s. 188. That what is true concerning the Orkneys (viz. that they were Scandinavian) is _not_ true for the south and eastern parts of Scotland, is to be collected from the peculiar distribution of the Scottish Gaelic; which indicates a distinction between the Scandinavian of the north of Scotland and the Scandinavian of the east of England. The Lowland Scotch recedes as we go northward. Notwithstanding this, it is _not_ the extreme north that is most Gaelic. In Caithness the geographical names are Norse. _Sutherland_, the most northern county of Scotland, takes its name from being _south_; that is, of Norway. The Orkneys and Shetland are in name, manners, and language, Norse or Scandinavian. The Hebrides are Gaelic mixed with Scandinavian. The Isle of Man is the same. The word _Sodor_ (in Sodor and Man) is Norse, with the same meaning as it has in _Sutherland_. All this indicates a more preponderating, and an earlier infusion of Norse along the coast of Scotland, than that which took place under the Danes upon the coasts of England, in the days of Alfred and under the reign of Canute. The first may, moreover, have this additional peculiarity, _viz._ of being Norwegian rather than Danish. Hence I infer that the Scandinavians settled in the northern parts of Scotland at an early period, but that it was a late period when they ravaged the southern ones; so that, though the language of Orkney may be Norse, that of the Lothians may be Saxon. To verify these views we want not a general dictionary of the Scottish language taken altogether, but a series of local glossaries, or at any rate a vocabulary, 1st, of the northern; 2ndly, of the southern Scottish. Between the English and Lowland Scotch we must account for the likeness as well as the difference. The Scandinavian theory accounts for the difference only. s. 189. Of the following specimens of the Lowland Scotch, the first is from The Bruce, a poem written by Barbour, Archdeacon of Aberdeen, between the years 1360 and 1375; the second from Wyntoun; the third from Blind Harry's poem, Wallace, 1460; and the fourth from Gawin Douglas's translation of the Aeneid, A.D. 1513. {128} _The Bruce_, iv. 871--892. And as he raid in to the nycht, So saw he, with the monys lycht, Schynnyng off scheldys gret plent['e]; And had wondre quhat it mycht be. With that all hale thai gaiff a cry, And he, that hard sa suddainly Sic noyis, sumdele affrayit was. Bot in schort time he till him tais His spyrites full hardely; For his gentill hart, and worthy, Assurit hym in to that nede. Then with the spuris he strak the sted, And ruschyt in amaing them all. The feyrst he met he gert him fall; And syne his suord he swapyt out, And roucht about him mony rout, And slew sexsum weill sone and ma: Then wndre him his horss thai sla: And he fell; but he smertty rass, And strykand rowm about him mass: And slew off thaim a quantit['e]. But woundyt wondre sar was he.