Guy Mannering or The Astrologer

It is probably true, as observed by Counsellor Pleydell, that a lawyer's anxiety about his case, supposing him to have been some time in practice, will seldom disturb his rest or digestion. Clients will, however, sometimes fondly entertain a different opinion. I was told by an excellent judge, now no more, of a country gentleman who, addressing his leading counsel, my informer, then an advocate in great practice, on the morning of the day on which the case was to be pleaded, said, with singular bonhomie, 'Weel, my Lord (the counsel was Lord Advocate), the awful day is come at last. I have nae been able to sleep a wink for thinking of it; nor, I daresay, your Lordship either.'

NOTE 7, p. 235

Whistling, among the tenantry of a large estate, is when an individual gives such information to the proprietor or his managers as to occasion the rent of his neighbour's farms being raised, which, for obvious reasons, is held a very unpopular practice.

NOTE 8, p. 286

This hard word is placed in the mouth of one of the aged tenants. In the old feudal tenures the herezeld constituted the best horse or other animal on the vassals' lands, become the right of the superior. The only remnant of this custom is what is called the sasine, or a fee of certain estimated value, paid to the sheriff of the county, who gives possession to the vassals of the crown.

NOTE 9, p. 301

This mode of securing prisoners was universally practised in Scotland after condemnation. When a man received sentence of death he was put upon THE GAD, as it was called, that is, secured to the bar of iron in the manner mentioned in the text. The practice subsisted in Edinburgh till the old jail was taken down some years since, and perhaps may be still in use.

GLOSSARY

'A, he, I.

a', all.

abide, endure.

ablins, aiblins, perhaps.

abune, above.

ae, one.

aff, off.

afore, before.

a-guisarding, masquerading.

ahint, behind.

aik, an oak.

ails, hinders, prevents.

ain, own.

amang, among.

an, if.

ance, once.

ane, one.

anent, about.

aneuch, enough.

auld, old.

auld threep, a superstitious notion.

avise, advise, deliberate.

awa', away.

aweel, well.

awfu', awful.

awmous, alms.

aye, ever.

bairn, a child.

baith, both.

ballant, a ballad.

banes, bones.

bannock, a flat round or oval cake.

barken, stiffen, dry to a crust.

barrow-trams, the shafts of a hand barrow.

baulks, ridges.

berling, a galley.

bield, a shelter, a house.

biggit, built.

billie, a brother, a companion.

bing out and tour, go out and watch.

binna, be not.

birk, a birch tree.

bit, a little.

bittle, beat with a bat.

bittock, a little bit.

Black Peter, a portmanteau.

blate, shy, bashful.

blawn, blown.

blear, obscure.

blude, bluid, blood.

blunker, a cloth printer.

blythe, glad.

boddle, a copper coin worth one third of a penny.

bogle, a goblin, a spectre.

bonnet, a cap.

bonnie, bonny, pretty, fine.

bonspiel, a match game at curling.

bottle-head, beetle-head, stupid fellow.

bow, a boll.

bowster, a bolster.

braw, fine.

brigg, a bridge.

brock, a badger, a dirty fellow.

brod, a church collection plate.

buckkar, a smuggling lugger.

bully-huff, a bully, a braggart.

burn, a brook.

bye, besides.

ca', call.

cake-house, a house of entertainment.

callant, a stripling.

cam, came.

canny, lucky, cautious.

cantle, a fragment.

canty, cheerful.

capons, castrated cocks.

carle, a churl, an old man.

cast, lot, fate.

chapping-stick, a stick to strike with.

cheerer, spirits and hot water.

chield, a young man.

chumlay, a chimney.

clanjamfray, rabble.

clashes, lies, scandal.

claught, clutched, caught.

clecking, hatching.

clodded, threw heavily.

close, a lane, a narrow passage.

clour, a heavy blow.

cloyed a dud, stolen a rag.

collieshangie, an uproar.

come o' will, a child of love.

cottar, cottage.

cramp-ring, shackles, fetters.

cranking, creaking.

craw, crow.

creel, a basket.

cuddy, an ass.

cusp, an entrance to a house.

cusser, a courser, a stallion.

daft, mad, foolish.

darkmans, night.

daurna, dare not.

day-dawing, dawn.

dead-thraw, death-agony.

death-ruckle, death-rattle.

deil-be-lickit, nothing, naught.

dike, a wall, a ditch.

dinging, slamming.

dingle, a dell, a hollow.

dizzen, a dozen.

doo, a dove.

dooket, dukit, a dovecot.

doun, down.

douse the glim, put out the light.

dow, list, wish.

drap, a drop.

drumming, driving.

dub, a puddle.

duds, clothes.

eassel, provincial for eastward.

een, eyes.

endlang, along.

eneugh, enough.

evening, putting on the same level.

faem, foam.

fair-strae, natural.

fambles, hands.

fash, trouble.

fauld, a fold.

fause, false.

feared, afraid.

fearsome, frightful.

feck, a quantity.

feckless, feeble.

fell, a skin.

fernseed, gather the, make invisible.

fie, mad, foredoomed.

fient a bit, never a bit

fient a haet, not the least.

fire-raising, setting fire.

firlot, a quarter of a boll.

fit, a foot.

flesh, fleesh, a fleece.

flick, cut.

flit, remove.

fond, glad to.

forbears, ancestors.

forbye, besides.

foumart, a polecat.

fowk, people.

frae, from.

frummagem'd, throttled, hanged.

fu', full.

fule-body, a foolish person.

gae, go.

gaed, went.

gane, gone.

gang, go.

gang-there-out, wandering.

gangrel, vagrant.

gar, make.

gate, gait, way.