OF SCOTLAND.
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v 'ery fond of oatmeal, at least it forms a great proportion oftheir daily food •, it is often prepared by the very simple pro-cess of putting a small quantity into a dish, and pouringboiling water upon it, when after being well stirred, a littlesweet milk is added ; this they call milk brose; but the mostcommon fare is, kail brose , i. e. coleworts and water are boil-ed, and the juice poured upon the oatmeal, when the wholeis stirred, and more boiling water added, till the article isfound to be of a proper consistency.
In the counties lying along the Murray Frith, potatoesconstitute a principal part of the food of the labouring classes,which, with milk or small herrings, and other kinds of whitefish, are served up to the table for the greatest part of theyear, at least twice a-day.
Throughout all the Highland districts, oatmeal is muchmore sparingly used as food, among the labouring classes,than in the lowland counties; though, where arable hus-bandry is practised, the farm-servants have oatmeal por-ridge to breakfast regularly, the same as in other parts of thecountry. But in the more remote uncultivated districts, a-long the western shores of Inverness, Ross, and Sutherland,and especially in the Western Isles , the inhabitants are satis-fied with a very small proportion of oatmeal, or of barley-breadfor their daily sustenance, potatoes and fish forming the prin-cipal part of their food. Indeed, the intelligent author ofthe Hebrides Report affirms, that the great body of the po-pulation, are contented with potatoes, and a little milk and fish,during nine months of the year, and rarely know what it isto taste flesh of any kind. Were they to live in the samemanner as the labourers in Lothian or Berwickshire, thewhole produce of their soil, in its present state of cultivation,Would not maintain them during six or eight months in theyear.
In Orkney and Zetland, the country people eat a gooddeal of oatmeal gruel. They often have tea to breakfast.They have plenty of milk in summer, in both counties; and