p-books.com
Robert Falconer
by George MacDonald
Previous Part     1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13
Home - Random Browse

'When anything looks strange, you must look the deeper,' he would say.

At the close of one of our fits of talk, he rose and went to the window.

'Come here,' he said, after looking for a moment.

All day a dropping cloud had filled the space below, so that the hills on the opposite side of the valley were hidden, and the whole of the sea, near as it was. But when we went to the window we found that a great change had silently taken place. The mist continued to veil the sky, and it clung to the tops of the hills; but, like the rising curtain of a stage, it had rolled half-way up from their bases, revealing a great part of the sea and shore, and half of a cliff on the opposite side of the valley: this, in itself of a deep red, was now smitten by the rays of the setting sun, and glowed over the waters a splendour of carmine. As we gazed, the vaporous curtain sank upon the shore, and the sun sank under the waves, and the sad gray evening closed in the weeping night, and clouds and darkness swathed the weary earth. For doubtless the earth needs its night as well as the creatures that live thereon.

In the morning the rain had ceased, but the clouds remained. But they were high in the heavens now, and, like a departing sorrow, revealed the outline and form which had appeared before as an enveloping vapour of universal and shapeless evil. The mist was now far enough off to be seen and thought about. It was clouds now—no longer mist and rain. And I thought how at length the evils of the world would float away, and we should see what it was that made it so hard for us to believe and be at peace.

In the afternoon the sky had partially cleared, but clouds hid the sun as he sank towards the west. We walked out. A cold autumnal wind blew, not only from the twilight of the dying day, but from the twilight of the dying season. A sorrowful hopeless wind it seemed, full of the odours of dead leaves—those memories of green woods, and of damp earth—the bare graves of the flowers. Would the summer ever come again?

We were pacing in silence along a terraced walk which overhung the shore far below. More here than from the hilltop we seemed to look immediately into space, not even a parapet intervening betwixt us and the ocean. The sound of a mournful lyric, never yet sung, was in my brain; it drew nearer to my mental grasp; but ere it alighted, its wings were gone, and it fell dead on my consciousness. Its meaning was this: 'Welcome, Requiem of Nature. Let me share in thy Requiescat. Blow, wind of mournful memories. Let us moan together. No one taketh from us the joy of our sorrow. We may mourn as we will.'

But while I brooded thus, behold a wonder! The mass about the sinking sun broke up, and drifted away in cloudy bergs, as if scattered on the diverging currents of solar radiance that burst from the gates of the west, and streamed east and north and south over the heavens and over the sea. To the north, these masses built a cloudy bridge across the sky from horizon to horizon, and beneath it shone the rosy-sailed ships floating stately through their triumphal arch up the channel to their home. Other clouds floated stately too in the upper sea over our heads, with dense forms, thinning into vaporous edges. Some were of a dull angry red; some of as exquisite a primrose hue as ever the flower itself bore on its bosom; and betwixt their edges beamed out the sweetest, purest, most melting, most transparent blue, the heavenly blue which is the symbol of the spirit as red is of the heart. I think I never saw a blue to satisfy me before. Some of these clouds threw shadows of many-shaded purple upon the green sea; and from one of the shadows, so dark and so far out upon the glooming horizon that it looked like an island, arose as from a pier, a wondrous structure of dim, fairy colours, a multitude of rainbow-ends, side by side, that would have spanned the heavens with a gorgeous arch, but failed from the very grandeur of the idea, and grew up only a few degrees against the clouded west. I stood rapt. The two Falconers were at some distance before me, walking arm in arm. They stood and gazed likewise. It was as if God had said to the heavens and the earth and the chord of the seven colours, 'Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.' And I said to my soul, 'Let the tempest rave in the world; let sorrow wail like a sea-bird in the midst thereof; and let thy heart respond to her shivering cry; but the vault of heaven encloses the tempest and the shrieking bird and the echoing heart; and the sun of God's countenance can with one glance from above change the wildest winter day into a summer evening compact of poets' dreams.'

My companions were walking up over the hill. I could see that Falconer was earnestly speaking in his father's ear. The old man's head was bent towards the earth. I kept away. They made a turn from home. I still followed at a distance. The evening began to grow dark. The autumn wind met us again, colder, stronger, yet more laden with the odours of death and the frosts of the coming winter. But it no longer blew as from the charnel-house of the past; it blew from the stars through the chinks of the unopened door on the other side of the sepulchre. It was a wind of the worlds, not a wind of the leaves. It told of the march of the spheres, and the rest of the throne of God. We were going on into the universe—home to the house of our Father. Mighty adventure! Sacred repose! And as I followed the pair, one great star throbbed and radiated over my head.



CHAPTER XVIII. THREE GENERATIONS.

The next week I went back to my work, leaving the father and son alone together. Before I left, I could see plainly enough that the bonds were being drawn closer between them. A whole month passed before they returned to London. The winter then had set in with unusual severity. But it seemed to bring only health to the two men. When I saw Andrew next, there was certainly a marked change upon him. Light had banished the haziness from his eye, and his step was a good deal firmer. I can hardly speak of more than the physical improvement, for I saw very little of him now. Still I did think I could perceive more of judgment in his face, as if he sometimes weighed things in his mind. But it was plain that Robert continued very careful not to let him a moment out of his knowledge. He busied him with the various sights of London, for Andrew, although he knew all its miseries well, had never yet been inside Westminster Abbey. If he could only trust him enough to get him something to do! But what was he fit for? To try him, he proposed once that he should write some account of what he had seen and learned in his wanderings; but the evident distress with which he shrunk from the proposal was grateful to the eyes and heart of his son.

It was almost the end of the year when a letter arrived from John Lammie, informing Robert that his grandmother had caught a violent cold, and that, although the special symptoms had disappeared, it was evident her strength was sinking fast, and that she would not recover.

He read the letter to his father.

'We must go and see her, Robert, my boy,' said Andrew.

It was the first time that he had shown the smallest desire to visit her. Falconer rose with glad heart, and proceeded at once to make arrangements for their journey.

It was a cold, powdery afternoon in January, with the snow thick on the ground, save where the little winds had blown the crown of the street bare before Mrs. Falconer's house. A post-chaise with four horses swept wearily round the corner, and pulled up at her door. Betty opened it, and revealed an old withered face very sorrowful, and yet expectant. Falconer's feelings I dare not, Andrew's I cannot attempt to describe, as they stepped from the chaise and entered. Betty led the way without a word into the little parlour. Robert went next, with long quiet strides, and Andrew followed with gray, bowed head. Grannie was not in her chair. The doors which during the day concealed the bed in which she slept, were open, and there lay the aged woman with her eyes closed. The room was as it had always been, only there seemed a filmy shadow in it that had not been there before.

'She's deein', sir,' whispered Betty. 'Ay is she. Och hone!'

Robert took his father's hand, and led him towards the bed. They drew nigh softly, and bent over the withered, but not even yet very wrinkled face. The smooth, white, soft hands lay on the sheet, which was folded back over her bosom. She was asleep, or rather, she slumbered.

But the soul of the child began to grow in the withered heart of the old man as he regarded his older mother, and as it grew it forced the tears to his eyes, and the words to his lips.

'Mother!' he said, and her eyelids rose at once. He stooped to kiss her, with the tears rolling down his face. The light of heaven broke and flashed from her aged countenance. She lifted her weak hands, took his head, and held it to her bosom.

'Eh! the bonnie gray heid!' she said, and burst into a passion of weeping. She had kept some tears for the last. Now she would spend all that her griefs had left her. But there came a pause in her sobs, though not in her weeping, and then she spoke.

'I kent it a' the time, O Lord. I kent it a' the time. He's come hame. My Anerew, my Anerew! I'm as happy 's a bairn. O Lord! O Lord!'

And she burst again into sobs, and entered paradise in radiant weeping.

Her hands sank away from his head, and when her son gazed in her face he saw that she was dead. She had never looked at Robert.

The two men turned towards each other. Robert put out his arms. His father laid his head on his bosom, and went on weeping. Robert held him to his heart.

When shall a man dare to say that God has done all he can?



CHAPTER XIX. THE WHOLE STORY.

The men laid their mother's body with those of the generations that had gone before her, beneath the long grass in their country churchyard near Rothieden—a dreary place, one accustomed to trim cemeteries and sentimental wreaths would call it—to Falconer's mind so friendly to the forsaken dust, because it lapt it in sweet oblivion.

They returned to the dreary house, and after a simple meal such as both had used to partake of in their boyhood, they sat by the fire, Andrew in his mother's chair, Robert in the same chair in which he had learned his Sallust and written his versions. Andrew sat for a while gazing into the fire, and Robert sat watching his face, where in the last few months a little feeble fatherhood had begun to dawn.

'It was there, father, that grannie used to sit, every day, sometimes looking in the fire for hours, thinking about you, I know,' Robert said at length.

Andrew stirred uneasily in his chair.

'How do you know that?' he asked.

'If there was one thing I could be sure of, it was when grannie was thinking about you, father. Who wouldn't have known it, father, when her lips were pressed together, as if she had some dreadful pain to bear, and her eyes were looking away through the fire—so far away! and I would speak to her three times before she would answer? She lived only to think about God and you, father. God and you came very close together in her mind. Since ever I can remember, almost, the thought of you was just the one thing in this house.'

