The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Proverbs of Scotland, by Alexander Hislop

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Title: The Proverbs of Scotland

Author: Alexander Hislop

Release Date: July 29, 2008 [EBook #26150]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PROVERBS OF SCOTLAND ***

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THE PROVERBS OF SCOTLAND.

"I am of opinion, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "that there is no
proverb which is not true, because they are all sentences drawn from
experience itself, the mother of all the sciences."

THE

PROVERBS OF SCOTLAND

WITH

EXPLANATORY AND ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES
AND A GLOSSARY.

BY

ALEXANDER HISLOP.

NEW EDITION.

_ENTIRELY REVISED AND SUPPLEMENTED._

EDINBURGH:
ALEXANDER HISLOP & COMPANY.
1868.

Transcriber's Note:

Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Dialect
spellings and inconsistent hyphenation have been retained. The oe
ligature is represented by [oe].

TO

SIR WILLIAM STIRLING MAXWELL,
BART. OF KEIR, M.P.,

"ONE DEEPLY VERSED IN PROVERB LORE,"

THE PRESENT COLLECTION OF

SCOTTISH PROVERBS

IS, BY PERMISSION,

MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.

PREFACE.

The gathering together of the Proverbs of Scotland has occupied the
attention of several collectors. The earliest work on the subject which
has been traced is that of Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow, who, about the
time of the Reformation, made a small collection. The definite
information which we have of this work is so very slight, however, that
it has been of little or no value to subsequent collectors and writers
on the subject. The first collection of importance is the well-known one
made by the Rev. David Fergusson, minister of Dunfermline, who was a
contemporary of Archbishop Beaton. Fergusson's collection, which
numbered 940 proverbs, was, all circu