EDITOR’S NOTES.
[(a)] p. 17. Norna’s soothsaying. The passage quoted by Scott from the Saga of Eric the Red may be read in its context in “Vinland the Good,” edited by Mr. Reeves, and published by the Clarendon Press. Eric was the discoverer of Greenland, and father of Leif the Lucky, who found Vinland (New England, or Nova Scotia?) about the year 1002. Leif has a statue in Boston, Massachusetts.
[(b)] p. 35. Islands “supposed to be haunted.” In De Quincey’s autobiographical essay his sailor brother, Pink, describes the terrors of those isles. One of them, the noise of a Midnight Axe, is also found in Ceylon, in Mexico, and elsewhere. The Editor may be permitted to refer to the legends collected in his “Custom and Myth.”
[(c)] p. 47. Cleveland’s song. Lockhart says that Scott, in his later years, heard this song sung, and said, “‘Capital words! Whose are they? Byron’s, I suppose, but I don’t remember them.’ He was astonished when I told him that they were his own in ‘The Pirate.’ He seemed pleased at the moment, but said next minute, ‘You have distressed me—if memory goes all is up with me, for that was always my strong point.’” This was in 1828. Mrs. Arkwright was the daughter of Stephen Kemble. She set “Hohenlinden.”
[(d)] p. 86. “Auld Robin Gray.” In the Abbotsford MSS. is a long correspondence between Lady Ann Lindsay and Scott. She had known him as a child. There was a project of editing all her poems, but perhaps her own modesty, perhaps the quality of the work, caused this to be dropped, and Scott only edited the ballad, with a letter of the lady’s. This small quarto sells for some £5 when it comes into the market. It has a frontispiece by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, and is apparently the only book of Scott’s which is valued as a rarity by bibliomaniacs.
[(e)] p. 255. “John was a Jacobite.” In the library of a country house in the south of England is a copy of Dryden’s Miscellany Poems, with a laudatory autograph envoy to Judge Jeffreys, a sufficiently thoroughgoing King’s man.
Andrew Lang.
August 1893.
GLOSSARY.
A’, all.
Aboon, above.
Ae, one.
Ain, own.
Aits, oats.
Anes, once.
A’thegither, altogether.
Aught, owned.
Auld, old.
Awa, away.
Bailie, a magistrate.
Baittle, denoting that sort of pasture where the grass is short, close, and rich.
Bang, a blow.
Bear, a kind of barley.
Bee—“to have a bee in one’s bonnet,” to be harebrained.
Bern, bairn, a child.
Bicker, a wooden dish.
Bide, to await, to endure.
Biggin, a building.
Bilboes, irons.
Bismar, a small steelyard.
Bland, a drink made from butter-milk.
Blithe, glad.
Blude, blood.
Bodle, a small coin equal to one sixth of a penny sterling.
Bole, a small aperture.
Bonny-die, a toy, a trinket.
Boobie, a dunce.
Bowie, a wooden dish for milk.
Brae, a hill.
Braw, fine, pretty.
Buckie, a whilk.
Bumming, making a humming noise.
Ca’, to call.
Canny, good, worthy; safe.
Cannily, gently.
Capa, a Spanish mantle.
Caper, a Dutch privateer of the seventeenth century.
Carle, a churl; also, a farm servant.
Carline, a witch.
Cart-avers, cart-horses.
Chapman, a small merchant or pedlar.
“Clashes and clavers,” scandal and nonsense.
Clink, to drop.
Cowp, to upset.
Craig, the neck; also, a rock.
Cummer, a gossip.
Daft, crazy.
“Deaf nuts,” nuts whose kernels are decayed.
Deil, the devil.
Dibble, to plant.
Dinna, do not.
“Dinna, downa, bide,” cannot bear.
Divot, thin turf used for roofing cottages.
Douce, sedate, modest.
Dowie, dark, melancholy.
“Dowse the glim,” put out the light.
Dree, to endure.
Duds, clothes.
Dulse, a species of sea-weed.
Dune, done.
Dung, knocked.
Dunt, to knock.
Een, eyes.
Eneugh, enough.
Eviting, avoiding.
Fash, fashery, trouble.
Fear’d, afraid.
Feck, the greatest part.
Ferly, wonderful.
“Fey folk,” fated or unfortunate folk.
“Floatsome and jetsome,” articles floated or cast away on the sea.
Forby, besides.
Forgie, to forgive.
Fowd, the chief judge or magistrate.
Frae, from.
Fule, a fool.
