[50.] 'T was a towmond auld, sin' lint was i' the bell, it was a twelve-month old since flax was in flower; _i.e._ when the flax was last in bloom it was a year old. [51.] The big ha'-Bible (pronounced _haw_), the big hall-Bible. The name originated in the fact that large Bibles were first used in the hall, or principal room, of the noble's castle, where all the household assembled for worship. [52.] Ance, once. [53.] Bonnet, a soft cap made of seamless woolen stuff. [54.] Lyart haffets, gray side-locks. [55.] Those strains that once, etc., _i.e._ the _Psalms_, which were sung in Jerusalem. _Zion_ is really the hill on which the old city of Jerusalem was built. [56.] Wales, selects. [57.] Dundee, Martyrs, Elgin, well-known psalm tunes. [58.] Beets, fans or feeds. [59.] Nae unison hae they, no unison have they; _i.e._ they are not in harmony with. [60.] Abram, or Abraham. See _Genesis_. [61.] Moses bade, etc. See _Exodus_ xvii. [62.] The royal Bard, King David. Probably Burns refers to certain of the Psalms which express suffering and repentance. [63.] Job's pathetic plaint. The "plaint" begins with _Job_ iii. [64.] The Christian volume, i.e. the New Testament. [65.] How His first followers, etc. See _Acts of the Apostles_. [66.] The precepts sage. See the _Epistles_. [67.] He, who lone in Patmos, etc. St. John the Evangelist is said to have been exiled to the island of Patmos, or Patmo, west of Asia Minor, and there to have written the _Apocalypse_, or _Book of Revelation_. The doom of Babylon is pronounced in Chapter xviii of that book. [68.] Hope springs exulting, etc. See Pope's _Essay on Man_, Epistle I, l. 95, and his _Windsor Forest_, l. 112. [69.] The Power, the Almighty. [70.] Haply, perhaps, perchance. [71.] Princes and lords, etc. See _The Deserted Village_, lines 53 and 54. [72.] An honest man's, etc. Pope's _Essay on Man_, Epistle IV, l. 247. [73.] Certes, truly. [74.] Wallace's undaunted heart. Sir William Wallace, born about 1274, is one of the most famous of Scotch heroes. For a time he was a successful opponent of Edward I of England, but he finally suffered defeat, and in 1305 was captured and taken to London, where he was tried, condemned, and beheaded. One of Burns's most celebrated songs begins: "Scots, wha hae (who have) wi' Wallace bled." Scott tells of Wallace in his _Tales of a Grandfather_. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 1772-1834