Grant is lecturer on phonetics in Aberdeen, and as Convener of the Scottish Dialects Committee has done splendid service in guiding the sweeping up of the detritus of the old vernacular, once the classic tongue of Scotland. In his book he treats what he calls Standard Scottish, the speech of the educated middle classes in Scotland, in its three varieties-the oratorical, the careful conversational or reading, and the familiar everyday style. Mr. Grant is aware that in different parts of Scotland this standard speech will reveal local peculiarities, but there is a common stratum underneath the variations. The method he uses with so much skill would have to be pursued with regard to the dialectal variations in, say, Ayrshire, Forfarshire, Aberdeenshire, in order to represent the subject fully for dictionary purposes. On the phoneticians, indeed, there would fall a very heavy burden, but the quality of Mr. Grant's book shows that in Scotland we should have help. The grammar would offer comparatively few difficulties. Grigor's examination of the Buchan dialect, Murray's investigation of the SouthWestern speech of Scotland, Gregory Smith's work on Middle Scots, Wright's Dialect Dictionary and Dialect Grammar, the whole body of grammatical research carried on at home and on the Continent into Old and Middle English and the allied tongues form a broad, firm foundation for the preparation of a grammar of Scots.

One department of the grammatical work-phonology-would give scope for fresh research. In his Memories of Two Cities the late Professor Masson doubts whether it is possible to explain the change in the North-Eastern dialect in such words as spoon-speen, what-fat, but the first change is undoubtedly Teutonic in its history, and the second is probably Gaelic. English moon is Anglo-Saxon mona, Gothic mena, and the e-sound corresponding to the English 00-sound is very common in Danish. As regards the wh-f change, English whisk is Gaelic fusgan, Whithorn is in Gaelic Futerna, and the same change may be noted within Gaelic itself. So the close vowels of Buchan, as contrasted with the open vowels of Ayrshire, answer to the distinction between the two main dialects of Gaelic, the North and the South, the former being marked by close, the latter by open vowels. Again, the strong r-sound in Scotland is partly due to Gaelic, and the North-Eastern habit of forming diminutives by adding ie, as in 'a peerie wee bit o' a mannikinie,' has been at least helped by Gaelic. When Gaelic words ending in an pass into English, the ending becomes ie, so that 'Corbie Wallie' need not mean the Raven's Well,' but rather the well by the cattle-fold' (Gaelic corban); so 'Kettybrewster' is 'the broken fold' (Gaelic brisde and cuitan). On the other hand, the cutting off of an initial w, as in 'ood for wood, 'ouk for week, etc., is Scandinavian, and the breaking in such words as gya (gave), gyaun (going), is a wellknown phenomenon in the Teutonic tongues. These examples will show that the investigation of the origins of our vernacular peculiarities is quite a hopeful task.

There remains the matter of etymology-a very ticklish business. Placenames have been examined with capital results by such investigators as Cameron, Henderson, Kennedy, Macbain, Watson, and it is likely that the explanation of Celtic mythology will show more light on this fascinating subject. In his Celtic Dragon Myth, the late Dr. Henderson refers to Dr.

Macbain's explanation of Ben Nevis as the hill of the nymph Nebestis, and to the Gaelic name of Aberdeen, Obair-dheaʼoin, as meaning the estuary of the nymph Devona, which would explain the Aberdeen name Devanha.

In tracing the origin of the main vocabulary of Scots, great help would be got from recent works on Gaelic, Old French, Norse, Dutch, and Anglo-Saxon. In some districts the Gaelic influence is very strong; thus ablach, bourach, clossach, connach, clyack, all common in Aberdeenshire, are pure Gaelic. Clyack, the last sheaf cut in harvest, suggests Gaelic caileag, girl, for it is also called 'the maiden,' but the true derivation seems to be Gaelic gleac, a fight, since the first harvesters to have clyack raised a shout of triumph; Mr. Charles Murray, it is noteworthy, spells the word as glyack.

The time is ripe for the patriotic task of making a scientific examination of the vernacular of Scotland. It is a hopeful undertaking, but obviously a large one, and would require the services of a group of workers under competent editors. A. M. WILLIAMS.

THE WORD 'WHIG.' Having had recently to investigate the early history of the term Tory, for the Oxford English Dictionary, I have also looked at our material for the word Whig. The two words occur often together in quotations after 1679. But I find that for the original Scottish sense of Whig, before that date, our materials are very meagre. I know, of course, the quotation from Bishop Burnet, in which Whig is stated to be shortened from Whigamore or Whiggamer, and that from Wodrow, in which it is conjecturally identified with whig in the sense of whey or sour milk, both given by Dr. Jamieson-and both needing strict investigation.

But of contemporary uses, I have only one from the London Gazette, No. 121, of 1667, stating that 'yesterday we were informed that the Whigs had privately in the night stollen down the heads of 4 of the Rebels that were set up in Glasgow'-I suppose after the Pentland Rising. Then there is the letter printed in the Lauderdale Papers, vol. iii., p. 163, dated 1 April, 1679, giving an account of the fight at Lesmahago, in which the Whiggs' appear six times.

There must be more references to the Whigs before 1700, and some even before 1667; and I shall be glad if readers of the Scottish Historical Review will send us quotations, with exact reference to book or manuscript, for any seventeenth century passages in which whig, whigs, or whiggamores are mentioned. Contemporary passages drawing attention to the name or giving its supposed origin, if any such can be found, will be specially valuable.

For Tory in its original sense of an Irish outlaw, living as a brigand or freebooter, there is abundant material, clearly showing the origin of the term; it is much to be desired that the origin and early history of Whig could be made equally clear and certain. I hope that every one who can contribute to such a result will kindly communicate with me. Oxford. JAMES A. H. MURRAY.

ROBERTSON OF CULTS (Aberdeenshire). In the pedigree of Major Thomas Robertson of Cults about 1690, it is stated that he was the seventh in descent from Struan. Can this be confirmed? Widmerpool Hall, Nottinghamshire.

G. C. ROBERTSON.