[104] The second part, in the edition followed here, has a separate title-page, containing the same matter as the first, altering, of course, the number of the part.
[105] Another illustration of the expression used as a safeguard against the power of witches, warlocks, and all that race, when speaking of them. See notes to _John Cheap_ and _The History of Haverel Wives_, in the present volume.
[106] This seems to be the only story in any edition of _Leper the Taylor_ that has come under our notice to which the following lines from an elegy on Peter Duthie, a chapman worthy who lived between 1721 and 1812, could possibly bear any reference:--
‘Nae mair will Pate e’er travel round * * * * * Nor tell how _Leper_ threw the cat Into auld Janet’s boiling pat.’
[107] The presence of cattle in the houses of the common people, or small farmers, was too often seen, but this is just a further instance of the disrespect for sanitary matters evinced by the Scots before the present century. A great change has taken place within the last eighty or a hundred years.
[108] Sunday observance has long been, and still is, a remarkable feature of the Scottish national life. In former times the utmost care was taken that there should be no Sabbath breaking. The old Jewish idea of a ‘Sabbath-day’s’ journey was kept to the letter, and no one was allowed to walk on the streets except going to or coming from the church. Any person found taking a walk ran the risk of being taken to the guard-house by the ‘civileers,’ who were inquisitors appointed conjointly by the Town Council and the kirk session. The average Scotsman would rather let his crops go to ruin than take them in on a fine Sabbath.
[109] In the 1816 edition, here followed throughout, the chap-book begins--‘This taylor;’ but in the 1820 edition the opening sentence runs thus:--‘Leper in his life-time,’ etc. That reading has been taken here as it makes a better beginning than the other.
[110] The English edition has a very different reading, as follows:--‘A farthing Roll, half a pint of Ale, and a pipe of Tobacco.’
[111] The word ‘nearest’ is given instead of ‘former’ in the other editions.
[113] ‘Sixty-two,’ in the English edition.
[114] ‘Three-half-pennys’ in the English edition.