Transactions. 55 



have no cavline or female carl. Breeches are breeks, and to 

 screech is to screek, except apparently in the phrase " the 

 screegh o' day," where most anomalously the ch takes a 

 guttural sound. 



The phrase " the screegh o day" seems to be peculiar to 

 the Scotch ; yet its meaning must be familiar to all who have 

 been in the country at the break of day, at which time the 

 woods resound with the vociferous melody of the feathered 

 tribes. 



So much, then, for the combined letters th, gh, and ch. 



But undoubtedly what gives to the Scottish language a 

 rery marked peculiarity is the large amount of words in 

 which the Scots retain their old Saxon form. Ane for one, 

 ance for once, bane for bone, hame for home, lang for lon^, 

 auld for old, cauld for cold. 



Many such words occur in Chaucer and other early writers, 

 who retain them in the old form. But this is now obsolete 

 in Ensrland, though still retained in Scotland. 



To this class of words may be added words which retain 

 in the Scotch what may be called their old English meaning, 

 now obsolete in England. 



Body is still used here in the sense of a person : 



" Gin o body meet a body." 



Brave and bravely, or in the Scotch form braw and 

 brawly, we have already referred to as retaining theii- old 

 meaning of rich, shoivy, gaudy. 



Chest or hist is still in use for a coffin, and the meeting 

 for placing the dead body is still to be heard as " the kisting." 

 Dean Trench shows us that this was its old meaning in Eng- 

 land ; and it is not obsolete with us. 



Child, if our Scottish word chield is the same, is still re- 

 tained in Scotland in the sense of a young man in general. 



Gate is still used in its old sense of a road, street, or way. 

 And it may be recognised in some of the old names of streets 

 in London. The main street of most of our towns was the 



