Dilly's chaise to Shefford, where talking of
Lord Bute's never going to Scotland, he said, 'As an Englishman, I
should wish all the Scotch gentlemen should be educated in England;
Scotland would become a province; they would spend all their rents in
England.' This is a subject of much consequence, and much delicacy. The
advantage of an English education is unquestionably very great to Scotch
gentlemen of talents and ambition; and regular visits to Scotland, and
perhaps other means, might be effectually used to prevent them from
being totally estranged from their native country, any more than a
Cumberland or Northumberland gentleman who has been educated in the
South of England. I own, indeed, that it is no small misfortune for
Scotch gentlemen, who have neither talents nor ambition, to be educated
in England, where they may be perhaps distinguished only by a nick-name,
lavish their fortune in giving expensive entertainments to those who
laugh at them, and saunter about as mere idle insignificant hangers on
even upon the foolish great; when if they had been judiciously brought
up at home, they might have been comfortable and creditable members
of society.
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