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In some parts of Lancashire, it is pretended, I have been told,

that bread of oatmeal is a heartier food for labouring people

than wheaten bread, and I have frequently heard the same doctrine

held in Scotland. I am, however, somewhat doubtful of the truth

of it. The common people in Scotland, who are fed with oatmeal,

are in general neither so strong nor so handsome as the same rank

of people in England, who are fed with wheaten bread. They

neither work so well, nor look so well; and as there is not the

same difference between the people of fashion in the two

countries, experience would seem to shew, that the food of the

common people in Scotland is not so suitable to the human

constitution as that of their neighbours of the same rank in

England. But it seems to be otherwise with potatoes.