moor; therefore it seldom loses its vegetation; as I hardly saw any difference between the huts and the moor; for what heath there was on either, was equally in bloom. In these huts they make a fire upon the ground, and the smoke issues in columns at every hole, so that if an inhabitant within be induced to take a peep at any travellers, they are seen in a cloud of smoke; notwithstanding which, the cursches (caps of Highland women) were as white as snow, and the faces of the children mostly fair and blooming. At night they rake out the fire, and put their beds of heath and blankets (which they have in abundance) on the ground, where the fire had been, and thus keep themselves warm during the night. The chief of their furniture is an iron pot, a few bowls, and spoons of wood, and pails to put their milk in.
A person accustomed to the comforts and luxuries of life, cannot conceive how it is possible for human beings to exist, in a state so near that of the brute creation.
It is curious to examine the interior of an habitation called a house, in a cluster of houses, termed in Scotland a town. It consists of a butt, a benn, and a byar; that is, a kitchen, an inner