Then Robert began at the beginning of his memory, and told his father all that he could remember. When he came to speak about his solitary musings in the garret, he said—and long before he reached this part, he had relapsed into his mother tongue:

'Come and luik at the place, father. I want to see 't again, mysel'.'

He rose. His father yielded and followed him. Robert got a candle in the kitchen, and the two big men climbed the little narrow stair and stood in the little sky of the house, where their heads almost touched the ceiling.

'I sat upo' the flure there,' said Robert, 'an' thoucht and thoucht what I wad du to get ye, father, and what I wad du wi' ye whan I had gotten ye. I wad greit whiles, 'cause ither laddies had a father an' I had nane. An' there's whaur I fand mamma's box wi' the letter in 't and her ain picter: grannie gae me that ane o' you. An' there's whaur I used to kneel doon an' pray to God. An' he's heard my prayers, and grannie's prayers, and here ye are wi' me at last. Instead o' thinkin' aboot ye, I hae yer ain sel'. Come, father, I want to say a word o' thanks to God, for hearin' my prayer.'

He took the old man's hand, led him to the bedside, and kneeled with him there.

My reader can hardly avoid thinking it was a poor sad triumph that Robert had after all. How the dreams of the boy had dwindled in settling down into the reality! He had his father, it was true, but what a father! And how little he had him!

But this was not the end; and Robert always believed that the end must be the greater in proportion to the distance it was removed, to give time for its true fulfilment. And when he prayed aloud beside his father, I doubt not that his thanksgiving and his hope were equal.

The prayer over, he took his father's hand and led him down again to the little parlour, and they took their seats again by the fire; and Robert began again and went on with his story, not omitting the parts belonging to Mary St. John and Eric Ericson.

When he came to tell how he had encountered him in the deserted factory:

'Luik here, father, here's the mark o' the cut,' he said, parting the thick hair on the top of his head.

His father hid his face in his hands.

'It wasna muckle o' a blow that ye gied me, father,' he went on, 'but I fell against the grate, and that was what did it. And I never tellt onybody, nae even Miss St. John, wha plaistered it up, hoo I had gotten 't. And I didna mean to say onything aboot it; but I wantit to tell ye a queer dream, sic a queer dream it garred me dream the same nicht.'

As he told the dream, his father suddenly grew attentive, and before he had finished, looked almost scared; but he said nothing. When he came to relate his grandmother's behaviour after having discovered that the papers relating to the factory were gone, he hid his face in his hands once more. He told him how grannie had mourned and wept over him, from the time when he heard her praying aloud as he crept through her room at night to their last talk together after Dr. Anderson's death. He set forth, as he could, in the simplest language, the agony of her soul over her lost son. He told him then about Ericson, and Dr. Anderson, and how good they had been to him, and at last of Dr. Anderson's request that he would do something for him in India.

'Will ye gang wi' me, father?' he asked.

'I'll never leave ye again, Robert, my boy,' he answered. 'I have been a bad man, and a bad father, and now I gie mysel' up to you to mak the best o' me ye can. I daurna leave ye, Robert.'

'Pray to God to tak care o' ye, father. He'll do a'thing for ye, gin ye'll only lat him.'

'I will, Robert.'

'I was mysel' dreidfu' miserable for a while,' Robert resumed, 'for I cudna see or hear God at a'; but God heard me, and loot me ken that he was there an' that a' was richt. It was jist like whan a bairnie waukens up an' cries oot, thinkin' it 's its lane, an' through the mirk comes the word o' the mither o' 't, sayin', "I'm here, cratur: dinna greit." And I cam to believe 'at he wad mak you a good man at last. O father, it's been my dream waukin' an' sleepin' to hae you back to me an' grannie, an' mamma, an' the Father o' 's a', an' Jesus Christ that's done a'thing for 's. An' noo ye maun pray to God, father. Ye will pray to God to haud a grip o' ye—willna ye, father?'

'I will, I will, Robert. But I've been an awfu' sinner. I believe I was the death o' yer mother, laddie.'

Some closet of memory was opened; a spring of old tenderness gushed up in his heart; at some window of the past the face of his dead wife looked out: the old man broke into a great cry, and sobbed and wept bitterly. Robert said no more, but wept with him.

Henceforward the father clung to his son like a child. The heart of Falconer turned to his Father in heaven with speechless thanksgiving. The ideal of his dreams was beginning to dawn, and his life was new-born.

For a few days Robert took Andrew about to see those of his old friends who were left, and the kindness with which they all received him, moved Andrew's heart not a little. Every one who saw him seemed to feel that he or she had a share in the redeeming duty of the son. Robert was in their eyes like a heavenly messenger, whom they were bound to aid; for here was the possessed of demons clothed and in his right mind. Therefore they overwhelmed both father and son with kindness. Especially at John Lammie's was he received with a perfection of hospitality; as if that had been the father's house to which he had returned from his prodigal wanderings.

The good old farmer begged that they would stay with him for a few days.

'I hae sae mony wee things to luik efter at Rothieden, afore we gang,' said Robert.

'Weel, lea' yer father here. We s' tak guid care o' 'im, I promise ye.'

'There's only ae difficulty. I believe ye are my father's frien', Mr. Lammie, as ye hae been mine, and God bless ye; sae I'll jist tell you the trowth, what for I canna lea' him. I'm no sure eneuch yet that he could withstan' temptation. It's the drink ye ken. It's months sin' he's tasted it; but—ye ken weel eneuch—the temptation's awfu'. Sin' ever I got him back, I haena tasted ae mou'fu' o' onything that cud be ca'd strong drink mysel', an' as lang 's he lives, not ae drap shall cross my lips—no to save my life.'

'Robert,' said Mr. Lammie, giving him his hand with solemnity, 'I sweir by God that he shanna see, smell, taste, nor touch drink in this hoose. There's but twa boatles o' whusky, i' the shape o' drink, i' the hoose; an' gin ye say 'at he sall bide, I'll gang and mak them an' the midden weel acquant.'

Andrew was pleased at the proposal. Robert too was pleased that his father should be free of him for a while. It was arranged for three days. Half-an-hour after, Robert came upon Mr. Lammie emptying the two bottles of whisky into the dunghill in the farmyard.

He returned with glad heart to Rothieden. It did not take him long to arrange his grandmother's little affairs. He had already made up his mind about her house and furniture. He rang the bell one morning for Betty.

'Hae ye ony siller laid up, Betty?'

'Ay. I hae feifteen poun' i' the savin's bank.'

'An' what do ye think o' doin'?'

'I'll get a bit roomy, an' tak in washin'.

'Weel, I'll tell ye what I wad like ye to do. Ye ken Mistress Elshender?'

'Fine that. An' a verra dacent body she is.'

'Weel, gin ye like, ye can haud this hoose, an' a' 'at's in't, jist as it is, till the day o' yer deith. And ye'll aye keep it in order, an' the ga'le-room ready for me at ony time I may happen to come in upo' ye in want o' a nicht's quarters. But I wad like ye, gin ye hae nae objections, to tak Mistress Elshender to bide wi' ye. She's turnin' some frail noo, and I'm unner great obligation to her Sandy, ye ken.'

'Ay, weel that. He learnt ye to fiddle, Robert—I hoombly beg your pardon, sir, Mister Robert.'

'Nae offence, Betty, I assure ye. Ye hae been aye gude to me, and I thank ye hertily.'

Betty could not stand this. Her apron went up to her eyes.

'Eh, sir,' she sobbed, 'ye was aye a gude lad.'

'Excep' whan I spak o' Muckledrum, Betty.'

She laughed and sobbed together.

'Weel, ye'll tak Mistress Elshender in, winna ye?'

'I'll do that, sir. And I'll try to do my best wi' her.'

'She can help ye, ye ken, wi' yer washin', an' sic like.'

'She's a hard-workin' wuman, sir. She wad do that weel.'

'And whan ye're in ony want o' siller, jist write to me. An' gin onything suld happen to me, ye ken, write to Mr. Gordon, a frien' o' mine. There's his address in Lonnon.'

'Eh, sir, but ye are kin'. God bless ye for a'.'

She could bear no more, and left the room crying.

Everything settled at Rothieden, he returned to Bodyfauld. The most welcome greeting he had ever received in his life, lay in the shine of his father's eyes when he entered the room where he sat with Miss Lammie. The next day they left for London.



CHAPTER XX. THE VANISHING.

They came to see me the very evening of their arrival. As to Andrew's progress there could be no longer any doubt. All that was necessary for conviction on the point was to have seen him before and to see him now. The very grasp of his hand was changed. But not yet would Robert leave him alone.

