148 . ‘TRANSACTIONS. 
5th of April, 1889. 
At a meeting of the Council, at which Major Bowden, V.-P., 
presided, the Secretary intimated that he had received a communi- 
cation through Mr James M‘Gill, from Mr k, B. Clark, one of the 
late Mr Baxter’s Trustees, proposing on the part of the Trustees 
that a collection of coins, which belonged to Mr baxter, should be 
placed in the custody of the Society (for the Town Council) along 
with the other specimens. The Council agreed to accept these 
coins together with crayon portraits of Mr Baxter and, his sister, 
and instructed the Secretary to convey the thanks of the, Society 
to Mr Clark. , 
oe 
a r 
at 
5th of April, 1889. 
Major Bownen, V.-P., in the Chair. 
New Member.—Mr Joseph Wilson, late Hon. Secretary, on 
the recommendation of the Council, was elected an honorary mem- 
ber of the Society. 
Donations.—Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries of 
Scotland for 1887-88, and Reports on Local Museums in Scotland, 
presented by Mr G. F. Black; the 22nd Report of the Peabody 
Museum and an Index to their Reports ; the Essex Naturalist for 
November and December, 1888; and two squirrels (local), pre- 
sented by Mr Joseph Wilson; and also two tokens of Sanquhar, 
presented by Dr A. Davidson. 
COMMUNICATIONS. 
I. Words in the Dialect of Dumfriesshire, found in Chaucer, 
Spenser, and Shakespeare. By Mr JAMES SHAW of Tynron. 
(Abridged.) 
To Beat, Bete, or Beet, Beit. To help; supply ; mend by making : 
addition ; to add fuel to a fire ; to make or feed a fire. 
—/Jamieson. 
‘*'Two fires on the anter she ’gan bete.” 
—Ch., Canterbury Tales. 
‘* They chant their artless notes in simple guise, 
Perhaps Dundee’s wild warbling measures rise, 
Or noble Elgin beets the heavenward flame.” 
—Burns’s *‘ Cottar’s Saturday Night.’”. 
In Tynron beeting a dyke means mending it. 
