Glen Collection of printed music > Printed music > Scots musical museum > Volume 5

CCCCXXXVIII.— THE SOUTF.US O' SELKIRK. 385
III short, Scotland seems to have appeared to them in the
same light as it did to another Englishman, who expresses hia
ideas of the country in the following curious lines :—
Bleak are thy hills, O North !
And l)arreri are thy plains ;
Bare-leg'd arc tliy iiyinpha.
And bare a — are thy swains.
But a candid and patient inquirer will neither permit himself
to be deceived by vague assertion, nor will he degrade his
character by a similar mode of retaliation, which, tliough
easy, can never benefit the cause of truth. Sober reflection
will convince every man, that the Omniscient Author of our
existence lias adapted every animal to the element it is des-
tined to inhabit. Nor has he denied to mankind, wlierevcr
situated on the habitable globe, the means and the ingenuity
of accommodating their dress in conformity to the nature of
the climate. Amongst all the nations that inhabit the bleak
and barren regions of the north, however rude or uncivilized,
none have yet been discovered that were destitute of the ne-
cessary habiliments for protecting every part of the body from
the inclemency of the weather. Nor was Scotland an excep-
tion to this rule until the days of Cromwell. On the con-
trary, it appears that the Scottish legislature, at an early pe-
riod, directed its attentitm to the manufacturers of shoes, who
had attained such skill in their profession, as to render their
goods an o!)ject of foreign commerce. It was even found ne-
cessary to prohibit the export both of the raw and of the ma-
nufactured material : " Sowters sould be challenged, that they
bark lether, and makes shoone otherwaics than the law per-
mittes ; that is to say, of lether quhere tlie home and the eare
are of ane like length. They make shoone, buites, and other
graith, before the leather is barked (tanned)."" — Chalmerlan
Air, c. 2!;?. Again, by the fourth Parliament in the reign of
James IV. who fell at Floddcn, cordoners (i. e. shoemakers)
are prohi})ited, under a severe penalty, from taking custom
from such of their own craft as come to the weekly markets,