“Funking and flinging,” the act of dancing.
Gae, go.
Galdragon, a sorceress.
Gane, gone.
Gate, way, direction.
Gar, to oblige, to force.
Gear, property.
Ghaist, a ghost.
Gob-box, the mouth.
Gowd, gold.
Gowk, a fool.
Gude, God, good.
Gue, a two-stringed violin.
Guide, to take care of.
Haaf, deep-sea fishing.
Hae, have.
Haena, have not.
Haill, whole.
Hank, to fasten.
Hellicat, lightheaded, extravagant, wicked.
Hialtland, the old name for Shetland.
Hirple, to halt, to limp.
Howf, a haunt, a haven.
Hurley-house, a term applied to a large house that is so much in disrepair as to be nearly in a ruinous state.
“Infang and outfang thief,” the right of trying thieves.
Jagger, a pedlar.
Jarto, my dear.
Jokul, yes, sir.
Joul, Yule.
Kailyard, a cabbage garden.
Kempies, Norse champions.
Ken, to know.
Kend, well-known.
Kenna, know not.
Kist, a chest.
Kittle, difficult, ticklish.
Lampits, limpets.
Landlouper, a vagabond.
Lave, the rest.
Leddy, a lady.
Lispund, the fifteenth part of a barrel, a weight in Orkney and Shetland.
List, to wish, to choose.
Lowe, a flame.
Lug, the ear.
Main, to moan.
Mair, more.
Malapert, impertinent.
Mallard, the wild-duck.
Marooned, abandoned on a desert island.
Masking-fat, a mashing vat.
Maun, must.
Mearns, Kincardineshire.
Meed, reward.
Menseful, modest, discreet.
Merk, an ancient Scottish silver coin = 131⁄3d.
Mickle, much, big.
Mind, to remember.
Mony, many.
Muckle, much, big.
Na, nae, no, not.
Neist, next.
Nixie, a water-fairy.
Ony, any.
Orra, odd.
Ower, over.
Owerlay, a cravat.
Peery, sharp-looking, disposed to examine narrowly.
Pixie, a fairy.
Pleugh, a plough.
Puir, poor.
Pye-holes, eye-holes.
Ranzelman, a constable.
Rape, a rope.
Reimkennar, one who knows mystic rhyme.
“Roose the ford,” judge of the ford.
Sae, so.
Sain, to bless.
Sair, sore.
Saunt, a saint.
Scald, a bard or minstrel.
Scat, a land-tax paid to the Crown.
“Sclate stane,” slate stone.
Scowries, young sea-gulls.
Sealgh, sealchie, a seal.
Shogh! (Gaelic), there!
Sic, siccan, such.
Siller, money.
Sillocks, the fry of the coal-fish.
Skelping, galloping.
Skeoe, a stone hut for drying fish.
Skeps, straw hives.
Skerry, a flat insulated rock.
Skirl, to scream.
Slade, slid.
Sombrero, a large straw hat worn by Spaniards.
Sorner, one who lives upon his friends.
Spae-women, fortune-tellers.
Spaed, foretold.
Speer, to ask, to inquire.
Speerings, inquiries.
Spring, a dance tune.
Stack, an insulated precipitous rock.
Staig, a young horse.
Suld, should.
Swatter, to swim quickly and awkwardly.
Swap, to exchange.
Swelchies, whirlpools.
Syne, since, ago.
Taen, taken.
“Taits of woo’,” locks of wool.
Tauld, told.
Thae, these, those.
Thairm, catgut.
Tint, lost.
Trow or Drow, a spirit or elf believed in by the Norse.
Ugsome, frightful.
Umquhile, the late.
Unco, very, strange, great, particularly.
“Unco wark,” a great ado.
Vifda, beef dried without salt.
Vivers, victuals.
Voe, an inlet of the sea.
Wa’, a wall.
Wad, would.
Wadmaal, homespun woollen cloth.
Waft, the woof in a web.
Warlock, a wizard.
Wasna, was not.
Wat, wet.
Wattle, an assessment for the salary of the magistrate.
Wawl, to look wildly.
Waws, waves.
Weal, well.
Wearifu’, causing pain or trouble.
Weird, fate, destiny.
Wha, who.
“What for,” why.
Whilk, which.
Whomled, turned over.
Wi’, with.
Wittols, cuckolds.
“Win by,” to escape.
Wot, to know.
Wrang, wrong.
Yarfa, yarpha, peat full of fibres and roots; land.
Yelloched, screeched or yelled.