J. F. Campbell Collection > Popular rhymes of Scotland

68 POPULAR RHYMES OF SCOTLAND.
dated 1658 ; but in an act of council dated 1678 it is so
termed.
One of the senses of 'guid,' given by Dr Jamieson,
is, that it expresses rank, and means lionoiirahle. Thus,
'guidman' meant laird. The ' Guidman of North Ber-
wick' {Melville's Memoirs, p. 122) is the same person who
had been designed ' Alexander Hume of North Berwick,'
at p. 93, where he is mentioned in common with ' divers
other barons and gentlemen.' It is easy to see how a
burgh, advanced to privilege by the royal fiat, would come
to be styled *' guid,' or honourable ; and that Edinburgh,
as at length the chief of them, would be so styled emi-
nently.
It is worthy of notice that the keeper of the prison of
Edinburgh was, during the seventeenth century, called
* the Guidman of the Tolbooth.'*
LINLITHGOW.
The faithful toAvn of Linlithgow.
A tree appears in the coat armorial of Linlithgow, with
the motto, ' My fruit is fidelity to God and the king.' Pro-
bably both epithet and motto relate to some good service
rendered by the worthy burghers to one of the kings of
Scotland, so long resident amongst them.
Out of the world, and into Kippen.
A proverb meant to show the seclusion and singularity
of this district of Stirlingshire, of which the feudal lord
was formerly styled King of Kippen.
DUMBLAXE.
Drunken Dumblane.
This proverbial phrase perhaps arose from the alliteration,
like other similar expressions; but probably the only in-
justice of it is in its selecting Dumblane for a stigma which
* By tolbooth we now understand, in Scotland, a prison ; but the word in
reality means a custom-house, or place for the collection of a tax. ' He saw
Matheu sittj-nge in a to\bothe.''—Wic}iUffe's Translation of the Bible. The
cause of the change of meaning is, that prisons became generally attached
to the municipal court-houses, and in time formed the most conspicuous
portion of such buildings.