uineness of the courtesy, the real kindness and the hospitality
of the English are beyond praise and without limit. In this they
show a strange contradiction to their dickering habits in trade and
their "unctuous rectitude" in stealing continents. I know a place
in the world now where they are steadily moving their boundary line
into other people's territory. I guess they really believe that the
earth belongs to them.

Sincerely,
W.H.P.

To Arthur W. Page[18]

Gordon Arms Hotel, Elgin, Scotland.
September 6, 1913.

Dear Arthur:

Your mother and Kitty[19] and I are on our way to see Andy[20]. Had
you any idea that to motor from London to Skibo means driving more
than eight hundred miles? Our speedometer now shows more than seven
hundred and we've another day to go--at least one hundred and
thirty miles. And we haven't even had a tire accident. We're having
a delightful journey--only this country yields neither vegetables
nor fruits, and I have to live on oatmeal. They spell it
p-o-r-r-i-d-g-e, and they call it puruge. But they beat all
creation as carnivorous folk. We stayed last night at a beautiful
mountain hotel at Braemar (the same town whereat Stevenson wrote
"Treasure Island") and they had nine kinds of meat for dinner and
eggs in three ways, and no vegetables but potatoes. But this
morning we struck the same thin oatbread that you ate at
Grandfather Mountain.

I've never understood the Scotch. I think they are, without doubt,
the most capable race in the world--away from home. But how they
came to be so and how they keep up their character and supremacy
and keep breeding true needs explanation. As you come through the
country, you see the most monotonous and dingy little houses and
thousands of robust children, all dirtier than niggers. In the
fertile parts of the country, the fields are beautifully
cultivated--for Lord This-and-T'Other who lives in London and comes
up here in summer to collect his rents and to shoot. The country
people seem desperately poor. But they don't lose their robustness.
In the solid cities--the solidest you ever saw, all being of
granite--such as Edinburgh and Aberdeen, where you see the
prosperous class, they look the sturdiest and most independent
fellows you ever saw. As they gro