"
I think it a shame that the Maitland Club of Glasgow has not, ere now,
volunteered an edition of Zachary's immortal performance. The _Senatus_
would hardly object (if the expense were undertaken), as the circulation
would be confined to true Scots.
PHILOBODIUS.
[The following communication from a very competent authority,
and the very passage quoted by "PHILOBODIUS" himself, quite
justify the non-publication of Zachary's doggrel.]
_Zachary Boyd_ (No. 19. p. 298.).--Your notice of Zachary Boyd, and his
extraordinary paraphrase of the Bible in the College at Glasgow, has
reminded me of my having examined that strange work, and found ample
cause for its not being published, though a sufficient sum was
bequeathed for that purpose. The whole doggrel is only calculated to
bring ridicule and contempt upon the Scriptures; but there are, besides,
passages such as refer to Job's "Curse God, and die;" to Jeshuram waxing
fat; to Jonah in the whale's belly; and other parts, which utterly unfit
the MS. for decent perusal.
W. JERDAN.
_Welsh Ambassador._--The origin of the word "Welsh," from the Saxon
"Wealh," a stranger, and the use of it in this sense by our old writers
(see Brady's _Introd._, p. 5.: Sir T. Smith's _Commonwealth of England_,
chap. xiii.), sufficiently explain this designation of the Cuckoo, the
temporary resident of our cold climate, and the ambassador
_extraordinary_ in the revolutions of the seasons, in the words of the
Nursery Rhymes,--
"She comes as a _stranger_, and stays three months in the year.
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