n_: be a real genuine
_Glen_ all through life, not a _valet_ or flunkey; _William Lindsay_:
Willie, my lad, imitate your ancestors at Otterburn: 'The Lindsays flew
like fire about till a' the fray was done'; _Mary Black_: black but
comely like the daughters of Jerusalem," and so on, in a bird-witted,
half-daft way that the audience contemplated with benevolent wonder.

NOTE ON INVERNESS SURNAMES, ETC.

Let me mention here a very useful and interesting piece of philology
that was done by Dr. Macbain in 1895. That eminent scholar, working on
the _Inverness Directory_, analysed the names occurring there, explained
them on sound principles of etymology, and gave percentages of Celtic
and Saxon surnames in the Highland capital.

Roughly speaking, the _Directory_ of 1894-1895 had 5,000 single entries,
and _750 distinct surnames_. Of these surnames, only 110 are pure
Gaelic. About 70 per cent. of the natives are, however, supposed to be
of Highland descent.

Dr. Macbain points out that certain Highland clans have names that are
not Celtic: _Grant_ is from the French "grand"; _Fraser_ from the French
"fraise," a strawberry (the Frasers have a strawberry in their
coat-of-arms); _Chisholm_ is English and means "gravel-holm,"--the
Anglo-Saxon _ceosol_ (pebble) is preserved in _Chesil Beach_ and
_Chiselhurst_; _MacLeod_ signifies "son of Ljot"; and _ljotr_ is the
Norse word for "ugly." _Campbell_ is probably Norman-French, though Dr.
Macbain suggests _cam-beul_, Gaelic for "crooked mouth." In olden times
an external conqueror would sometimes subdue a district, and call the
natives after his noble self.

The commonest names in the town are Fraser, Macdonald, Mackenzie,
Macintosh, Ross, Cameron, and Munro. About 1,200 of the population have
one or other of the first three names. The Frasers are an easy first,
and form more than 9 per cent. of the population.

_John_, _Alexander_, and _William_, are the commonest Christian names in
Inverness. "It is remarkable and indeed regrettable," says Dr. Macbain,
"that the Gaelic Christian names (Donald, Duncan, Kenneth, Murdoch, and
Angus), are not higher in the list."

The name of the first recorded inhabitant of Inverness (A.D. 1200) is
Geoffrey Blount, a feudal warrior no doubt (French _blond_). In the
thirteenth century we have the names _Noreys_, _Grant_, and _Hay_. In
the fourteenth century the leading name is Pilch, derived from
_peluche_, the French for "plush." In the fifteen