that the son will never equal the
influence and ability of his sire.

_His bark is waur nor his bite._ A good-natured apology for one who is
good-hearted and rough in speech.

_Do as the cow of Forfar did, tak a standing drink_. This proverb
relates to an occurrence which gave rise to a lawsuit and a whimsical
legal decision. A woman in Forfar, who was brewing, set out her tub of
beer to cool. A cow came by and drank it up. The owner of the cow was
sued for compensation, but the bailies of Forfar, who tried the case,
acquitted the owner of the cow, on the ground that the farewell drink,
called in the Highlands the _dochan doris_[142], or stirrup-cup, taken
by the guest standing by the door, was never charged; and as the cow
had taken but a standing drink outside, it could not, according to the
Scottish usage, be chargeable. Sir Walter Scott has humorously alluded
to this circumstance in the notes to _Waverley_, but has not mentioned
it as the subject of an old Scotch proverb.

_Bannocks are better nor nae kind o' bread._ Evidently Scottish. Better
have oatmeal cakes to eat than be in want of wheaten loaves.

_Folly is a bonny dog._ Meaning, I suppose, that many are imposed upon
by the false appearances and attractions of vicious pleasures.

_The e'ening brings a' hame_ is an interesting saying, meaning, that the
evening of life, or the approach of death, softens many of our political
and religious differences. I do not find this proverb in the older
collections, but Sir William Maxwell justly calls it "a beautiful
proverb, which, lending itself to various uses, may be taken as an
expression of faith in the gradual growth and spread of large-hearted
Christian charity, the noblest result of our happy freedom of thought
and discussion." The literal idea of the "e'ening bringing a' hame," has
a high and illustrious antiquity, as in the fragment of Sappho, [Greek:
'Espere, panta phereis--phereis oin (or oinon) phereis aiga, phereis
maeteri paida]--which is thus paraphrased by Lord Byron in Don Juan,
iii. 107:--

"O Hesperus, thou bringest all good things--
Home to the weary, to the hungry cheer;
To the young birds the parent's brooding wings,
The welcome stall to the o'erlaboured steer, etc.
Thou bring'st the child, too, to the mother's breast."

A similar graceful and moral saying inculcates an acknowledgment of
gratitude for the past favours which we have enjoyed when we come to
the c