Partridges were pertricks,--a word much more formed upon the French perdrix than the English partridge.
The plate on which a joint or side-dish was placed upon the table was an ashet (Fr. assiette).
In the old streets of Edinburgh, where the houses are very high, and where the inhabitants all live in flats, before the introduction of soil-pipes there was no method of disposing of the foul water of the household, except by throwing it out of the window into the street. This operation, dangerous to those outside, was limited to certain hours, and the well-known cry, which preceded the missile and warned the passenger, was gardeloo! or, as Smollett writes it, gardy loo (Fr. garge de l'eau).
Anything troublesome or irksome used to be called, Scotticè, fashions (Fr. facheux, facheuse); to fash one's-self (Fr. se facher).
The small cherry, both black and red, common in gardens, is in Scotland, never in England, termed gean (Fr. guigne), from Guigne, in Picardy.
The term dambrod, which has already supplied materials for a good story, arises from adopting French terms into Scottish language, as dams were the pieces with which the game of draughts was played (Fr. dammes). Brod is board.
A bedgown, or loose female upper garment, is still in many parts of Scotland termed a jupe (Fr. jupe).
In Kincardineshire the ashes of a blacksmith's furnace had the peculiar name of smiddy-coom (Fr. écume, i.e. dross).
Oil, in common Scotch, used always to be ule,--as the uley pot, or uley cruse (Fr. huile).
Many of my readers are no doubt familiar with the notice taken of these words by Lord Cockburn, and with the account which he gives of these Scottish words derived from the French, probably during the time of Queen Mary's minority, when French troops were quartered in Scotland. I subjoin a more full list, for which I am indebted to a correspondent, because the words still lingering amongst us are in themselves the best REMINISCENCES of former days.