It will naturally occur to my reader that his goodness was not much yet. It was not. It may have been greater than we could be sure of, though. But if any one object that such a conversion, even if it were perfected, was poor, inasmuch as the man's free will was intromitted with, I answer: 'The development of the free will was the one object. Hitherto it was not free.' I ask the man who says so: 'Where would your free will have been if at some period of your life you could have had everything you wanted?' If he says it is nobler in a man to do with less help, I answer, 'Andrew was not noble: was he therefore to be forsaken? The prodigal was not left without the help of the swine and their husks, at once to keep him alive and disgust him with the life. Is the less help a man has from God the better?' According to you, the grandest thing of all would be for a man sunk in the absolute abysses of sensuality all at once to resolve to be pure as the empyrean, and be so, without help from God or man. But is the thing possible? As well might a hyena say: I will be a man, and become one. That would be to create. Andrew must be kept from the evil long enough to let him at least see the good, before he was let alone. But when would we be let alone? For a man to be fit to be let alone, is for a man not to need God, but to be able to live without him. Our hearts cry out, 'To have God is to live. We want God. Without him no life of ours is worth living. We are not then even human, for that is but the lower form of the divine. We are immortal, eternal: fill us, O Father, with thyself. Then only all is well.' More: I heartily believe, though I cannot understand the boundaries of will and inspiration, that what God will do for us at last is infinitely beyond any greatness we could gain, even if we could will ourselves from the lowest we could be, into the highest we can imagine. It is essential divine life we want; and there is grand truth, however incomplete or perverted, in the aspiration of the Brahmin. He is wrong, but he wants something right. If the man had the power in his pollution to will himself into the right without God, the fact that he was in that pollution with such power, must damn him there for ever. And if God must help ere a man can be saved, can the help of man go too far towards the same end? Let God solve the mystery—for he made it. One thing is sure: We are his, and he will do his part, which is no part but the all in all. If man could do what in his wildest self-worship he can imagine, the grand result would be that he would be his own God, which is the Hell of Hells.

For some time I had to give Falconer what aid I could in being with his father while he arranged matters in prospect of their voyage to India. Sometimes he took him with him when he went amongst his people, as he called the poor he visited. Sometimes, when he wanted to go alone, I had to take him to Miss St. John, who would play and sing as I had never heard any one play or sing before. Andrew on such occasions carried his flute with him, and the result of the two was something exquisite. How Miss St. John did lay herself out to please the old man! And pleased he was. I think her kindness did more than anything else to make him feel like a gentleman again. And in his condition that was much.

At length Falconer would sometimes leave him with Miss St. John, till he or I should go for him: he knew she could keep him safe. He knew that she would keep him if necessary.

One evening when I went to see Falconer, I found him alone. It was one of these occasions.

'I am very glad you have come, Gordon,' he said. 'I was wanting to see you. I have got things nearly ready now. Next month, or at latest, the one after, we shall sail; and I have some business with you which had better be arranged at once. No one knows what is going to happen. The man who believes the least in chance knows as little as the man who believes in it the most. My will is in the hands of Dobson. I have left you everything.'

I was dumb.

'Have you any objection?' he said, a little anxiously.

'Am I able to fulfil the conditions?' I faltered.

'I have burdened you with no conditions,' he returned. 'I don't believe in conditions. I know your heart and mind now. I trust you perfectly.'

'I am unworthy of it.'

'That is for me to judge.'

'Will you have no trustees?'

'Not one.'

'What do you want me to do with your property?'

'You know well enough. Keep it going the right way.'

'I will always think what you would like.'

'No; do not. Think what is right; and where there is no right or wrong plain in itself, then think what is best. You may see good reason to change some of my plans. You may be wrong; but you must do what you see right—not what I see or might see right.'

'But there is no need to talk so seriously about it,' I said. 'You will manage it yourself for many years yet. Make me your steward, if you like, during your absence: I will not object to that.'

'You do not object to the other, I hope?'

'No.'

'Then so let it be. The other, of course. I have, being a lawyer myself, taken good care not to trust myself only with the arranging of these matters. I think you will find them all right.'

'But supposing you should not return—you have compelled me to make the supposition—'

'Of course. Go on.'

'What am I to do with the money in the prospect of following you?'

'Ah! that is the one point on which I want a word, although I do not think it is necessary. I want to entail the property.'

'How?'

'By word of mouth,' he answered, laughing. 'You must look out for a right man, as I have done, get him to know your ways and ideas, and if you find him worthy—that is a grand wide word—our Lord gave it to his disciples—leave it all to him in the same way I have left it to you, trusting to the spirit of truth that is in him, the spirit of God. You can copy my will—as far as it will apply, for you may have, one way or another, lost the half of it by that time. But, by word of mouth, you must make the same condition with him as I have made with you—that is, with regard to his leaving it, and the conditions on which he leaves it, adding the words, "that it may descend thus in perpetuum." And he must do the same.'

He broke into a quiet laugh. I knew well enough what he meant. But he added:

'That means, of course, for as long as there is any.'

'Are you sure you are doing right, Falconer?' I said.

'Quite. It is better to endow one man, who will work as the Father works, than a hundred charities. But it is time I went to fetch my father. Will you go with me?'

This was all that passed between us on the subject, save that, on our way, he told me to move to his rooms, and occupy them until he returned.

'My papers,' he added, 'I commit to your discretion.'

On our way back from Queen Square, he joked and talked merrily. Andrew joined in. Robert showed himself delighted with every attempt at gaiety or wit that Andrew made. When we reached the house, something that had occurred on the way made him turn to Martin Chuzzlewit, and he read Mrs. Gamp's best to our great enjoyment.

I went down with the two to Southampton, to see them on board the steamer. I staid with them there until she sailed. It was a lovely morning in the end of April, when at last I bade them farewell on the quarter-deck. My heart was full. I took his hand and kissed it. He put his arms round me, and laid his cheek to mine. I was strong to bear the parting.

The great iron steamer went down in the middle of the Atlantic, and I have not yet seen my friend again.



CHAPTER XXI. IN EXPECTATIONE.

I had left my lodging and gone to occupy Falconer's till his return. There, on a side-table among other papers, I found the following verses. The manuscript was much scored and interlined, but more than decipherable, for he always wrote plainly. I copied them out fair, and here they are for the reader that loves him.

Twilight is near, and the day grows old; The spiders of care are weaving their net; All night 'twill be blowing and rainy and cold; I cower at his door from the wind and wet.

He sent me out the world to see, Drest for the road in a garment new; It is clotted with clay, and worn beggarly— The porter will hardly let me through!

I bring in my hand a few dusty ears— Once I thought them a tribute meet! I bring in my heart a few unshed tears: Which is my harvest—the pain or the wheat?

A broken man, at the door of his hall I listen, and hear it go merry within; The sounds are of birthday-festival! Hark to the trumpet! the violin!

I know the bench where the shadowed folk Sit 'neath the music-loft—there none upbraids! They will make me room who bear the same yoke, Dear publicans, sinners, and foolish maids!

An ear has been hearing my heart forlorn! A step comes soft through the dancing-din! Oh Love eternal! oh woman-born! Son of my Father to take me in!

One moment, low at our Father's feet Loving I lie in a self-lost trance; Then walk away to the sinners' seat, With them, at midnight, to rise and dance!



THE END



FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: In Scotch the ch and gh are almost always guttural. The gh according to Mr. Alexander Ellis, the sole authority in the past pronunciation of the country, was guttural in England in the time of Shakspere.]

[Footnote 2: An exclamation of pitiful sympathy, inexplicable to the understanding. Thus the author covers his philological ignorance of the cross-breeding of the phrase.]

[Footnote 3: Extra—over all—ower a'—orra—one more than is wanted.]

[Footnote 4: Tennyson's Morte d'Arthur. Atque animum nunc huc celerem, nunc dividit illuc. AEneid: IV. 285]

[Footnote 5: This line is one of many instances in which my reader will see both the carelessness of Ericson and my religion towards his remains.]

[Footnote 6: Why should Sir Walter Scott, who felt the death of Camp, his bullterrier, so much that he declined a dinner engagement in consequence, say on the death of his next favourite, a grayhound bitch—'Rest her body, since I dare not say soul!'? Where did he get that dare not? Is it well that the daring of genius should be circumscribed by an unbelief so common-place as to be capable only of subscription?]

[Footnote 7: Amongst Ericson's papers I find the following sonnets, which belong to the mood here embodied:

Oft, as I rest in quiet peace, am I Thrust out at sudden doors, and madly driven Through desert solitudes, and thunder-riven Black passages which have not any sky. The scourge is on me now, with all the cry Of ancient life that hath with murder striven. How many an anguish hath gone up to heaven! How many a hand in prayer been lifted high When the black fate came onward with the rush Of whirlwind, avalanche, or fiery spume! Even at my feet is cleft a shivering tomb Beneath the waves; or else with solemn hush The graveyard opens, and I feel a crush As if we were all huddled in one doom.

Comes there, O Earth, no breathing time for thee? No pause upon thy many-chequered lands? Now resting on my bed with listless hands, I mourn thee resting not. Continually Hear I the plashing borders of the sea Answer each other from the rocks and sands. Troop all the rivers seawards; nothing stands, But with strange noises hasteth terribly. Loam-eared hyenas go a moaning by. Howls to each other all the bloody crew Of Afric's tigers. But, O men, from you Comes this perpetual sound more loud and high Than aught that vexes air. I hear the cry Of infant generations rising too.]

[Footnote 8: This sonnet and the preceding are both one line deficient.]

[Footnote 9: To these two sonnets Falconer had appended this note: 'Something I wrote to Ericson concerning these, during my first college vacation, produced a reply of which the following is a passage: "On writing the first I was not aware that James and John were the Sons of Thunder. For a time it did indeed grieve me to think of the spiritual-minded John as otherwise than a still and passionless lover of Christ."']



Note from John Bechard, creator of this Electronic text.

This list is a compressed form that consists of three columns for 'word', 'definition', and 'additional notes'. It is set up with a comma between each item and a hard return at the end of each definition. This means that this section could easily be cut and pasted into its own text file and imported into a database or spreadsheet as a comma separated variable file (.csv file). Failing that, you could do a search and replace for commas in this section (I have not used any commas in my words, definitions or notes) and replace the commas with spaces or tabs.



