"_P.S._--I am trying to break Willie off his horrid habit of taking snuff. I had rather see him take his cigar when we are walking. You will be told, I daresay, that I sometimes take a _weed_ myself. It is not true, dear aunty." Before leaving the question of change in Scottish expressions, it may be proper to add a few words on the subject of Scottish _dialects_--_i.e._, on the differences which exist in different counties or localities in the Scottish tongue itself. These differences used to be as marked as different languages; of course they still exist amongst the peasantry as before. The change consists in their gradual vanishing from the conversation of the educated and refined. The dialects with which I am most conversant are the two which present the greatest contrast, viz. the Angus and the Aberdeen, or the slow and broad Scotch--the quick and sharp Scotch. Whilst the one talks of "Buuts and shoon," the other calls the same articles "beets and sheen." With the Aberdonian "what" is always "fat" or "fatten;" "music" is "meesic;" "brutes" are "breets;" "What are ye duin'?" of southern Scotch, in Aberdeen would be "Fat are ye deein'?" Fergusson, nearly a century ago, noted this peculiarity of dialect in his poem of The Leith Races:-- "The Buchan bodies through the beach, Their bunch of Findrams cry; And skirl out bauld in Norland speech, Gude speldans _fa_ will buy?" "Findon," or "Finnan haddies," are split, smoked, and partially dried haddocks. Fergusson, in using the word "_Findrams"_, which is not found in our glossaries, has been thought to be in error, but his accuracy has been verified singularly enough, within the last few days, by a worthy octogenarian Newhaven fisherman, bearing the characteristic name of Flucker, who remarked "that it was a word commonly used in his youth; and, above all," he added, "when Leith Races were held on the sands, he was like to be deeved wi' the lang-tongued hizzies skirling out, '_Aell a Findram Speldrains_,' and they jist ca'ed it that to get a better grip o't wi' their tongues." In Galloway, in 1684, Symson, afterwards an ousted Episcopalian minister (of Kirkinner), notes some peculiarities in the speech of the people in that district. "Some of the countrey people, especially those of the elder sort, do very often omit the letter 'h' after 't' as ting for thing; tree for three; tatch for thatch; wit for with; fait for faith; mout for mouth, etc.; and also, contrary to some north countrey people, they oftentimes pronounce 'w' for 'v,' as serwant for servant; and so they call the months of February, March, and April, the _ware_ quarter, from _ver_[75]. Hence their common proverb, speaking of the storms in February, '_winter never comes till ware comes_.'" These peculiarities of language have almost disappeared--the immense influx of Irish emigrants during late years has exercised a perceptible influence over the dialect of Wigtonshire.