NOTE S, EXPLANATORY OF LOCAL CUSTOMS AND WORDS. a ACT I. PAGE ft. The Gentle Shepherd. Gentle, well-born, defcended from an ancient family, though no noble.-Yet in Scotland they use the word gentle in the fame fense as it is used in England-and say-A man is gentle both by birth and manners. Ditto. b Watching of the fold. In the South of Scotland, where Mr. Ramfay lays the scene of this pastoral, and where they have very extensive sheep fàrms, the lambs are taken from their dams about the end of June, and fent from the paftures where they were bred, to the fells, or wilds, there to remain until the beginning of the winter-and to prevent the ewes from following the lambs they are penned and watched until the lambs are out of their hearing-when not only the fhepherds who belong to the farm, and the maids who are to milk the ewes before they are let out to feed in the morning, but all the young people of the neighbourhood, meet at this rural rendezvous, a sheep waking, or the watching of the fold-the fweet melancholy bleatings of the innocent lambs, the deeper toned complainings of the diftreffed dams, anfwering each other from hill to hill-the mild foothing twilight which makes the fummer nights of a northern climate enchanting-such the scere, Who would not с "Like to meet his love "At watching of the fold?" Page 4th. Elf-fhot. If cattle die fuddenly, the ignorant people think that they are killed by the invifible darts of Elves, Fairies, or fome malignant Spirit, at the inftigation of witches. I remember when I was a child to have feen, in a cow-house, a ftone fufpended by a ftring over every cow's ftand, and the fame in a stable over every horfe's ftall.-As the thing was new to me, I inquired for what purpose they hung there, and was told that they were fairy-ftones to preferve the cattle from the power of Witches and Fairies:-thefe ftones had natural holes through them in which confifted their virtue.-There are found, in different parts of Scotland, ftones shaped like the heads of arrows, which are called by the country people Elf fhots.-These ftones were the heads of ancient arrows, and are only to be found on fields and places where battles have been formerly fought. Page 4th. The Weft Port. The market place for live cattle at Edinburgh, as Smithfield is in London. Page 5th. A fhepherd is looked upon as the fuperior of a carter or car-man, even when both are the fervants of the fame man; fo Roger had not only a rival in Bauldy, but what made it still more mortifying, that rival was so much his inferior. "Bauldy! Bauldy that drives the car.". Page 6th. f Upon a wall I lean'd. In Scotland, particularly in sheep farms, where the sheep are apt to eat up the young thorns, the fences are commonly walls built of ftone, without mortar, of about five feet high, covered at top with turf-fuch a fence makes a very comfortable leaning-place either for a contemplative Shepherd or a rural Philofopher. Page 7th. But I can guess you're come to gather dew. The Scottish laffes have an implicit faith in the virtues of May-dew→→→→ and the wife say that no cosmetic is fo infallible in giving to the cheeks of youth that bloom of health, far fuperior to the bloom of Ninon. If any lady should be tempted to try the experiment, let her rise with the fun, and with her own fair hand gather the dew which she means to use, as it has no virtue if procured by another. SCENE Page roth. SCENE II. Habbie's How. A little dell as described, and called Habby's How, from once having been the refidence or in the poffeffion of one of that name.Such names of places are very common in that part of the country. Page 15th. Ha! bonny lafs of Brankfome! Alluding to an old ballad in which a bonny or pretty lass of Brankfome is the subject of the fong.—So Jenny jeeringly fays that Patie will make a Song upon her, as the lass of Brankfome's lover had done. Page 17th. k Tron. An old name for the public market place of any Town or Village for the fale of fowls, eggs, butter, cheese, &c. Page 29th. And be a Lady of that ilk. Title and furname the fame, as Gordon Duke of Gordon, &c. and amongst gentlemen not noble, it is an honorary distinction belonging to the chief, or eldest family of the name, as Macleod of Macleodand many others. Page 31ft. You, Goody, got the Blame of all fell out. Some poor old woman; and, as Mause fays, perhaps because she had more sense and knowledge than her neighbours, got the blame of all the misfortunes and cross accidents which happened in her neighbour. hood. Sometimes they had the address to turn the superstitious credulity of others to their own advantage, particularly when their aid was asked to affift lovers like Bauldy, who were always generous to the witch who they thought could help them.-There were at one time fo many of these poor old women legally condemned, and burnt for witchcraft, that it shocks reason and humanity to think of it. To put a stop to this rage for perfecuting witches, there was a law made, that for every witch condemned in a parish, the parson should forfeit an hundred marks of his stipend, about 51. 10s. fterling.-Whether this made the Clergy more diligent to keep the devil out of the old women, I wont pretend to fay; but, after this law was made, not one fuffered for witchcraft, at least by legal trial. These abfurd ideas were not peculiar to Scotland, but to superstition and ignorance in general. Witness the following extract from HOME'S Sketches of the History of Man. "Every one is acquainted with the Hiftory of the Dutchess of "Beaufort, who is said to have made a compact with the devil to pro"cure her Henry IV. of France for a lover.—This ridiculous story was "believed through all France, and is reported as a truth by the Duke "de Sully." If a lover be worth going to the devil for, no woman ever had a better excufe. Page 35th. As there is a fimilitude in the sentiments, I cannot here help bringing these lines into comparison with those much admired ones from one of VIRGIL'S Eclogues. Once with your mother to our fields you came WARTON. Durft I venture an opinion, I would give the preference to the Scots poet for ftrict adherence to nature and delicacy of fentiment-as toft and loft, appear very strong expreffions to paint the feelings of a boy with little arms. A large round stone which was thrown with one hand, and the skill and strength of the putter was fhewn in the distance he was able to throw it. See Johnson's Folio Dictionary. ACT ACT III. Page 48th. P Second fighted. "The power of feeing things future, or distant, is fuppofed inherent "in fome of the Scottish islanders." Johnson's Fol. Dict.—and one would be apt to think, from his manner of expreffing himself in his Journey to the Hebrides, that he had believed in fome people's poffeffing this fupernatural power. Page 49th. Thefe obfcure lines feem to be written in the style of the old rhyming prophets, as Merlin in England, and one Thomas Learmont in Scotland, commonly called Thomas the Rhymer-from his ambiguous prophecies all in this kind of rhymes-and as in all the old copies they are marked with inverted commas, I am apt to think they may have been taken from that or fome other well-known prophecy; for though he reproves Glaud for his unbelief, and refuses to tell him the girls' fortunes in the fame style of rhymes, yet there are no commas to mark those lines as a quotation. Page 55. * Milk and meal in Scotland imply plenty, as beef and pudding do in England. г Page 56th. Lammas, one of the Scotch terms, the first of Which is Candlemas, the 2d of February. The third, Lammas, the 1st of Auguft. The fourth, Martinmas, the 11th of November. ACT |