[101] A peculiar Scotticism meaning that the face of the corpse bore a pleasant expression. On such a melancholy occasion as a funeral in Scotland, an Englishman would hear many remarks which would surprise him, possibly, shock him, by their seeming irreverence. No such feeling, however, has any place in the mind of the native. The expression, ‘the corpse’s sister,’ to be found in the text in this page, may be taken as an instance.
[102] A funeral pall. The kirk session frequently provided one for the use of the parish.
[103] Ray, in his Itinerary through Scotland, gives the following form of announcement as having been commonly made by the ‘deid bellman’ in Scotland in the sixteenth century:—‘Beloued broothrin and susters, I lat you to wot that thir is an fauthful broothir lautlie departed awt of this present warld, awt thi plesuir of almoughti Good; his naum is Volli Voodcok, third son to Jimmoy Voodcok a cordinger; he ligs at thi sesct door vithin the nord gawt, close on the nawthuer rawnd, and I wod ya gang to hus burying on Thursdau before twa a clock.’
[104] The second part, in the edition followed here, has a separate title-page, containing the same matter as the first, altering, of course, the number of the part.
[105] Another illustration of the expression used as a safeguard against the power of witches, warlocks, and all that race, when speaking of them. See notes to [John Cheap] and [The History of Haverel Wives], in the present volume.
[106] This seems to be the only story in any edition of Leper the Taylor that has come under our notice to which the following lines from an elegy on Peter Duthie, a chapman worthy who lived between 1721 and 1812, could possibly bear any reference:—
‘Nae mair will Pate e’er travel round
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Nor tell how Leper threw the cat
Into auld Janet’s boiling pat.’