Part 171

There's ne'er a great feast but some fare ill.

There's ower mony nicks in your horn.

That is, you are too knowing or cunning for me.

There's plenty o' raible when drink's on the table.

To "raible" is to speak in a riotous, careless, or loose manner.

There's remede for a' but stark dead.

"For ony malledy ze ken, Except puir love, or than stark deid, Help may be had frae hands of men, Thorow medicines to mak remeid."--The Evergreen.

There's skill in gruel making.

"There's sma sorrow at our pairting," as the auld mear said to the broken cart.

"'If ye dinna think me fit,' replied Andrew, in a huff, 'to speak like ither folk, gie me my wages, and my board-wages, and I'se gae back to Glasgow--there's sma sorrow at our pairting, as the auld mear said to the broken cart.'"--Rob Roy.

There's steel in the needle point, though little o't.

"Spoken when a thing, commendable for its kind, is found fault with for its quantity."--Kelly.

There's the end o' an auld sang.

Or, all the information I can give you.

There's tricks in a' trades but honest horse-couping.

There's twa enoughs, and ye hae got ane o' them.

"That is, big enough and little enough; meaning that he has gotten little enough. An answer to them who, out of modesty, say they have enough."--Kelly.

There's twa things in my mind, and that's the least o' them.

Spoken by a person who declines to give a reason for a thing which he does not wish to do.

There was anither gotten the night that you was born.

"If one won't another will."--English.

There was mair lost at Sherramuir, where the Hielandman lost his faither and his mither, and a gude buff belt worth baith o' them.

Spoken jocularly when a person meets with a trifling loss. Sheriffmuir is the name of the field between Stirling and Dunblane, where a disastrous battle between the Scots and English was fought during the rebellion of 1715.

There was ne'er a gude toun but there was a dub at the end o't.

Or never a thing so perfect as to be faultless.

There was ne'er a height but had a howe at the bottom o't.

There ne'er was a silly Jocky but there was a silly Jenny.

There was ne'er a thrifty wife wi' a clout about her head.