After carousing here for an hour or more, I observed that a shade had come over the aspect of my friend, who happened to be placed immediately opposite to myself, and said something that intimated a fear of his being unwell.`No,' said he, `I shall be well enough presently, if you will only let me sit where you are, and take my chair; for there is a confounded hand in sight of me here, which has often bothered me before, and now it won't let me fill my glass with a good will.' I rose to change places with him accordingly, and he pointed out to me this hand which, like the writing on Belshazzar's wall, disturbed his hour of hilarity.`Since we sat down,' he said, `I have been watching it---it fascinates my eye---it never stops---page after page is finished and thrown on that heap of MS., and still it goes on unwearied---and so it will be till candles are brought in, and God knows how long after that.It is the same every night---I can't stand a sight of it when I am not at my books.'---`Some stupid, dogged, engrossing clerk, probably,' exclaimed myself, or some other giddy youth in our society.`No, boys,' said our host, `I well know what hand it is ---'tis Walter Scott's.' This was the hand that, in the evenings of three summer weeks, wrote the two last volumes of Waverley.''---From the _Memoirs of Sir Walter Scott_ by J.G.Lockhart.]
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(AUTHOR'S DEDICATION---ABBOTSFORD, 1829.)=To the King's Most Gracious Majesty.=
=Sire=---The Author of this Collection of Works of Fiction would not have presumed to solicit for them your Majesty's august Patronage were it not that the perusal has been supposed in some instances to have succeeded in amusing hours of relaxation, or relieving those of languor, pain, or anxiety, and therefore must have so far aided the warmest wish of Your Majesty's heart, by contributing in however small a degree to the happiness of your People.
They are therefore humbly dedicated to your Majesty, agreeably to your Gracious Permission, by your Majesty's dutiful subject =Walter Scott.=GLOSSARY
OF
CERTAIN SCOTCH TERMS AND PHRASES, AS APPLIED IN WAVERLEY.
Aboon,above.
An,if.
Baff,bang.
Bailie,Alderman or Magistrate.
Bairn,child.
Ban,to curse.
Barley,stop, from _Parley._
Bawbee,halfpenny.
Beflummit,palavered.
Ben,within, intimate.
Bieldy,sheltered.
Birlieman,peace officer.
Braw,brave, beautiful.
Brander,broil.
Brogues,Highland shoes.
Broo',sauce or soup.
Bruckle,ticklish.
Brulzie,brawl.
Callant,lad.
Carle,fellow.
Clachan,hamlet.
Clamhewit,hack with an axe.
Clash,jabber.
Coup,fall.
Cow yer cracks,cut short your pretentious talk.
Craig,neck.
Daft,crack-brained.
Deil,devil.
Deliver,active.
Diaoul,_gaelic,_ devil.
Doited,stupid.
Dorlach,_gaelic,_ valise.
Dovering,dozing.
Dow,a dove.
Dowff,deaf.
Droghling and Coghling, blowing and wheezing.
Duinh<e'>-wassel, _gaelic,_ gentleman.
Fa'rd,favoured.
Feck,part.
Flemit,scared or chased.
Gad,iron bar.
Gate,way, mode, direction.
Gear,property, cattle.
Gin,if.
Gite,noodle.
Gleg,smart.
Gled,kite.
Glisk,sight.
Graning,groaning.
Gree,agree.
Gudeman,husband.
Haggis,a Scotch pudding made of minced meat, oatmeal, onions, etc.
Hallan,partition at the doorway.
Hantle,a good many.
Heck and Manger, to live in prodigality and unconcern, reckless.
Her,_Highland,_ my, Her nain sel,_Highland,_ himself.
Hership,plunder.
Het,hot.
Hill-folk,name given to Covenanters (who worshipped on the hills).
Horse-couper,horse-dealer.
Ilka,each.
Ingle,fire.
Kemple,a quantity of straw.
Ken,know.
Kippage,fluster.
Kittle,tickle, ticklish.
Limmer,Jade.
Loup,leap.
Lug,the ear.
Mask,mash.
Maun,must.
Merse,Berwickshire.
Nan,_Gaelic,_ of.
Nateless,nevertheless.
Neb,nose.
Ower,over.
Oyer and Terminer, _legal,_ hearing and determining a cause.
Panged,stuffed.
Pinner,a cap with lappets.
Plack,small copper coin.
Powter,dabble.
Quean,a young woman, a hussy.
Redding,clearing.
Rintherouts,cutthroats.
Rudas,rough, vulgar.
Sark,a shirt.
Scart,scratch.
Shanks,legs.
She,_Highland,_ I or He.
Sheers,Scissors.
Shilpit,puny-looking, sickly.
Shoon,shoes.
Siller,money.
Sowens,a sort of gruel.
Spulzie,spoil.
Stirk,a heifer.
Stoor,stubborn.
Stot,a bullock.
Streak,to stroke-down.
Sybo,a sort of onion or reddish.
Syne,since, ago.
Taiglit,drooping and disordered.
Thraw,twist.
Threepit,averred.
Throstle,the thrush.
Tirrivy,a tantrum.
Tocher,dowry.
Tuilzie,squabble or spree.
Unco,very, particularly.
Unsoncy,saucy.
Vilipend,to hold of no consequence.
Wadset,pledge.
Weising,whisking.
Whilk,which.
Whinge,to whine.
Winna,will not.