The _Guidman o' Inglismill_ was written, not to fill up "hours of
idleness," but as a relaxation from the cares of a more important and
arduous occupation.
Its object is the encouragement of temperate habits, and the enjoyment
of "ane's ain fireside."
It is hoped it will be no less acceptable to the reader as another
attempt to assist in preserving the pure Doric of "auld langsyne," which
is fast being superseded by a language less pithy, less expressive,
though more fashionable.
Every "toon's laddie"--or he is no true son of the "bruch"--however old,
however placed as regards wealth or poverty, or wherever he may be on
this habitable globe, can sympathise with the lines to the spot "where
we were born." There is a charm in the true Buchan dialect to a child of
the district, which neither time, age, nor distance can destroy. When
"far awa," it falls on the ear like the breathings of some holy melody,
and calls up in the imagination a fleeting panoramic picture of early
days, and homes, and play-mates,--swelling the heart and dimming the
eyes as they try to gaze down the vista of the past,--dotted, it may be,
with the resting-places of those who have gone "to the land o' the
leal."