Glossary:

Word,Definition,Notes

a',all; every,also have a' gait,everywhere, a' thing,everything; anything, abeelity,ability, abettin',abetting, a'body,everyone; everybody, aboon,above; up; over, aboord,aboard, aboot,about, aboot it an' aboot it,all about, abune,above; up; over, accep's,accepts, accoont,account, accoonts,accounts, accordin',according, acquant,acquainted, a'-creatin',all-creating, ae,one, aff,off; away; past; beyond, aff-gang,outlet, afflickit,afflicted, affoord,afford, affront,affront; disgrace; shame, affrontet,affronted; disgraced,also ashamed; shamed afit,afoot; on foot, afore,before; in front of, aforehan',beforehand, aften,often, aftener,more often, agen,against, aheid,ahead, ahin',behind; after; at the back of, ahint,behind; after; at the back of, aiblins,perhaps; possibly, aidin',aiding, ailin',ailing; sick, ain,own,also one airin',airing, airm,arm, airm-cheir,armchair, airms,arms,also coat of arms; crest airmy,army, airth,earth, aise,ashes, ait,eat, aither,either, aiths,oaths, aitin',eating, aits,oats, alane,alone, alang,along, Algerine,Algerian, alloo,allow, allooed,allowed, Almichty,Almighty; God, amaist,almost, amang,among; in; together with, amen's,amends, amo',among, amuntit,amounted, an',and, ance,once, ane,one,also a single person or thing aneath,beneath; under, anent,opposite to; in front of,also concerning Anerew,Andrew, anes,ones, angert,angered; angry,also grieved anither,another, answerin',answering, answert,answered, a'ready,already, aricht,aright, aside,beside,also aside aspirin',aspiring, astarn,astern, 'at,that, ate,hate,also eat a'thegither,all together, a'thing,everything; anything, 'at's,that is; that has, attreebuted,attributed, atweel,indeed; truely; of course, atween,between, aucht,eight; eighth,also ought; own; possess aul',old, auld,old, aulder,older, aumrie,cupboard; pantry; store-closet, aumry,cupboard; pantry; store-closet, a'-uphaudin',all-upholding; all-supporting, ava,at all; of all,exclamation of banter; ridicule awa,away; distant,also off; go away awa',away; distant,also off; go away awaur,aware, Awbrahawm,Abraham, aweel,ah well; well then; well, awfu',awful, awpron,apron, ay,yes; indeed,exclamation of surprise; wonder aye,yes; indeed, ayont,beyond; after, bade,did bide, badena,did not bide, bagonet,bayonet, bailey,civic dignitary; magistrate, bairn,child, bairnie,little child,diminutive bairns,children, baith,both, bakehoose,bakery, baneless,insipid; without pith, banes,bones, barfut,barefoot, barrin',barring, barrowfu',wheelbarrow full, baubee,halfpenny, baubees,halfpennies, bauchles,old pair of shoes,also shoes down at the heel baukie,bat, beggit,begged, beginnin',beginning, begud,began, behaud,withhold; wait; delay,also behold behavin',behaving, bein',being, beir,bear, beirer,bearer, beirs,bears, bejan,first year's student,at a Scottish university belangs,belongs, believin',believing, ben' leather,thick leather for soling boots/shoes, bena,be not; is not, bend-leather,thick leather for soling boots/shoes, benn,in; inside; into; within; inwards,also inner room benn the hoose,in/into the parlour,best room of the house beowty,beauty, beuks,books, beyon',beyond, bide,endure; bear; remain; live,also desire; wish bides,endures; bears; remains; lives,also stays for biggit,built, bilin',boiling,also the whole quantity bin',bind, binna,be not, birse,bristle; hair; plume of hair, bit,but; bit,also small; little—diminutive bitch,,term of contempt usually applied to a man bitin',biting, bittie,little bit,diminutive bittock,a little bit; a short distance, blaeberries,blueberries, blastit,blasted, blate,over-modest; bashful; shy, blaud,spoil; injure; soil, blaudit,spoiled; injured; soiled, blaw,blow, blecks,nonplusses; perplexes; beats, blessin',blessing, blether,talk nonsense; babble; boast, bletherin',talking nonsense; babbling; boasting, blethers,talks nonsense; babbles; boasts,nonsense; foolish talk blin',blind, blink,take a hasty glance; ogle,also shine; gleam; twinkle; glimmer blinner,blinder, blude,blood, bluidy,bloody, boasom,bosom, boatles,bottles, boddom,bottom, body,person; fellow,also body boglet,bamboozled; terrified, bonnet,man's cap, bonnetfu',bonnetful; capful, bonnets,man's caps, bonnie,good; beautiful; pretty; handsome, bonniest,best; most beautiful; prettiest,also considerable bonny,good; beautiful; pretty; handsome, boodie,ghost; hobgoblin, booin',bowing, bools,marbles, boon',bound, boord,board (i.e. room and board), bothie,cottage in common for farm-servants, boucht,bought, bourach,heap; cluster; mound, bowat,stable-lantern, bowie,small barrel or cask, boxie,little box,diminutive brae,hill; hillside; high ground by a river, braid,broad; having a strong accent, brak,break, brakfast,breakfast, brat,child,term of contempt braw,beautiful; good; fine,also lovely (girl); handsome (boy) brawly,admirably; very; very much; well, breedth,breadth, breeks,breeches; trousers, breid,bread, breist,breast, breists,breasts, breith,breath, breme-bush,broom-bush,also simpleton brewin',brewing, brig,bridge, brither,brother, brithers,brothers; fellows, brithren,brethren; brothers, brocht,brought, broo,brow; eyebrow, broucht,brought, browst,brewage; booze,also the consequences of one's own acts bruik,broke, brunt,burned, bude,would prefer to; behoved,also must; had to budena,must not; could not; might not, buff,nonsense, buik,book,also Bible buiks,books, bund,bound, burd alane,quite alone,also the only surviving child of a family burn,water; stream; brook, burnin',burning, burnside,along the side of a stream, buss,bush; shrub; thicket, butes,boots, butt,main room in a croft; outside,includes kitchen and storage butt the hoose,into the house; into the kitchen, by ordinar,out of the ordinary; supernatural,also unusual by ordinar',out of the ordinary; supernatural,also unusual by-ordinar,out of the ordinary; supernatural,also unusual byous,exceedingly; extraordinary; very, ca,drive; impel; hammer, ca',call; name, ca'd,called, cadger,carrier; pedlar, ca'in',calling, cairds,cards, cairriage,carriage, cairriet,carried, cairry,carry, cairryin',carrying, calfie,little calf,diminutive callant,stripling; lad,term of affection cam,came, cam',came, camna,did not come, camstairie,unmanageable; wild; obstinate, camstairy,unmanageable; wild; obstinate, camstary,unmanageable; wild; obstinate, can'le,candle, canna,cannot,also cotton-grass canny,cautious; prudent; shrewd; artful, cap,wooden cup or bowl, capt'n,captain, carena,do not care, carldoddies,stalks of rib-grass,also term of endearment carritchis,catechism, ca's,calls, cast up,taunt; reproach, catchin',catching, cattle,lice; fleas,used contemptuously of persons cauld,cold, caure,calves, 'cause,because, caw,drive; impel; hammer, cawed,driven; impeled; hammered, cawin',driving; impeling; hammering, ceevil,civil, 'cep',except; but, chackit,checkered, chairge,charge, chap,knock; hammer; strike; rap, chappit,knocked; hammered; struck; rapped, chaps,knocks; hammers; strikes; raps, chaumer,chamber; room; bedroom, cheep,chirp; creak; hint; word, cheerman,chairman, chessel,tub for pressing cheese, chice,choice, chiel',child; young person; fellow,term of fondness or intimacy chield,child; young person; fellow,term of fondness or intimacy chimla-lug,fireside, chits,sweetbreads, chop,shop; store, circumspec',circumspect, claes,clothes; dress, claikin',clucking (like a hen),also talk much in a trivial way claith,cloth, clams,vice or pincers,used by saddlers and shoemakers clap,press down; pat; fondle, clashes,blows; slaps; messes,also gossip; tittle-tattle clash-pyet,tell-tale; scandal-monger, clean,altogether; entirely,also comely; shapely; empty; clean cleant,cleaned, clear-e'ed,clear-eyed, cleed,clothe; shelter, cleedin',clothing; sheltering, cleuks,claws; hands; paws, clo'en,cloven, clomb,climbed, clood,cloud, cloods,clouds, cloody,cloudy, close,narrow alley; blind alley,also enclosed land closin',closing, clype,tell tales; gossip, coaties,children's coats; petticoats, coaton,cotton, coats,petticoats, coch,coach, coches,coaches, coff,buy, colliginer,college student,also college boy Come yer wa's butt.,Come on in., comin',coming, comman'ment,commandment, compleen,complain, con thanks,return thanks, considerin',considering, contradickit,contradicted, contrairy,contrary, contred,contradicted; thwarted; crossed, convence,convince, conversin',conversing, convertit,converted, coorse,coarse,also course coort,court, corbie,crow; raven, cornel,colonel, correck,correct, cottar,farm tenant; cottager, cottars,farm tenants; cottagers, cottar-wark,stipulated work done by the