dine with
him, The average middle class DrtOn, who
never dreams of such privilege, concerns HIM
self little about peers, and has no more natural
reverence for a duke than he has for lord may
or. But i'll Scotland you live always under the
shadow of the duke-this, that and the other
duke Go into Highland inn and you see the
dukes portrait, the duchess portrait, a volume
containing an account of all the dukes ances-
tors and family; the talk is of what the duke
will not allow, what he has DONE what he has
promised, whether he will not permit the
road to be made here or the hotel to
be built there, when he is coming from
London or returning thither, who has
seen him at church, and so FORTH The dukes
country house (where you pay a shilling and
see some of the rooms) is called The Palace"
] confess grew weary of the duke as Hippo
lyta did of the moor, and wish he would change,
and even find it relief to pass from the dOmn-
ion of one duke into the domain of another.
In the meanwhile the country seems to mere
traveller to be all but depOpulated. There are
the cities of course, and in the picturesque
nlgppg q flnra ino
places OF the dukes, and the shooting lodges of
the English gentry who come in the season to
shoot grouse. BESIDES this there is-nOthing,
one might say. You travel for hours AMI see
nobody. Some of the Highland villages when
you see them are as miserable collection of
novels as could be found even in the west of
Ireland. Dirt, squalor, and nakcdness are every
where. You will scarcely see anywhere
woman who wears shoes and stockings. The
children are all but naked. We saw the other
day big, raw-boned girl, fully fourteen years
old, should say, amusing herself with other
children in the open air The rain was pouring
heavily. The girl had apparently no garments
but ragged lrOck with very short skirt
Her legs and feet were bare, Of course but in
that condition she was ouly like everybody
else. Her poor little frcck, however was all
torn from the neck to the waist; could hardly
be said TO have a body left to it, and h.r whole
chest was as bare as her forehead to the pelting
rain. We here are accustomed, of course, to
regard Scotland as highly prosperous country,
model of energy and intelligence, and exam
pie and a shame 10 poor Ireland. Well, Glas-
gov is great and fOurishing city, and Green
ock is busy, and Clyde is alive with shipbuild-
ing; but outside the cities see n country which
is fast becoming depopulated. Prosperity !?
What is prosperity? Does big city, dukes
castles, and a hotel in the Highlands constitute
national prosperity? Is this place which look
upon from my window prosperous? If it is
is "a Won, rsas,