Part 140

New lairds mak new laws.

"They were decent, considerate men, that didna plague a puir herd callant muckle about a moorfowl or a mawkin, unless he turned common fowler--Sir Robert Ringhorse used to say, the herd lads shot as mony gleds and pyots as they did game. But new lords new laws--naething but fine and imprisonment, and the game no a feather the plentier."--St Ronan's Well.

Next to nae wife, a gude ane's best.

Nineteen naesays o' a maiden is half a grant.

"Her laugh will lead you to the place, Where lies the happiness ye want; And plainly tell you to your face, Nineteen nae-says are half a grant."--Tea-Table Miscellany.

Nipping and scarting's Scotch folk's wooing.

"It may be Scotch folk's wooing; but if that's the gait Betty Bodle means to use you, Watty, my dear, I would see her, and a' the Kilmarkeckles that ever were cleckit, doon the water, or strung in a wuddy, before I would hae onything to say to ane come o' their seed or breed. To lift her hands to her bridegroom!"--The Entail.

Now-a-days truth's news.

Now's now, and Yule's in winter.

O' ae ill come mony.

O' a' fish i' the sea, herring is king.

O' a' ills, nane's best.

O' a' little tak a little; when there's nought tak a'.

O' a' meat i' the warld the drink gaes best down.

O' a' sorrow, a fu' sorrow's the best.

"Spoken when friends die and leave good legacies."--Kelly.

O' a' the months o' the year curse a fair Februar.

O' bairns' gifts ne'er be fain; nae sooner they gie than they tak it again.

O' gude advisement comes nae ill.

O' ill debtors men get aiths.

"Aith," or oath, is here used in the sense of promise, signifying that from "ill debtors" men get not money but promises, which, of course, are never performed.

Oh for a drap o' gentle blude, that I may wear black abune my brow.

"In Scotland no woman is suffered to wear a silk hood unless she be a gentlewoman; that is, a gentleman's daughter, or married to a gentleman. A rich maid having the offer of a wealthy yeoman, or a bare gentleman, wished for the last, to qualify her to wear a black hood. It is since spoken to such wealthy maidens upon the like occasion."--Kelly.

O' little meddling comes muckle care.

On painting and fighting look abeigh.

On the sea sail, on the land settle.

Onything for ye about an honest man's house but a day's wark.

"Onything sets a gude face," quo' the monkey wi' the mutch on.