cottager, couldna,could not, coupit,tilted; tumbled; drank off, couples,rafters, crackin',cracking, cracklin',crackling, crap o' the wa',natural shelf between wall and roof, crappit,topped; cropped; lopped, crappit heids,stuffed head of cod or haddock, crater,creature, cratur,creature, craturs,creatures, cried,called; summoned, crookit,crooked, croon,crown, croudin',cooing; croaking; groaning, Cry Moany,Cremona,make of violin cryin',calling; summoning, cryin' doon,decrying; depreciating, cud,could, cudna,could not, culd,could, cumber,encumbrance; inconvenience, cunnin',cunning, curst,cursed, cuttin',cutting, cutty pipe,short tobacco-pipe, cwytes,petticoats, dacent,decent, dame,young unmarried woman; damsel,also farmer's wife damnin',damning; condemning, dancin',dancing, dang,knock; bang; drive,also damn darnin',darning, dauchter,daughter, daunerin',strolling; sauntering; ambling, daur,dare; challenge, daured,dared; challenged, daurna,dare not; do not dare, daursay,dare say, dauty,darling; pet,term of endearment dawtie,darling; pet,term of endearment daylicht,daylight, debosh,excessive indulgence; debauch,also extravagance; waste deboshed,debauched; worthless, deceitfu',deceitful, deceivin',deceiving, dee,do,also die deed,died,also deed; indeed 'deed,indeed, dee'd,died, deein',doing,also dying deevil,devil, deevil-ma'-care,devil-may-care; utterly careless,also no matter deevilry,devilry, deevils,devils, deid,dead, deif,deaf, deil,devil,also not de'il,devil,also not De'il a bit!,Not at all! Not a bit!, deith,death, deleeberately,deliberately, dementit,demented; mad; crazy, denner,dinner, desertit,deserted, desperate,exceedingly; beyond measure,also irreclaimable; very bad didna,did not, differ,difference; dissent,also differ dingin',overcoming; wearying; vexing,also raining/snowing heavily dinna,do not, direckly,directly; immediately, dirt,worthless persons or things,term of contempt dishcloot,cloth for washing dishes, disna,does not, disoun,disown, distinckly,distinctly, div,do, divots,thin flat pieces of sod, dochter,daughter, doesna,does not, doin',doing, doin's,doings, doited,foolish; stupefied; crazy, dominie,minister; schoolmaster,slightly contemptuous dooble,double; duplicate,also double dealing; devious dooble-sole,double-sole, doobt,suspect; know; doubt,have an unpleasant conviction doobtin',suspecting; knowing,also doubting doobtless,doubtless, doobts,suspects; knows,also doubts dooce,gentle; sensible; sober; prudent, dooms,extremely; exceedingly; very, doon,down, doonricht,downright, door-cheek,door-post; threshold; doorway, door-stane,flagstone at the threshold of a door, dother,daughter, dottled,crazy; in dotage, douce,gentle; sensible; sober; prudent, dowie,sad; lonely; depressing; dismal,also ailing draigon,dragon; also boy's paper kite,reference to Revelation 12-13 draigons,dragons,also boys' paper kites dram,glass of whisky, drap,drop; small quantity of, drap i' the hoose,presence of someone unknown, drappit,dropped, drappy,little drop; a little (liquor),diminutive drauchts,plans; schemes; policies,also lineaments of the face drave,drove, drawin',drawing, dreadfu',dreadful, dreamin',dreaming, drear,dreary; dreariness; tedium, dreidfu',dreadful; dreadfully, drift,snow driven by the wind, driftin',drifting,snow driven by the wind drinkin',drinking, drivin',driving, droont,drowned, drucken,drunken; tipsy, drum-heid,drum head, drunken,drank; drunk, du,do, duin',doing, dumfoundered,perplexed; stunned; amazed, dune,done, dunna,do not, duv,do, duvna,do not, dwalls,dwells, d'ye,do you, dyke,wall of stone or turf, eaves-drapper,eavesdropper, Ebberdeen,Aberdeen, ee,eye, een,eyes, e'en,even; just; simply; equal,also eyes; evening efter,after; afterwards, efterhin,after; afterwards, efternune,afternoon, eident,industrious; diligent; steady, elbuck,elbow, eleckit,elected,chosen by God for salvation (Calvinism) ellwand,ell-wand; ruler; yardstick,1 ell = 37 inches or 94 cm en',end, endit,ended, eneuch,enough, Englan',England, enjoyin',enjoying, eppiteet,appetite, er,ere; before, er',ere; before, Erse,Irish; Gaelic, etairnity,eternity, ewie,young ewe, exackly,exactly, excep',except, expairience,experience, expeckin',expecting, expecs,expects, eyther,either, fa',fall; befall, fac',fact; truth; reality, fac's,facts; truths; realities, factor,manager of a landed property,lets farms; collects rents fact'ry,factory, faddom,fathom, fa'en,fallen, failin',failing, faimilies,families, faimily,family, fain,eager; anxious; fond,also fondly; gladly fa'in',falling, fairmy,little farm,diminutive Faith!,Indeed!; Truly!,exclamation fallow,fellow; chap, fan',found,also felt fand,found, farrer,farther, fash,trouble; inconvenience; vex, faun't,found, faured,favoured; featured, faut,fault; blame, fau'ts,faults, feared,afraid; frightened; scared, fearfu',fearful; easily frightened, fearsome,terrifying; fearful; awful, feart,afraid; frightened; scared, feelin',feeling, fegs!,truly!; really!; goodness!,mild oath; exclamation of surprise feifteen,fifteen, fell,very; potent; keen; harsh; sharp,intensifies; also turf feow,few, ferlie,wonder; novelty; curiosity, fess,fetch; bring, fest,fast, festen,fasten; bind, fiddlin',fiddling, fin',find,also feel fir-can'le,a torch; 'firwood' used as a candle, fishin',fishing, fit,foot; base,also fit; capable; able flax,flax; wick, flech,flea, fleys,terrifies; frightens, fleyt,terrified; frightened, flingin',kicking; throwing, flittin',shifting; removing; departing, flooers,flowers, flure,floor, flurin',flooring, forby,as well; as well as; besides,also over and above forbye,as well; as well as; besides,also over and above foresicht,foresight, foret,forward, forgather,assemble; encounter,also meet for a special purpose forgathert,assembled; encountered,also met for a special purpose forgettin',forgetting, forgie,forgive, forgien,forgiven, fortnicht,fortnight; two weeks, fou,full; well-fed, fouchten,fought, fower-hoors,four o'clock tea, fowk,folk, frae,from, freely,quite; very; thoroughly, freits,superstitions; charms,also superstitious fancies fremt,stranger,also strange; foreign fren',friend, fricht,frighten; scare away,also fright frichtit,frightened; scared away, frichtsome,frightful, frien',friend, frien's,friends, frien'ship,friendship, fu',full; very; much, fule,fool, fummles,fumbles, fun',found, fun-buss,whin-bush, fund,found, furbye,as well; as well as; besides,also over and above fushionless,pithless; tasteless; feeble, fut,foot, gae,gave, gaed,went, gaein',going, gae's,gave us; gave his, gaird,guard; watch, gait,way; fashion,also route; street gaither,gather, ga'le,gable, gane,gone, gang,go; goes; depart; walk, gang yer wa's,go on, gangs,goes; walks, gar,cause; make; compel, garred,made; caused; compelled, garrin',making; causing; compelling, gars,makes; causes; compels, gart,made; caused; compelled, gar't,make it; cause it; compel it, gate,way; route,also method; fashion; habit gatherin',gathering, gaun,going, 'gen,by; in time for; whether, German Ocean,,old reference to the English Channel & North Sea gether,gather, gettin',getting, gey,fairly; considerably,also considerable gi',give, gie,give, gie a lift,give a helping hand, gied,gave, giein',giving, gien,if; as if; then; whether,also given gi'en,given, giena,do not give, gies,gives, gie's,gives; give us; give his, gill,tipple; drink, gin,if; as if; then; whether, gird,hoop for a barrel or tub, girn,grimace; snarl; twist the features, glaid,glad, glaidly,gladly, glaiss,glass, gleds,kites; buzzards, gleg,quick; lively; smart; quick-witted, Glendronach,particular brand of whisky, glimmerin',glimmering, gloamin',twilight; dusk, gloggie,insipid; artificial; unnatural, glowered,stared; gazed; scowled, goin',going, goon,gown, goul,howl; yell; whine, gowd,gold, gowk,cuckoo; fool; blockhead, gran',grand; capital; first-rate, grandmither,grandmother, gran'father,grandfather, gran'mither,grandmother, grat,cried; wept, gravestane,gravestone; tombstone; headstone, greet,cry; weep, greetin',crying; weeping, greit,cry; weep, greitin',crying; weeping, greits,cries; weeps, grew,greyhound, grip,grasp; understand,also hold grips,grasps; understands,seizures; colic growin',growing, grun',ground, grup,grip; grasp, grups,grips; grasp, grutten,cried; wept, gude,good,also God gude-bye,goodbye, gude-hertit,good-hearted, gudeness,goodness, guid,good,also God guide,treat; handle; look after; save; keep, Guidsake!,For God's sake!, ha',have,also hall; house haddie,haddock, hadna,had not, hae,have; has,also here ha'e,have,also here haein',having, haena,have not, hae't,have