Page:Studies in Lowland Scots - Colville - 1909.djvu/204

180 "Skiddaw Grays" because of the colour of their uniform. Similarly, as a specimen of the "wut" of the man in the street, the Mid-Lothian Militia, special care of the Duke of Buccleuch, were known as the "Duke's Canaries," or, more contemptuously, "Soordook Sogers," from association with the morning milk carts round the Tron Kirk.

Tew, annoyance, distress, fatigue: "Ey! it was a sair tew that." To tease: "T' thowtes o' hevin forgitten sum tewt me t' warst of a'." "Ah fand it gey tewsum wark." We have here—Dr. Prevost has it in his glossary, but adds nothing in the supplement—a word that has many duties and forms in Scots. I believe it has to do with teuk or took, which Shaw explains with Jamieson as a by-taste, a disagreeable taste.

Dr. Prevost, perhaps not unwisely, imposed upon himself certain limitations. Keeping strictly to his text, he makes little use of comparison with cognate dialect matter, and hardly ever says anything as to the history of his words. Here and there, however, there is a something that requires "reddin up." The word "ea" cannot well be both the "outlet of lime-kilns" and the "channel of a stream." The former is the Scottish collier's "in-gaun-ee," but the latter must be a wide-spread term for any running water and of Norse origin in place-names. In the "Supplement" it is "a gap, river mouth." In many parts of Scotland the local burn is called simply "the waa'er." At Eyemouth the villagers always speak of their "Eye" as the Waa'er. The author has, laudably, the courage to note even failures, thus: "Hemmil (obsol.), no description obtainable." But the illustrative passage added shows that it is but a misreading for "skemmel," entered elsewhere. The quotation is: "The sconce, long-settle and hemmil are superseded by more modern furniture." These illustrations, always apt and pithy, form an admirable feature of what is an invaluable contribution to the philology and folk-lore, not only of Scotland but still more, of England.

The volume throws much light on an almost untouched subject—the comparative study of dialects. With the Border, of course, there will be much affinity. The Cumberland stockannet or sheldrake is so named on the Upper Solway, but nowhere else except here and there on the East Coast north of