S. Z. Z. S.
[According to Ormerod's Cheshire, vol. iii. p. 333., Sir Urian Legh, of Adlington, disputes the fact of being the hero of that romantic affair. "Sir Urian Legh was knighted by the Earl of Essex at the siege of Cadiz, and during that expedition is traditionally said to have been engaged in an adventure which gave rise to the well-known ballad of 'The Spanish Lady's Love.' A fine original portrait of Sir Urian, in a Spanish dress, is preserved at Bramall, which has been copied for the family at Adlington." So that between these two chivalrous knights it is difficult to decide which is the famed gallant. From the care exercised by Mr. Illingworth in collecting all the anecdotes and notices of the Bolle family, the presumptive evidence seems to favour his hero.]
"Bothy."—In the March Number of Blackwood's Magazine, 1854, the word "bothy" is frequently used in an article called "News from the Farm." Will some one of your numerous correspondents give me a little account of "the bothy system?"
F. M. Middleton.
[A bothy is a cottage or hut where labouring servants are lodged, and is sometimes built of wood, as we read in the Jacobite Relics, ii. 189.:
"Fare thee well, my native cot,
Bothy of the birken tree!
Sair the heart, and hard the lot,
O' the lad that parts wi' thee."
Bothies, or detached houses, in which the unmarried farm-servants sleep and prepare their victuals, and of which there is a considerable number in Perthshire, though convenient and beneficial in some respects, have not, certainly, contributed to the formation of virtuous habits. These servants are often migratory, removing frequently at the expiration of the year, according as humour or caprice may dictate, and, like birds of passage, taking their departure to other lands.]