it, haill,whole, hairm,harm, hairps,harps, hairst,harvest, hairst-play,school holidays during harvest, Haith!,Faith!,exclamation of surprise haithen,heathen, haiven,heaven, halesome,wholesome; pure, half-dizzen,half-dozen, half-stervit,half-starved, hame,home, han',hand, han'fu',handful, hangin',hanging, hangt,hanged, hang't,hanged, han'le,handle, han'led,handled; treated, han'let,handled, han's,hands, hantle,much; large quantity; far, hard,heard,also hard hash,mess; muddle, hasna,does not have, haud,hold; keep, hauden,held; kept, haudin',holding; keeping, hauld,hold, haveless,careless (therefore helpless),also wasteful; incompetent haven,heaven, haverin',talking incoherently; babbling, havers,nonsense; foolish talk; babble, hay-sow,long oblong stack of hay,shaped like a sow he that will to Cupar maun to Cupar,a wilful man must have his way, heap,very much,also heap heardna,did not hear, hearin',hearing, hearken,hearken; hear; listen, hearkened,hearkened; heard; listened, hearkenin',hearkening; listening, hearkent,hearkened; heard; listened, Hecklebirnie,Hell, hecklet,cross-questioned; examined, hed,had,also hid heepocreet,hypocrite, heicht,height, heid,head; heading, heids,heads; headings, helpin',helping, helpit,helped, her lane,on her own, hersel',herself, hert,heart, hertily,heartily, herts,hearts, het,hot; burning, hev,have, Hielan',Highland, Hielan'man,Highland man, hillo,,a call to attract attention him lane,on his own, himsel',himself, hinder,hinder; hind; latter, hine,away; afar; to a distance, hing,hang, hingin',hanging, hings,hangs, hinnerance,hinderance, hinney,honey, hintit,hinted, hips,borders of a district, hiz,us,emphatic hizzies,hussies; silly girls, hoo,how, hooever,however, hooly,slowly; cautiously; gently,also 'take your time' hoomble,humble, hoombly,humbly, hoor,hour, hoo's,how is, hoose,house, hooses,houses, hoot,pshaw,exclamation of doubt or contempt Hoot awa!,tuts!; nonsense!,also exclamation of sympathy hoot toot,tut!,exclamation of annoyance hoots,pshaw,exclamation of doubt or contempt horse-huves,horse hooves, hose,stocking, hostit,coughed, houp,hope, houpe,hope, houps,hopes, humblet,humbled, hunger,hunger; starve, hungert,starved, hunner,hundred, huntin',hunting, hurdies,buttocks, hurry an' a scurry,uproar; tumult, hurtit,hurt, huves,hooves, hynd,straight; by the nearest road, i',in; into, I doobt,I know; I suspect, I wat,I know; I assure (you), ilk,every; each,also common; ordinary ilka,every; each,also common; ordinary ilkabody,everybody; everyone, ill,bad; evil; hard; harsh; badly,also misfortune; harm 'ill,will, ill-contrived,tricky; mischievous,also badly behaved; ill-tempered ill-doin',badly behaved,also leading an evil life ill-fashioned,vulgar in habits; ill-mannered,also quarrelsome ill-faured,unbecoming; ill-mannered; clumsy,also unpleasant ill-mainnert,ill-mannered, ill-tongued,foul-tongued; abusive, ill-used,used wrongly, ill-willy,ill-tempered; spiteful; grudging,also reluctant 'im,him, impidence,impudence, imputin',imputing, inheritin',inheriting, in't,in it, interesstin',interesting, interferin',interfering, interruppit,interrupted, intil,into; in; within, ir,are, Ishmeleets,Ishmaelites, isna,is not; is no, is't,is it, ither,other; another; further, 'ither,other; another; further, itsel',itself, iver,ever, jabberin',chattering; idle talking, jaloosed,suspected; guessed; imagined, jaud,lass; girl; worthless woman,old worn-out horse jaw,billow; splash; surge; wave, jawin',talking; chattering, Jeames,James, Jeck,Jack, jeedgment,judgement, Jeroozlem,Jerusalem, jined,joined, jines,joins, jist,just, judgin',judging, jumps,tallies; coincides, justifee,justify, justifeein',justifying, jyler,jailer, kailyard,kitchen garden; small cottage garden, keek,look; peep; spy, keekin',looking; peeping; prying, keepit,kept, kelpie,water-sprite; river-horse, ken,know; be acquainted with; recognise, kenna,do not know, kennin',knowing, kens,knows, kent,known; knew, kep,keep; catch,also intercept; encounter kickin',kicking, kickit,kicked, kin',kind; nature; sort; agreeable,also somewhat; in some degree kin'ness,kindness, kirk,church, kirks,churches, kirkyaird,churchyard, kirstened,christened, kirstenin',christening, kissin',kissing, kist,chest; coffer; box; chest of drawers, kists,chests; coffers; boxes; luggage, kitchie,kitchen, kittlins,kittens, kneipit,knocked, lad,boy,term of commendation or reverence laddie,boy,term of affection laddies,boys,term of affection lads,boys,term of commendation or reverence laicher,lower, laird,landed proprietor; squire; lord, lameter,cripple,also lame lammie,little lamb,term of endearment lan',land; country; ground, lane,lone; alone; lonely; solitary, lang,long; big; large; many,also slow; tedious langed,longed, langer,longer, lang-leggit,long legged, lang's,long as, lang-tailed,tedious, lan'less,landless, lap,leaped, lapstane,stone on which a shoemaker,hammers his leather lass,girl; young woman,term of address lasses,girls; young women, lassie,girl,term of endearment lat,let; allow, lat's,let's; let us; let his, latten,let; allowed, lattin',letting; allowing, lauch,laugh, lauchin',laughing, lauchter,laughter, lave,rest; remainder; others,also leave laverock,lark (type of bird), Lawlands,Lowlands, lea,leave, lea',leave, leadin',leading, leal,loyal; faithful; sincere; true, learnin',learning,also teaching learnt,learned,also taught leavin',leaving, leddy,lady,also boy; lad; laddy lee,pasture; fallow ground,also shelter from wind or rain; lie leear,lier, leebrary,library, leed,lied; told lies, leein',lying; telling lies, lees,lies, leevin',living; living being, leiser,leisure, len',lend; give; grant,also loan len'th,length, leuch,laughed, leuk,look; watch; appearance, leys,grasslands, licht,light, lichtlie,make light of; disparage, lickin',thrashing; punishment, lien,lain, lift,load; boost; lift; helping hand,also sky; heavens liket,liked, likit,liked, likliheid,likelyhood, likly,likely, limmer,rascal; rogue,also loose woman; prostitute lingel,shoemaker's thread, links,stretch of sandy grass-covered ground,near the seashore lint-bells,flowers of the flax, lippen,trust; depend on,also look after list,enlist as a soldier, livin',living, 'll,will, lockit,locked, longin',longing, Lonnon,London, loon,rascal; rogue; ragamuffin,also boy; lad loot,let; allowed; permitted, Losh!,corrupt form of 'Lord',exclamation of surprise or wonder losin',losing, loup,leap; jump; spring, loup-coonter lads,shopkeepers; salesmen, loupin',leaping; jumping; springing, loupin'-on-stane,horse-block, lowse,loose; free,also dishonest; immoral luckie-daddie,grandfather,also fondly regarded forefather luckie-daiddie,grandfather,also fondly regarded forefather luckie-minnie,grandmother, lucky,old woman, lucky-daiddy,grandfather,also fondly regarded forefather lug,ear; fin (fish); handle,also shallow wooden dish lugs,ears, luik,look, luikin',looking, luikit,looked, luiks,looks, luve,love, lyin',lying, lythe,shelter, 'm,him, ma,my, magistrand,student about to become M.A.,at Aberdeen University maijesty,majesty, mainner,manner, mainners,manners, mair,more; greater, mairch,march, mairry,marry, maist,most; almost, 'maist,almost, maist han',almost, maister,master; mister, maistly,mostly; most of all, maitter,matter, maitters,matters, mak,make; do, mak',make; do, makin',making; doing, maks,makes; does, mak's,makes; does, man-body,full grown man, Markis,Marquis, maukin,hare,also a reference to a poem by Burns maun,must; have to, maunna,must not; may not, mayna,may not, meanin',meaning, meddlin',meddling, meenit,minute, meenits,minutes, meenute,minute, meesery,misery, mell,mix; be intimate; meddle, mem,Ma'am; Miss; Madam, men',mend, men'in',mending; healing, men't,mended, merchan's,merchants; shopkeepers, mercifu',merciful; favourable, mere,mare,also mere merried,married, merry,marry,also merry micht,might, michtna,might not, michty,mighty; God, midden,dunghill; manure pile, middlin',tolerable; mediocre; fairly well, mids,midst; middle, mids',midst; middle, min',mind; recollection,also recollect; remember min' upo',remember, mind,mind; recollection,also recollect; remember ministert,ministered, minit,minute, mint,insinuate; hint; feign,also aim at; attempt mintin',insinuating; hinting; feigning,also aiming at; attempting mintit,insinuated; hinted; feigned,also aimed at; attempted mirk,darkness; gloom; night, mischeef,mischief; injury; harm, misdoobt,doubt; disbelieve; suspect, missionar',missionary, mistak,mistake, mither,mother, mithers,mothers, mizzer,measure, moedesty,modesty, mony,many, moo',mouth, moose,mouse, mornin',morning, morn's,tomorrow, mou',mouth, moufu',mouthful, mou'fu',mouthful, mould,mould; loose