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for instance their country dances with ours. As Keats, in his letters
from Scotland says, "it is about the same as leisurely stirring a cup o'
tea and beating up a batter pudding." The public houses and bars were
driving a lively trade, but "Forbes Mackenzie" was in force, and come
eleven o'clock, though it were a hundred _Hogmanhays_, they all had to
close. We met some new-made friends of Tom's and joined in their
conviviality. I was the dark complexioned man of the party, and as a
"first-footer" in great request. We did not go home till morning, and
reached there a little hilarious ourselves, but it was our first
_Hogmanhay_ and may be forgiven.
Dear reader, did you ever lie in a _concealed bed_? It is a Scottish
device cunningly contrived to murder sleep. At least so Tom and I found
it. It was my fate to sleep, to lie I should say, in one for several
weeks. Its purpose is to economise space, and like Goldsmith's chest of
drawers, it is "contrived a double debt to pay," a sleeping room by
night, a sitting room by day.
Whilst Glasgow is a city of _flats_ its people are resourceful and
energetic.
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