a 4 
1800. ] 
have formerly approached their haughty 
nobility and gentry. But is it more hu- 
miliating than the Englifh phrafe Az’? 
pleafe your honour ? not to mention Your 
humble fervant to command, which was 
probably imported from France. 
T cannot want my pen-knife, means, I 
cannot do without it. To want, in this 
fenfe, has no fynonyme in Englihh. 
To fooot, not only means, as in Eng- 
land, to penetrate with a ball or other 
miffile, but it additionally fignifies to pufh, 
as in the tragi-comical ballad on the battle 
of Prefton Pans. 
Monteath, the great, when her fel’ {et 
Unawares did /haot him o’er, &c. 
The Highlanders, like the Welch, are 
apt to fay her for his. Hence the Low- 
landers often jocularly call a Highlander 
ber fel’ (herfelf). 
To unfold the various Scottifh mifap- 
plications of the unfortunate auxiliaries 
foall and will, fhould and would, isa tafk 
whichIdare not undertake. This apparently 
infignificant fubject would alone require a - 
Jong differtation; and i doubt, whether 
Scotiand, with all her learning, could pro- 
duce a man capable of writing it. Of 
Mr. Horne Tocke’s ludicrous, but too 
juft rule, quoted by Mr. Bannantine, I 
fhall venture to give a few of the more 
obvious examples. Will (fhall) I help you 
to a bit of beef?  I[uijll (hall) fall. The 
Scotch, however, do not fay, I will fall 
down, like the Londoners. Will ( fhall) 
ave go home? We would (fhould) be much 
to blame to do fo. “I will be ruined,” 
faid a Scotchman to his Englifh friend. 
«© 1am forry for it,”’ fajd the other, ‘* but 
if you wll be ruined, you know no one 
elfe can prevent it.”” The Englithman 
might have anfwered in the Scottith pro- 
verb, ‘* He who will to Coupar, will to 
Coupar ;”* im which, if f miffake not, will 
is for once rightly applied.—** I a7//now 
proceed to faéts,’? fays your ingenious 
correfpondent Neurologus*. If that un- 
lucky monofyllable fhould ftrike the eye 
of a fakidious Londen critic, the Lord 
have mercy on poor Neurologus! He will 
be fufpeéted to be a Caledonian, and all 
his humour will vanifh forthwith ; for, you 
know, Sir, it is a fettled point, that no 
Caledonian ever had, or can have, or fhall 
ever be allowed to have, humour. 
. How dare the rogues pretend to fenfe, 
Whofe pound has only twenty pence ? 
_ Fiftbly, Phe Scotch mifapply adverbs 
in the tollowi g examples. 
* See our Number for March 1800, 
Lift of Scotticifms. 
323 
Where (for whither) are you going ?” 
Come here, for Come hither ; and Go there, 
for Go thither. But thefe improprieties 
are as common on the ‘fouth, as on the 
north of the Tweed ; and the Scotch are 
never guilty of this here and that there. 
The exprefiion, He dines at home for cra 
dinary, would be in Englith, He commonly 
dines at home. 
He has cut out his hair, is the Scotticifin 
for He has cut off his hair. 
Speaking of a perfon, who has gone to 
fome {mall or moderate diftance, the 
‘Scotch fay, He has gone the length of fuch 
a place. Thus, at Edinburgh, it is com- 
mon to fay, He has gone the length of 
Pesan sy 
I cannot ga the day, fhould be, I cannot 
go to day. . y 
There's no matter, thould be, It matters 
not. 
Drink out your glafs, is the northern 
phrafe for Drink off your glafs. 
He is no a guod boy, is improperly ufed 
for He is not a good boy. 
We vill go to our dinner whenever the 
clock firikes two, when tranuflated into Eng= 
lifh, means, We fhall go to dinner when 
the clock firikes two. 
He has plenty of timé ta. do it, is the 
Scotch phrafe for He has time enough to 
do it. j 
To look over the window, for look out 
at the window, may perhaps have origi- 
nated in Edinburgh, where the general 
height of the buildings, and the narrow- 
ne{s of fome’of the wyxds (lanes) gives 
literal truth, and therefore grammatical 
propriety, to the phrafe. If you want ta 
{ce any thing from the higher windows, 
in fome of thofe lanes, you muft literally 
look over. 
He will not readily fign that paper, 
means, He will not willingly fign that 
paper ; or, In all probability, he will not. 
fign it. bile 
One «would readily imagine, fignifies, 
One would be apt to imagine. 
To be at home does not mean, in Scot- 
land, to be in one’s own honfe; but it 
means to be at no great diftance, or not 
out of town. On calling for gentlemen 
at their own houfes in Scotland, and put= 
ting the queftion, Is Mr. Such-a-one at 
home ? IE have often been anfwered, ** Yes, 
Sir, heis at home, but he is not withixz, or he 
45 not IN. 
Some is very often ufed in the North for 
fomewshat or fomething, as, He is fome 
better. 
Below the bridge does not mean, as in 
England, Farther down the river than the 
ita bridge, 