earth; top soil, muckle,huge; enormous; big; great; much, muckler,bigger; greater, mull,snuff-box, mune,moon, munelicht,moonlight, murnin',mourning, mutch,woman's cap with protruding frill,worn under the bonnet mutchkin,liquid measure,equal to an English pint my lane,on my own, mysel',myself, na,not; by no means, nae,no; none; not, naebody,nobody; no one, naething,nothing, nane,none, nanetheless,nonetheless, nater,nature, nat'ral,natural, natur',nature, naything,nothing, nearhan',nearly; almost; near by, near-han',nearly; almost; near by, nears,kidneys, nebs,tips; points; nibs; beaks, neebor,neighbour, neebors,neighbours, neebour,neighbour, needfu',needful; necessary; needy, needna,do not need; need not, ne'er-do-weel,an incorrigible; troublemaker, neist,next; nearest, nesty,nasty, neuk,nook; recess; interior angle,also corner news,talk; gossip, nicht,night; evening, niffer,exchange; barter, no,not, no',not, noething,nothing, noo,now, noo',now, noo a-days,now; in these days, nor,than; although; if,also nor nor's,than is, notwithstandin',notwithstanding, nuik,corner, o',of; on, objeck,object, obleeged,obliged, och,,exclamation of sorrow or regret och hone,alas, Od,disguised form of 'God',mince oath odds,consequence; change, o'er,over; upon; too, ohn,without; un-,uses past participle not present progressive Ohone!,Alas!, on',and,possibly a mispelling—should be an' onlike,unlike, onsays,unsays, ony,any, onybody,anybody; anyone, onything,anything, ook,week, ooks,weeks, oor,our, 'oor,hour, oors,ours, oorsel's,ourselves, oot,out, ootcast,outcast, oots,outs, ootside,outside, opingon,opinion, opingons,opinions, opposit,opposite, or,before; ere; until; by,also or ordinar,ordinary; usual; natural,also custom; habit ordinar',ordinary; usual; natural,also custom; habit orra,odd job (man); exceptional; over all,also idle o't,of it, oucht,anything; all,also ought ouchtna,ought not, oursel's,ourselves, ow,oh,exclamation of surprise ower,over; upon; too, owerta'en,overtaken, oye,grandchild; grandson; nephew, pailace,palace, paintit,painted, pairt,part, pandies,strokes on the palm with a cane, papistry,Romanism; Popery, Paradees,Paradise, parritch,oatmeal porridge, partic'lar,particular, pat,put; made, peacefu',peaceful, pecks,blows; strikes, pernickety,precise; particular; fastidious,also difficult to please perris,parish, piana,piano, picter,picture; sight; spectacle, pictur',picture, piece,slice of bread; lunch, pint,point, pipit,piped; played the (bag)pipes, pirn,reel; bobbin,on which thread is wound pit,put; make, pitawta,potato, pits,puts; makes, pitten,put; made, plack,the smallest coin,worth 1/3 of a penny plaguit,plagued; troubled, plaid,plaid used as a blanket, plaistered,plastered, plash-mill,fulling-mill, playacks,playthings; toys, play-actin',acting, playin',playing, playt,played, pliskie,trick; prank; practical joke, plisky,trick; prank, ploy,amusement; sport; escapade, ploys,amusements; sports; escapades, poassible,possible, poddock,frog, pooch,pocket; pouch, pooer,power, pooerfu',powerful, poored,poured, poothers,powders, pop',pope, porkmanty,portmanteau, positeeve,positive, pouch,pouch; pocket, poun',pound (sterling), prayin',praying, preachin',preaching, pree,taste; try; prove; experience, prent,print, prentice-han',novice, press,wall-cupboard with shelves, preten',pretend, preten't,pretended, prood,proud, pruv,prove, pruved,proved, pu',pull, public,public house; pub, public-hoose,public house, pu'd,pulled, puddin's,intestines, puir,poor, pun',pound (sterling), putten,put, quaiet,quiet, quaiet sough,quiet tongue, quaieter,quieter, quaietly,quietly, quaietness,quietness, quean,queen; young girl; hussy, queston,question,also sum questons,questions,also sums quest'ons,questions, quibblin',quibbling, rade,rode, rael,real, railly,really, raither,rather, rale,real; true; very, rampaugin',rampaging, randy,rough; wild; riotous,also coarse-tongued; abusive rase,rose, rash,needle used in weaving, readin',reading, reamy,creamy, rebukit,rebuked, receipt,recipe, reckonin',reckoning, reconceelin',reconciling, reconcilet,reconciled, reekit,rigged out; well-dressed, regairdit,regarded, reg'ment,regiment, reid,red, reik,smoke; vapour, rejeckit,rejected, remainin',remaining, remeid,remedy; cure; redress, repentin',repenting, resentin',resenting, respec',respect, respecks,respects; considers worthy, richt,right; correct,also mend richteous,righteous, richteousness,righteousness, richtly,certainly; positively, rig,ridge; space between furrows,also long narrow hill rin,run, rinnin',running, rins,runs, risin',rising, rist,rest, rivin',renting; tearing; tuging; wrenching, rizzon,reason, rizzonin',reasoning, rizzons,reasons, roarin',roaring, rockit,rocked, ro'd,road; course; way, Rom',Rome, roof-tree,beam forming the angle of a roof, roomy,little room,diminutive roon,around; round, roon',around; round, roset,resin; cobbler's wax, roset-ends,shoemaker's waxed thread-ends, rottan,rat, rouch,rough, rowdie,hag; beldame, ruck,bulk; mass; majority, ruggin',pulling forcibly; tugging; tearing, ruggin' and rivin',draging forcibly,also contending for possession runklet,wrinkled; creased; crumpled, 's,us; his; as; is,also has s',shall, sae,so; as, saft,muddy; soft; silly; foolish, saiddlet,saddled, sair,sore; sorely; sad; hard; very; greatly,also serve; satisfy sair heid,headache, sair-vroucht,hard-worked, saitisfee,satisfy, saitisfeed,satisfied, saitisfeet,satisfied, salamander,large poker with a flat heated end,for lighting fires sall,shall, sang,song, sangs,songs, sanna,shall not, Sanny,Sandy,also Scotsman sark,shirt, sarks,shirts, sattle,settle, saven,wise; knowledgeable,also seven savin',saving,also except savin's,savings, Sawtan,Satan, sax,six, saxpence,sixpence, sayin',saying, scar,cliff; precipice, scart,scratch; strike a match; scrape, schuil,school, schuilin',schooling; education, schuilmaister,schoolmaster, schule,school, schule-time,time for school, scoonrel,scoundrel, scoon'rel,scoundrel, Scotlan',Scotland, scraich,shriek; scream; bird's shrill cry, scrattit,scratched; dug, screed,recite rapidly; talk tediously; reel off,also scraping sound Scripter,Scripture, sculduddery,fornication; grossness; obscenity, scunner,disgust; disgusting; revolting, scunnert,disgusted; loathed, scurry,scour; got about from place to place,also wander aimlessly seck,sack, seein',seeing, seekin',seeking, se'enteen,seventeen, sel',self, self-forgettin',self-forgetting, sellt,sold, semies,second year's university students,at Aberdeen University sen',send, sendin',sending, sen'in',sending, servan',servant, servan's,servants, sessions-buik,church record of its proceedings, set,set out; start off; become,also inclined; disposed Setterday,Saturday, shacken,shaken, shackle-bane,wrist; wrist-bone, Shackspear,Shakespeare, shak'-doon,shakedown; crude makeshift bed, shanna,shall not, sharpset,keen; sharp-witted, sharp-set,keen; sharp-witted, shaw,show; reveal,also grove shawn,shown, shaws,shows, shearin',shearing (sheep), shillin',shilling, shillin's,shillings, shinin',shining, shochlin,waddling; in-kneed, shochlin',waddling; in-kneed, shoothers,shoulders, shortcomin's,shortcomings, shortent,shortened, shouldna,should not, shuit,suit, shune,shoes, shutin',shooting, sib,relation; akin; closely related, sic,such; so; similar, siccan,such a; such an, sicht,sight, sichtit,sighted, sicker,secure; safe; firm; sure, sic-like,suchlike; likewise,like such a person or thing side,district; region,also the side of sidin',siding, siller,silver; money; wealth, simmer,Summer, sin,since; ago; since then,also sin; sun sin',since; ago; since then, sinfu',sinful, singin',singing, sittin',sitting, skelf,shelf,also splinter skelpin',digging; ploughing,also beating; striking skirl,scream; sing shrilly, slack,slow, slauchtert,slaughtered, sleepin',sleeping, sleepit,slept, sleicht o' han',sleight of hand, sliddery,slippery; smooth,also sly; deceitful slinkin',slinking, slip,let slip; convey by stealth, slippin',slipping, slips,tricks, sma',small; little; slight; narrow; young, smacks,single-masted sailing boats,not necessarily a Scottish word smeddum,spirit; mettle; liveliness, smilin',smiling, smokin',smoking; smouldering, smokin' flax,smouldering wick,reference to Matthew 12:20 smorin',smothering; suffocating, snappin',snapping, snaw,snow, sneck,door-latch; catch (gate),also latch snod,smooth; neat; trim; tidy; snug, sod,sad, sodger,soldier, sodgers,soldiers, sojer,soldier, some,somewhat; rather; quite; very,also some somehoo,somehow, sookit,sucked, soon',sound, soonds,sounds, sornin',taking