Reminiscences of Scottish Life & Character: And a Memoir of Dean Ramsay by Cosmo InnesRamsay, Edward Bannerman
History
Reminiscences of Scottish Life & Character: And a Memoir of Dean Ramsay by Cosmo Innes
Ramsay, Edward Bannerman
National characteristics, Scottish; Scotland -- Social life and customs
A kind correspondent has sent me about as good a specimen of dry
Scottish quiet humour as I know. A certain Aberdeenshire laird, who kept
a very good poultry-yard, could not command a fresh egg for his
breakfast, and felt much aggrieved by the want. One day, however, he met
his grieve's wife with a nice basket, and very suspiciously going
towards the market; on passing and speaking a word, he was enabled to
discover that her basket was full of beautiful white eggs. Next time he
talked with his grieve, he said to him, "James, I like you very well,
and I think you serve me faithfully, but I cannot say I admire your
wife." To which the cool reply was, "Oh, 'deed, sir, I'm no surprised at
that, for I dinna muckle admire her mysel'."
An answer very much resembling this, and as much to the point, was that
of a gudewife on Deeside, whose daughter had just been married and had
left her for her new home. A lady asked the mother very kindly about her
daughter, and said she hoped she liked her new home and new relations.
"Ou, my lady, she likes the parish weel eneuch, but she doesna think
muckle o' her _man_!"
The natives of Aberdeenshire are distinguished for the two qualities of
being very acute in their remarks and very peculiar in their language.
Any one may still gain a thorough knowledge of Aberdeen dialect and see
capital examples of Aberdeen humour. I have been supplied with a
remarkable example of this combination of Aberdeen shrewdness with
Aberdeen dialect. In the course of the week after the Sunday on which
several elders of an Aberdeen parish had been set apart for parochial
offices, a knot of the parishioners had assembled at what was in all
parishes a great place of resort for idle gossiping--the smiddy or
blacksmith's workshop. The qualifications of the new elders were
severely criticised. One of the speakers emphatically laid down that the
minister should not have been satisfied, and had in fact made a most
unfortunate choice. He was thus answered by another parish
oracle--perhaps the schoolmaster, perhaps a weaver:--"Fat better culd
the man dee nir he's dune?--he bud tae big's dyke wi' the feal at fit
o't." He meant there was no choice of material--he could only take
what offered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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