ple--may have occurred to all. In our
national collections, therefore, some of the proverbs recorded may be
simply translations into Scotch of what have been long considered the
property of other nations. Still, I hope it is not a mere national
partiality to say that many of the common proverbs _gain_ much by such
translation from other tongues. All that I would attempt now is, to
select some of our more popular proverbial sayings, which many of us can
remember as current amongst us, and were much used by the late
generation in society, and to add a few from the collections I have
named, which bear a very decided Scottish stamp either in turn of
thought or in turn of language.

I remember being much struck the first time I heard the application of
that pretty Scottish saying regarding a fair bride. I was walking in
Montrose, a day or two before her marriage, with a young lady, a
connection of mine, who merited this description, when she was kindly
accosted by an old friend, an honest fish-wife of the town, "Weel, Miss
Elizabeth, hae ye gotten a' yer claes ready?" to which the young lady
modestly answered, "Oh, Janet, my claes are soon got ready;" and Janet
replied, in the old Scotch proverb, "Ay, weel, _a bonnie bride's sune
buskit_[130]." In the old collection, an addition less sentimental is
made to this proverb, _A short horse is sune wispit_[131].

To encourage strenuous exertions to meet difficult circumstances, is
well expressed by _Setting a stout heart to a stey brae_.

The mode of expressing that the worth of a handsome woman outweighs even
her beauty, has a very Scottish character--_She's better than she's
bonnie_. The opposite of this was expressed by a Highlander of his own
wife, when he somewhat ungrammatically said of her, "_She's bonnier than
she's better_."

The frequent evil to harvest operations from autumnal rains and fogs in
Scotland is well told in the saying, _A dry summer ne'er made a
dear peck_.

There can be no question as to country in the following, which seems to
express generally that persons may have the name and appearance of
greatness without the reality--_A' Stuarts are na sib[132] to the king_.

There is an excellent Scottish version of the common proverb, "He that's
born to be hanged will never be drowned."--_The water will never
warr[133], the widdie, i.e._ never cheat the gallows. This saying
received a very naive practical application during the anxiety and
alarm of a storm.