Black humor; Country life -- Fiction; Historical fiction; Scotland -- Fiction
[I-C] p. 33. "He was nae Roman, but only a Cuddie, or Culdee." Some
Scottish Protestants took pride in believing that their Kirk descended
from Culdees, who were not of the Roman Communion. The Culdees have
given rise to a world of dispute, and he would be a bold man who
pretended to understand their exact position. The name seems to be _Cele
De_, "servant [gillie] of God." They were not Columban monks, but fill a
gap between the expulsion of the Columbans by the Picts, and the
Anglicising and Romanising of the Scottish Church by St. Margaret and
her sons. Originally solitary ascetics, they clustered into groups, and,
if we are to believe their supplanters at St. Andrews, the Canons
Regular, they were married men, and used church property for family
profit. Their mass they celebrated with a rite of their own, in their
little church. They were gradually merged in, and overpowered at St.
Andrews, for example, by the Canons Regular, and are last heard of in
prosecuting a claim to elect the Bishop, at the time of Edward the
First's interference with Scottish affairs. The points on which they
differed from Roman practice would probably have seemed very
insignificant to such a theologian as Meg Dods.
[I-D] p. 47. "Fortunio, in the fairy-tale." The gifted companions of
Fortunio, Keen-eye, Keen-ear, and so forth, are very old stock
characters in Maerchen: their first known appearance is in the saga of
Jason and the Fleece of Gold.
[I-E] p. 169. "The sportsman's sense of his own cruelty." In the
reminiscences of Captain Basil Hall, published by Lockhart, he mentions
that Scott himself had a dislike of shooting, from a sentiment as to the
cruelty of the sport. "I was never quite at ease when I had knocked down
my blackcock, and going to pick him up he cast back his dying eye with a
look of reproach. I don't affect to be more squeamish than my
neighbours, but I am not ashamed to say that no practice ever reconciled
me fully to the cruelty of the affair. At all events, now that I can do
as I like without fear of ridicule, I take more pleasure in seeing the
birds fly past me unharmed." (Lockhart, vii. 331.)
[I-F] p. 240. "Tintock." A hill on the Upper Tweed, celebrated in local
rhyme as--
On Tintock tap there is a mist,
And in the mist there is a kist,
And in the kist there is a cap,
And in the cap there is a drap.
Tak' up the cap, drink out the drap,
And set it down on Tintock tap.
[I-G] p. 245. "Donald Cargill." See Editor's Notes to "Redgauntlet." Howie
of Lochgoin says Cargill was executed in Edinburgh, not at Queensferry,
as stated here.
ANDREW LANG
_December 1893._
GLOSSARY.
A', all
"A. B. Memorial," a legal statement which does not give the names of the
parties concerned.
Abee, alone.
Ae, one.
Aff, off.
Afterhend, afterwards.
Ain, own.
Airn, iron.
Ajee, awry.
Amaist, almost.
Andrew Ferrara, a sword.
Ane, one.
Assoilzie, to acquit.
Asteer, astir.
Atween, between.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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