NOTES OF A READER.

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SCOTTISH INNS.

_By Sir Walter Scott_.


The courtesy of an invitation to partake a traveller's meal, or at least
that of being invited to share whatever liquor the guest called for, was
expected by certain old landlords in Scotland, even in the youth of
the author. In requital, mine host was always furnished with the news
of the country, and was probably a little of a humourist to boot. The
devolution of the whole actual business and drudgery of the inn upon the
poor gudewife was very common among the Scottish bonifaces. There was
in ancient times, in the city of Edinburgh, a gentleman of good family,
who condescended, in order to gain a livelihood, to become the nominal
keeper of a coffee-house, one of the first places of the kind which
had been opened in the Scottish metropolis. As usual, it was entirely
managed by the careful and industrious Mrs. B----; while her husband
amused himself with field-sports, without troubling his head about the
matter. Once upon a time the premises having taken fire, the husband was
met walking up the High Street, loaded with his guns and fishing-rods,
and replied calmly to some one that inquired after his wife, "that the
poor woman was trying to save a parcel of crockery, and some trumpery