Memorials of John Geddes

Douglas's Virgil,* and the poetry, then radiant on the near
horizon, of Walter Scott. They exchanged ideas as to
their preferences among his poems, Mr Cruickshank stand-
ing out for the Lady of the Lake as the masterpiece, while
my father in those days contended for Marmion, a verdict
for which he afterwards claimed some credit, when, to his
"Aneath this stane, upon this knowe,
Lies single-han'it Sauny Low :
He vrate a beuk 'at nae ane read,
And now, alas, the breet he's dead ! "
It is worth noting that "Breet" in the last line is the same word as the
English "brute," yet not the same, since all its Scottish associations when it
is pronounced Scotice, give it a kindly, though contemptuous, sense. It comes
near in tone to Burns' "chiel," which is not a cruel word like the English
"brute."
Strange that various readings have sprung up even of this product of the
century. In line 3 there is a form " 'at nane cud read," but that fault might
be due to the depth of the learning, whereas the actual fact of grim neglect
barbs the arrow better,
* In one of his calls at Bodylair Mr Cruickshank, the minister, discovered
a copy of "Gawin Douglas" which my father had got on loan. The minister
was so delighted that he would carry off the folio then and there at his pony's
saddlebow. The object was to search for the famous passage as to the stone
of Sisyphus which floats current in broad Scots, and was attributed to Gawin
Douglas. The minister was able to repeat bits of it from hearsay, reciting it
with great gusto over the " O wow," which comes in tragically as the master-
stroke. Of course, he did not succeed in finding the foundling, as Virgil is
not the poet who describes the stone of Sisyphus, which belongs to the
Odyssey, not to the ^ineid. My father, however, felt a grudge at being thus
deprived of his chance of due acquaintance with Gawin Douglas, as the book
was never extricated from the Manse until the period of the loan had expired.