Their native bread is made of oats, or barley. Of oatmeal they
spread very thin cakes, coarse and hard, to which unaccustomed
palates are not easily reconciled. The barley cakes are thicker
and softer; I began to eat them without unwillingness; the
blackness of their colour raises some dislike, but the taste is not
disagreeable. In most houses there is wheat flower, with which we
were sure to be treated, if we staid long enough to have it kneaded
and baked. As neither yeast nor leaven are used among them, their
bread of every kind is unfermented. They make only cakes, and
never mould a loaf.
A man of the Hebrides, for of the women's diet I can give no
account, as soon as he appears in the morning, swallows a glass of
whisky; yet they are not a drunken race, at least I never was
present at much intemperance; but no man is so abstemious as to
refuse the morning dram, which they call a skalk.
The word whisky signifies water, and is applied by way of eminence
to strong water, or distilled liquor. The spirit drunk in the
North is drawn from barley. I never tasted it, except once for
experiment at the inn in Inverary, when I thought it preferable to
any English malt brandy. It was strong, but not pungent, and was
free from the empyreumatick taste or smell. What was the process I
had no opportunity of inquiring, nor do I wish to improve the art
of making poison pleasant.
Not long after the dram, may be expected the breakfast, a meal in
which the Scots, whether of the lowlands or mountains, must be
confessed to excel us. The tea and coffee are accompanied not only
with butter, but with honey, conserves, and marmalades. If an
epicure could remove by a wish, in quest of sensual gratifications,
wherever he had supped he would breakfast in Scotland.
In the islands however, they do what I found it not very easy to
endure. They pollute the tea-table by plates piled with large
slices of cheshire cheese, which mingles its less grateful odours
with the fragrance of the tea.
Where many questions are to be asked, some will be omitted. I
forgot to inquire how they were supplied with so much exotic
luxury. Perhaps the French may bring them wine for wool, and the
Dutch give them tea and coffee at the fishing season, in exchange
for fresh provision. Their trade is unconstrained; they pay no
customs, for there is no officer to demand them; whatever therefore
is made dear only by impost, is obtained here at an easy rate.
A dinner in the Western Islands differs very little from a dinner
in England, except that in the place of tarts, there are always set
different preparations of milk.
