pure Anglican. Without at all
pretending to exhaust the subject, I may cite the following as examples
of the class of terms I speak of. Take the names for parents--"Daddie"
and "Minnie;" names for children, "My wee bit lady" or "laddie," "My wee
bit lamb;" of a general nature, "My ain kind dearie." "Dawtie,"
especially used to young people, described by Jamieson a darling or
favourite, one who is _dawted_--_i.e._ fondled or caressed. My "joe"
expresses affection with familiarity, evidently derived from _joy_, an
easy transition--as "My joe, Janet;" "John Anderson, my joe, John." Of
this character is Burns's address to a wife, "My winsome"--_i.e._
charming, engaging--"wee thing;" also to a wife, "My winsome
marrow"--the latter word signifying a dear companion, one of a pair
closely allied to each other; also the address of Rob the Ranter to
Maggie Lauder, "My bonnie bird." Now, we would remark, upon this
abundant nomenclature of kindly expressions in the Scottish dialect,
that it assumes an interesting position as taken in connection with the
Scottish Life and _Character_, and as a set-off against a frequent short
and _grumpy_ manner. It indicates how often there must be a current of
tenderness and affection in the Scottish heart, which is so frequently
represented to be, like its climate, "stern and wild." There could not
be such _terms_ were the feelings they express unknown. I believe it
often happens that in the Scottish character there is a vein of deep and
kindly feeling lying hid under a short, and hard and somewhat stern
manner. Hence has arisen the Scottish saying which is applicable to such
cases--"His girn's waur than his bite:" his disposition is of a softer
nature than his words and manner would often lead you to suppose.

There are two admirable articles in _Blackwood's Magazine,_ in the
numbers for November and December 1870, upon this subject. The writer
abundantly vindicates the point and humour of the Scottish tongue. Who
can resist, for example, the epithet applied by Meg Merrilies to an
unsuccessful probationer for admission to the ministry:--"a sticket
stibbler"? Take the sufficiency of Holy Scripture as a pledge for any
one's salvation:--"There's eneuch between the brods o' the Testament to
save the biggest sinner i' the warld." I heard an old Scottish
Episcopalian thus pithily describe the hasty and irreverent manner of a
young Englishman:--"He ribbled aff the prayers like a man at the heid o'
a re