J. F. Campbell Collection > Popular rhymes of Scotland

CHARACTERISTICS OF PLACES, &C. 69
inig-ht be as desei'vedlj borne by many other towns of
similar size.
FORFAR.
Brosie Forfar.
Brosie implies the plethoric appearance arising' from
excess of meat and drink. The leg-al gentlemen of this
burg-h, who, from its being a county town, are remarkably
numerous in proportion to the population, are characterised
as the ' drunken writers of Forfar.' The town is a good
deal annoyed with a lake in its neighbourhood, which the
inhabitants have long had it in contemplation to drain, and
which would have been drained long ago, but for the ex-
pensiveness of such an undertaking. At a public meeting
held some years ago for the discussion of this measure, the
late Earl of Strathmore said that he believed the cheapest
method of draining the lake would be to throw a few hogs-
heads of good whisky into the water, and set the drunken
writers of Forfar to drink it up !
FALKLAND.
The inhabitants of Falkland, in Fife, from their neigh-
bourhood to a royal palace, must have had manners con-
siderably different from those of other districts. This is
testified, even in our own days, when all traces of the
refinement or viciousness of a court have passed away as if
they had never been, by a common expression in Fife —
Ye're queer folk, no to be Falkland folk.
KIRKCALDY.
The lang toun o' Kirkcaldy.
Kirkcaldy, a thriving manufacturing and commercial
town in Fife, chances to be built along a narrow stripe of
ground beside the sea, and to have villages continuing it at
each end ; so that a group of inhabitants not exceeding ten
thousand are stretched over about three miles of space.
' Kirkcaldy the sel' o't,' says honest Andrew Fairservice, ' is
as lang as ony toun in a' England ;' which is not far from
the fact.
Bonny Dundee.
This appellation must date at least from the early part of