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The spinning of linen yarn is carried on in Scotland nearly in

the same way as the knitting of stockings, by servants, who are

chiefly hired for other purposes. They earn but a very scanty

subsistence, who endeavour to get their livelihood by either of

those trades. In most parts of Scotland, she is a good spinner

who can earn twentypence a-week.

In opulent countries, the market is generally so extensive, that

any one trade is sufficient to employ the whole labour and stock

of those who occupy it. Instances of people living by one

employment, and, at the same time, deriving some little advantage

from another, occur chiefly in poor countries. The following

instance, however, of something of the same kind, is to be found

in the capital of a very rich one. There is no city in Europe, I

believe, in which house-rent is dearer than in London, and yet I

know no capital in which a furnished apartment can be hired so

cheap. Lodging is not only much cheaper in London than in Paris;

it is much cheaper than in Edinburgh, of the same degree of

goodness; and, what may seem extraordinary, the dearness of

house-rent is the cause of the cheapness of lodging.