Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-02-17
SCOTCH IDIoMs.
Expressions That Seem Peculiar TO Ono
Not Bred On the Heather.

Not Bred On the Heather.
i Perhaps the coaaonest errors that
, Scotchlacn-i ven well educated Scotch
( nen-nake art ia the use Of shall" and
will" Ever boy, we suppose, knows
,ho good old story OF the Scotchman drown
| ing in the Thames, who shouts out, 81 will
be drowned, and nobody shall help me-"
A we'll known lady novelist in Scotland
says that her rule for the use OF these aux
| iliaries is to substitute the one for the other
when correcting her prcofsheets. Knowing
that in the heat of composition she is most
likely to use the word that nature prompts,
which, she being Scotch, is nine cases ont
Of ten likely to be wrong, she thinks her
plan capital substitute for instructive
knowledge.
! Scotch people have some curions expires
sions in connection with food $hus they
sup" their broth and they speak of broth
Or porridge in the plural, c. e., I'D like a
few broth or "rhey are too salt" The
word ''sweet" is applied in ways strange to
English usage, as sweet butter" for fresh
butter, sweet milk" for new milk A
soup plate is called deep plate; broiled
steak is "brandered;" tea is INFUSED" or
more commonly "masked;" and the kettle
ID Sttltl W COilt w lilN bbiIs III pIldNGo
such as bread and butter, bread and milk,
bread and cheese, the order Of the words is
usually reversed in Scotland, as milk and
bread"
Some Scotch idioms which are in daily
use are exceedingly absurd. For instance,
the phrase "the length Of" instead of "as
far as" is continually used when speaking
of actual distance. Viscount Melville, who
| IL L .t,l III
Pitt for the loan of horse the length of
Highgate Hill, meaning of course that the
animal was to carry him as far as that
locality. Pitt regretted that he had not a
horse of the required length, but sent him
his longest. 1t is quite common, too, to
hear an anxious mother in Scotland telling
her children to Change their feet" instead
of their shoes, on wet day.
Besides changing his feet-or himself, as
the expression is when he is thoroughly
wet-a Scotchman does other equally
strange things, or at all events, speaks Of
doing them; such as looking over a win
dow, going into box in search of some
thing, sitting into the fire when he is cold,
walking through his sleep, sitting under
his clergyman when he attends his church
or putting his horses into his carriage. He
has also the unusual power OF being able
to feel smell. AS if fearful to commit
himself to an unwarranted statement he
can only say that he is quite BETTER" not
that he is quite well.
"Honestlike" in Scotland has no moral
significance; it is equivalent to good look
ing. When you are failing fast" you are
not on the verge of bankruptcy, as would
occur to an English ear, but becoming fee
BILE in health. When a Scotchman tells
you that he did not mind" what you said
he is not guilty of deliberately paying no
heed to you; his memory only has been at
fault. And a Scotch father who "chal-
lenges" his son for telling fibs does not
mean to fight him, but merely rebukes
him.
The weather is as much, perhaps more, a
subject of conversation in Scotland as in
England, but Scotchman uses different
terms in characterizing it. Thus he speaks
of soft day for rainy day, blowy for
windy weather, a fresh for u thaw. 1t
rains hard in Scotland, not fast and the
weather there is coarse, not rough.--Lon-
don Tit-Bits.