MERCER OF ALDIE. The Grit Pule! That is, Great Pool. This was probably a well-known spot in the territories of the Laird of Aldie, and the rendezvous of his dependants. The phrase afterwards became the motto of the family. DUMFRIES. Loreburn! 'The motto [of the town arms] is Aloreburn or Loreburn -a word of which the precise import has never been ascertained. It is certain, however, that it was the ancient slogan or war-cry of the inhabitants; and it is believed to be a corruption of the words Lower Burn, having reference to a small rivulet, the banks of which used to be the rendezvous of the burgesses, when they assembled in arms on the approach of a hostile force. Accordingly, a street in the immediate neighbourhood of the original course of the stream in question bears the name of Loreburn Street.'— New Stat. Account of Scotland, article Dumfries. It is not easy to believe that the rivulet was called Lower Burn, as distinguishing it from some other rivulet, nether being the word usually adopted in Scotland to express such an idea; but the stream might be called the Loreburn, with reference to some other peculiarity. A Loreburn! is probably the right form of this war-cry. HAWICK. Terri buss and Terri oden! The war-cry of the inhabitants of Hawick is introduced in a conspicuous manner in a poem produced a few years ago by one of them, on the occasion of a riding of their marches, and of which the following are the first and burden verses : England mustering all her forces, Trained to war both men and horses; Terry Buss and Terry Oden, Aye defend your rights and common. Of the slogan itself, I am not aware of any explanation having ever been given. JEDBURGH. Jethart's here! "The inhabitants of Jedburgh were so distinguished for the use of arms, that the battle-axe or partizan which they commonly used was called a Jeddart Staff, after the name of the burgh. Their bravery turned the fate of the day at the skirmish of Reedswair [1596], one of the last fought upon the Borders, and their slogan or war-cry is mentioned in the old ballad which celebrates that event 'Then rose the slogan with a shout, Scott's Border Antiquities. DISTRICT OF GLENLIVAT. Boghail! DISTRICT OF STRATHDOWN. Knock Ferghaun! HIGHLANDERS GENERALLY. Albanich! This was simply the name by which they distinguished themselves from the Sassenach or low-country people. Its effect would be to remind them of their national honour. RHYMES RESPECTING WEATHER. THIS class of rhymes embodies the wisdom of our ancestors, such as it was, upon a subject which is necessarily interesting above most others to a rural people, and invariably attracts a large share of their attention. The Scottish rural class, in former times, had no barometer, no means of scientific calculation of any kind; even the hours of the day and night were chiefly inferred from natural circumstances. The knowledge which long-continued observation gives respecting meteorological changes was embodied in verses of the usual simple kind, which were handed down from sire to son with the greatest fidelity, and are still occasionally quoted by old people. They may be arranged in two sections-first, those which relate to the character of a year or season; and second, those which refer to an ordinary change. INDICATIONS FROM THE HAWTHORN BLOSSOM. Mony hawes, It is thus inferred that, when there is a great exhibition of blossom on the hedgerows, the ensuing winter will be remarkable for snow-storms.* Some have remarked that in this there might be a providential object—namely, to supply food for the birds in the coming season. VARIABLE WINTER. A variable winter is not liked by the pastoral farmers of the south of Scotland, who thus describe its effects on their stocks: Mony a frost and mony a thowe, TOO EARLY FINE WEATHER. If the grass grow in Janiveer, "Twill be the worse for't all the year. EARLY WINTER. An air' winter, A sair winter. That is, an early winter is likely to be a sore or severe one. THE PLOUGH OF GOLD. One of the most familiar rhymes respecting the weather, is popularly understood to be the composition of no less distinguished a man than George Buchanan. This illustrious * In Germany, there is a rhyme which may be thus translated : When the hawthorn has too early hawes, We shall still have many snaws. It is to be observed that on the continent the hawthorn sometimes blooms so early as the end of February or beginning of March, and that, accordingly, a tract of wintry weather often follows. † Ewe. scholar and patriot is vulgarly believed in Scotland to have been the king's fool or jester-a mere natural, but possessed of a gift of wit which enabled him to give very pertinent answers to impertinent questions. He was once asked-so runs the story-what could buy a plough of gold; when he immediately answered 'A frosty winter, and a dusty March, a rain about April, Another about the Lammas time, when the corn begins to fill, Is weel worth a pleuch o' gowd, and a' her pins theretill.' Which, accordingly, is believed to contain the exact description of a season calculated to produce a good harvest—a thing not over-estimated at the value of a plough composed of the most precious metal. FEBRUARY. Of all the months, February, though the shortest, appears to be considered by rural people as the most important. We have as many rhymes about this docked month as about all the rest put together; many of them expressing either an open detestation of it, or a profound sense of its influence in deciding the weather that is to follow. In Tweeddale they say Februar, an ye be fair, The hoggs 'ill mend, and naething pair ;+ The hoggs 'll die in ilka pool. Yet throughout the country generally, good weather in February is regarded as an unfavourable symptom of what is to come A' the months o' the year, Curse a fair Februar. In England there is the same notion, as witness a proverb from Ray's Collection Also The Welshman would rather see his dam on her bier, February, fill the dike, Be it black, or be it white! If it be white, it's the better to like. *Sheep in their second year. † Impair, or lessen. Meaning, give us either rain or snow, to fill the hollows; but snow is preferable. The Norman peasant in like manner says— Fevrier qui donne neige, Bel été nous plege. I. E. When February gives snows, It fine weather foreshows.* In Germany they say Matheis bricht's Eis, Find't er keins, so macht er eins. That is, Matthew [St Matthew's day is the 24th February] breaks the ice: if he find none, he will make it. It seems to be generally felt in temperate regions, that the snowy covering of the earth during winter is useful in promoting vegetable growth in spring and summer. Upon the whole, there is a prejudice against February in the Scottish mind. The pastoral people of Peeblesshire and Selkirkshire say— Leap year Was never a good sheep year. The Aberdonians have a saying The fair-day of Auld Deer Is the warst day in a' the year. Namely, the third Thursday of February. CANDLEMAS DAY. And Candlemas day (February 2), the festival of the Purification of the Virgin, appears to have been one of the most venerated and carefully-observed of all the Romish festivals. It is one of very few which have continued impressed upon the minds of the Presbyterian people of Scotland after all ostensible veneration for such days had passed away. it is somewhat remarkable that these few days are chiefly of those which are understood to have been Pagan festivals before the introduction of Christianity (Candlemas, Beltane, Lammas, and Hallowmass), as if the impression made by the festivals of the church during the four centuries of its predominance amongst us had been comparatively superficial. * Foreign Quarterly Review, xxxii. 376. |