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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. i. APRIL 2, MM.

defines "chield" simply as "child," who con- siders it an adequate account of "gowans" to call them "wild flowers," and who explains that " rigwoodie " is " the rope or chain traces " ! A few examples may be chosen to show that this surprising promise is not belied. In ' The Twa Dogs,' for example, the first lyric in the selection, the poet says of Csesar, the rich man's dog, " The fient a pride nae pride had he." "Fient" is not included in the glossary. Presently the two dogs are said to have been " unco pack and thick thegither." The only word like " unco " of which a definition is given is " uncos," for which "news" is entered as an equivalent, and the expressive epithet " pack " is ignored. Other words and phrases of the poem that receive no explanation are " haith," "gaun,' "run deils," " baran a quarry," "a stinkan brock," " ran tan kirns." Where he has fairly struck in, however, and allowed himself freedom of action, the glossarist has certainly achieved distinction. Two examples will suffice. Luath, the ploughman's collie, in the course of his description of workmen's comforts, refers to " their grushie weans an' faithfu' wives." " Grushie," which means vigorously healthy,, is here amazingly inter- preted as "a protruding muzzle," as if, forsooth, the weans were veritable urchins of the hedgerows ! Our second illustration of astonishing ingenuity in definition introduces the sovereign twilight passage with which the poem closes. Two notable features of a summer evening in a rural district are thus happily portrayed :

The bum-clock hummed wi' lazy drone, The kye stood rowtin' i' the loan.

Here we have Macbeth's "shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums/' and the cows returning up the loan, or farm road, from the pastures, and bellowing aimlessly as they loiter in front of the deliberate herdsman. It is a suggestive delineation, characteristic of the witching hour "'tween the gloaming and the mirk " which inspired Collins to brilliant expression, and pleasantly stimu- lated the romantic chivalry of the Ettrick Shepherd. Our glossarist spoils this attrac- tive picture for his disciples, informing them as he does, with categorical precision, that the loan is "a milking-shed." He would have shown equal familiarity with the subject had he given the meaning as a hen-roost or a counting-house, and even then his interpre- tative daring would not have been much more surprising than that which his actual definition reveals.

Some examples may be added in reference to the words used in the 'Auld Farmer's

New Year Morning Salutation to his Auld Mare, Maggie.' The writer of the introduction to the volume absurdly entitles this poem the ' Farmer's Good Year to his Auld Mare,' bub despite this suspicious lack of precision he ventures to assert that the humorous pity and kindness of the piece are "inimitable and unimitated." With this authoritative pronouncement to stimulate him, the English reader will naturally give special attention to this lyric, and diligently utilize the glos- sary in grappling with its frequent difficulties. For various reasons the opening stanza is cer- tain to give him trouble ; in particular, its con- cluding statement to the effect that the mare could once go "like ony staggie out owre the lay " will inevitably prompt deliberate and careful inquiry. " Staggie" is not included in the glossary, and as "lay" is explained to be " part of a weaver's loom," the confiding and ingenuous mind will readily conceive great things of the old mare's youth. Further room for expansive surprise is presently given in reference to the fine qualities of the mare at brooses, that is, at the competitive gallops incidental to marriage processions. As we are given to understand in the glossary that "broose" is a variant of broth, the beginner in Burns will not be to blame if he should conclude that in her prime this remark- able animal must have performed some gastronomical feat that would have put to shame the fastidious stork of the fable. As a racer the steed is said to have been in her youth "a jinker noble" a description that might surely appeal to a cultured reader without the help of an interpreter. "Jinker," however, is carefully explained as meaning " sprightly," the reader being again left to his own imagination over the undoubted resemblance that exists (especially on the turf) between a sprightly noble and a galloping mare. Then in her early days the old favourite " was a noble Fittie-lan'," that is, when yoked to the plough she footed the untilled land worked "in the hand," as the ploughman says while her yoke-fellow walked in the furrow. " Fittie-lan'/' according to our glossarist, is " the near wheeler of a team," a descriptive gloss that prompts thoughts of De Quincey's "glory of motion'* rather than the laborious process that slowly transfigures the stubborn glebe. Again, the sturdy pair used to pull the plough through difficult soil "till sprittie knowes wad rair't and risket " ; that is, the sprits or coarse rushes on the knolls would crack with a rasping sound as they were torn up by the plough- share. On "rair't" and "risket" the glos- sarist is intelligible, but he is characteristically