_Bailie Nicol Jarvie_ (Vol. ii., p. 421.).--When we spoke recently of
Charles Mackay, the inimitable Bailie Nicol Jarvie of one of the
Terryfications (though not by Terry) of Scott's _Rob Roy_ having made a
formal affidavit that he was a real "Edinburgh Gutter Bluid," we suspect
some of our readers themselves suspected a joke. The affidavit itself has,
however, been printed in the _Athenæum_, accompanied by an amusing
commentary, in which the document is justly pronounced "a very curious
one." Here it is:
"At Edinburgh, the Fourteenth day of November, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty years.
"In presence of John Stoddart, Esq., one of Her Majesty's Justices of
the Peace for the City of Edinburgh, appeared Charles Mackay, lately
Theatre Royal, residing at number eleven Drummond Street, Edinburgh;
who being solemnly sworn and examined depones, that he is a native of
Edinburgh, having been born in one of the houses on the north side of
the High Street of said city, in the month of October one thousand
seven hundred and eighty-seven. That the deponent left Edinburgh for
Glasgow when only about nine years of age, where he sojourned for five
years; thence he became a wanderer in many lands, and finally settled
once more in Edinburgh a few months before February eighteen hundred
and nineteen years, when the drama of _Rob Roy_ was first produced in
the Theatre Royal here. That the deponent by his own industry having
realised a small competency, he is now residing in Edinburgh; and
although upwards of threescore years old he finds himself 'hale and
hearty,' and is one of the same class whom King Jamie denominates '_a
real Edinburgh Gutter Bluid._' All which is truth, as the deponent
shall answer to God.
"CHAS. MACKAY, B. N. Jarvie.
"JOHN STODDART, J. P.
"JOHN MIDDLETON, M.D.E., Witness.
"WALTER HENDERSON, Witness."
_Hogs not Pigs_ (Vol. ii., p. 102.).--J. MN.'s remark on "hogs, lambs a
year old," reminds me that the origin of this rustical word still lingers
in the remote west, among the Irish and the Highland Gaels, whose
_gnath-bearla_, vernacular tongue, furnishes the neglected key of many a
dark chamber. The word to which I allude is "og," _adj._ young; whence
"ogan," a young man; "oige," a virgin.
In these islands we still apply the old French term "aver," _averium_, in
Guernsey, to the hog or pig; in Jersey, to a child. In France "aver"
denoted the animal produce or stock on a farm; and there were "averia
lanata" likewise. Similar apparently whimsical adaptations of words will
not shock those who are aware that "pig" in England properly means a little
fellow of the swine species, and that "pige" in Norse signifies a little
maid, a damsel.