food or lodging; sponging,taking by force of threat sortit,sorted, soucht,sought, sough,sigh; sound of wind; deep breath, soun',sound, soun's,sounds, soutar,shoemaker; cobbler, sowl,soul, sowls,souls, spak,spoke, spak',spoke, spark,speck; spot; blemish; atom, spaud,spade, speakin',speaking, speerit,spirit, speik,speak, speikin',speaking, speir,ask about; enquire; question, speired,asked about; enquired; questioned, speirin',asking about; enquiring; questioning, speirs,asks about; enquires; questions, speirt,asked about; enquired; questioned, spen',spend, spence,storeroom; larder, speyk,speak, speykin,speaking, speykin',speaking, spier,ask about; enquire; question, spring,quick lively tune, spult,spilt, spunes,spoons, Squaur,square, stack,stuck, stair,stairs; staircase, stamack,stomach, stamacks,stomachs, stampin',stamping, stan',stand; stop, stane,stone; measure of weight,1 stone = 14 pounds stanes,stones, stan'in',standing, stan's,stands, starnie,very small quantity, startit,started, steek,shut; close; clench,also stitch (as in clothing) steekit,shut; closed; clenched, stept,stepped, sterve,starve, stew,dust; vapour; smoke,also stench; stink stickin',sticking; goring, stingin',stinging, stinkin',stinking, stockin'-fit,feet clothed in stockings,i.e. without shoes stook,arranging the sheaves in a stook, stoun',ache; throb, stown,stolen, Straddle Vawrious,Stradivarius,make of violin strae-deith,death in bed; natural death,not a violent death straik,streak; stroke; blow; caress, straiks,streaks; strokes; blows; caresses, strang,strong, strathspey,Highland dance,like a reel but slower straucht,straighten; straight, straught,straight, stravaguin',saunter; stroll; go about aimlessly, stren'th,strength, stucken,stuck, stud,stood, stule,stool, styte,nonsense, subjec',subject, subjeck,subject, subjecks,subjects, substrackin',subtracting, sudna,should not, sufferin',suffering, suffert,suffered, suld,should, suldna,should not, sumph,soft blunt fellow; simpleton; fool, sune,soon; early, sune's,soon as, sung,singed, sunk,drivel; loiter,also be in a low dejected state sup,drink, supped,drank, supposin',supposing, swack,elastic; limber; supple, swarf,swoon; faint, sweer,swear, sweir,swear, sweirer,swearer, sweirin',swearing, sweirs,swears, sworn,swore, syde,wide and long; hanging low down, syne,ago; since; then; at that time,also in (good) time 't,it, tae,toe; also tea,also the one; to taed,toad, ta'en,taken; seized, taes,toes, taings,tongs; prongs, tak,take; seize, tak',take; seize, tak tent,look out; pay attention; watch, takin',taking, taks,takes; seizes, talkin',talking, tane,the one,also taken tap,top; tip; head, tastin',tasting, taucht,taught, tauld,told, tawtie,potato, taxed,found fault with; scolded, tay,tea; supper, tay-time,tea time; supper, teachin',teaching, teep,type, telled,told, tellin',telling, tellt,told, tell't,told, telt,told, tent,attention; care; heed; notice, thae,those; these, thairm,fiddle-string,also intestine; gut; belly than,then,also than thankfu',thankful, thankit,thanked, thanksgivin',thanksgiving, that'll,that will, the day,today, the morn,tomorrow, the nicht,tonight, the noo,just now; now, the piece,apiece, thegither,together, themsels,themselves, themsel's,themselves, thereaboots,thereabouts, thimmel,thimble, thinkin',thinking, thinksna,does not think, this mony a day,for some time, tho',though, thocht,thought, thochtna,did not think, thochts,thoughts, thoo,thou; you (God), thoomacks,violin-pegs, thoucht,thought, thouchts,thoughts, thrapple,windpipe; throat, thrivin',thriving, throu,through, throu',through, throuw,through, throw,through, thrum,particle; tangle; mess, ticht,tight, til,to; till; until; about; at; before, till,to; till; until; about; at; before, timmer,timber; wood, tint,lost; got lost, 'tis,it is, tither,the other, tod,fox, toom,empty; unload, toomin',emptying; unloading, toon,town; village, toon-piper,town piper, toot,tut!,exclamation of annoyance Toots!,Tuts!; Tush!, towie,string, trailin',dragging forcibly; hauling along, traivel,travel, traivellin',travelling, tramp,trudge,also tramp transe,passage within a house,also alley; narrow space tribble,trouble, trimlin',trembling, troo,trust; believe, troosers,trousers, troth,truth; indeed,also used as an exclamation trowth,truth; indeed,also used as an exclamation tryin',trying, 'ts,its, tu,too; also, tuik,took, tum'ler,tumbler; glass (of whisky), turnin',turning, turnt,turned, twa,two; a few, twa three,several, twal,twelve, twalmonth,twelvemonth; year, 'twas,it was, twise,twice, tyke,dog,also rough clownish fellow tyne,lose; get lost; miss, 'ull,will, umquhile,former; of old; late, unbecomin',unbecoming, unco,unknown; odd; strange; uncouth,also very great unco',unknown; odd; strange; uncouth,also very great understan',understand, unner,under, unnerstan,understand, unnerstan',understand, unpleasin',unpleasing; unpleasant, unsoucht,unsought, unweel,unwell, up the stair,upstairs,also to heaven uphaud,uphold; maintain; support, uphaudin',upholding; maintaining; supporting, upo',upon; on to; at, upsettin',forward; ambitious; stuck-up; proud, vailue,value, vainishin',vanishing, vainities,vanities, verra,very; true; real, vex,trouble; vexation, vraith,apparition, vrang,wrong, vratch,wretch, vrote,wrote, vroucht,wrought; worked, wa',wall,also way; away wad,would, wadna,would not, wailin',wailing, waitin',waiting, wakin',waking, wall,well; spring of water, wallopin',dancing; galloping,also beating; thrashing; knocking wame,belly; stomach; womb; hollow, wamlin',rolling; undulating, wan,reached; gained; got, wan'erer,wanderer, wantin',wanting; lacking; without; in want of, wantit,wanted, war,were, wark,work; labour,also show of affection warl',world; worldly goods,also a large number warld,world, warldly,worldly, warna,were not, warran',warrant; guarantee, warst,worst, wa's,walls,also ways washin',washing, wasna,was not, was't,was it, wastit,wasted, wat,wet,see also 'I wat.' watchin',watching, watter,water, wauken,awake; wake, waukens,wakes, waukin',waking, waukit,woke, waukmill,fulling mill, wauk-mill,fulling-mill, waur,worse,also spend money waure,ware, weddin',wedding, wee,small; little; bit,also short time; while weel,well; fine, weel-behaved,well-behaved, weelfaur,welfare, weel's,well as, weet,wet; dew; rain, weicht,weight, weir,wear,also hedge; fence; enclosure weirs,wears, weyver,weaver; knitter,also knitter of stockings; spider wha,who, wha',who, whaever,whoever, whan,when, wharever,wherever, wha's,who is,also whose whase,whose, What for no?,Why not?, What for?,Why?, whaur,where, whaur'll,where will, whaur's,where is; where has, wheen,little; few; number; quantity, whiles,sometimes; at times; now and then, whilie,short time, whilk,which, whumle,whelm; overwhelm; upset, whusky,whisky, whustle,whistle, whustled,whistled, wi',with, wice,wise, wife,woman; landlady,also wife wight,fellow, willin'ly,willingly, willna,will not, win,reach; gain; get; go; come, win',wind,also reach; gain; get; go; come winkit,winked, winna,will not, winnin',reaching; gaining; getting, winnock,window, winsome,large; comely; merry, wi'oot,without, wirrycow,scarecrow, wis,was,also wish wiss,wish, wissed,wished, wit,intelligence; information,also sense; wisdom wite,blame; reproach; fault, withoot,without, withstan',withstand, wob,web; woven material, wolums,volumes, wonner,wonder; marvel, wonnerfu',wonderful; great; large, wonnerin',wondering, wonnert,wondered, wordy,little word; little saying or proverb,diminutive workin',working, worryin',worrying, wouldna,would not, wow,woe,exclamation of wonder or grief or satisfaction wrang,wrong; injured, writin',writing, wud,wood; forest,adj.-enraged; angry; mad; also would wuddyfous,gallows' birds; scamps,also small ill-tempered persons wull,will; wish; desire,also astray; stray; wild wuman,woman, wumman,woman, wuss,wish, wynd,narrow lane or street; alley, wynds,narrow lanes or streets; alleys, wyte,blame; reproach; fault, yaird,yard; garden; farmyard,also yard (36 inches) yairds,yards; gardens,also yards (1 yard = 36 inches) ye,you; yourself, year,years,also year ye'll,you will, Yellow-beak,first year's student,at Aberdeen University yer,your, yer lane,on your own, ye're,you are, yersel,yourself, yer'sel,yourself, yersel',yourself, yersels,yourselves, ye've,you have, yird,earth, yon,that; those; that there; these, yonner,yonder; over there; in that place, yon's,that is; that (thing) there is, yoong,young, yowth,youth,

THE END

Previous Part     1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13
Home - Random Browse