Curious Scottish Characters.

Manawatu Herald, 8 March 1892, Page 3

Curious Scottish Characters.

•lOCK HOGG, OF DUNBAR

I Have any readers ever heard of [ -Jock Hogg, of Danbar ? His father j was bellman, and his mother, as well as himself, seems to have been weak minded. The father was named ! Tarn. His wife used to say, " Gin | oor Tarn be spared to dee, Jock will get the bell," meaning that Jock would probably succeed his father. Jock had been at sea on a warship, and taken part in some engagement. His letter to his mother after the tight was a curiosity from its grotesque disregard of the sequence of the events he described. The finish of it was, " Gie ma complements to all ma cousins — there were five hundred o' them killed in one day." A usual form of kindly " good night " from Jock was " A soond swengein' sleep to ye, and may ye never see daylight again , ' ' meaning, May you not awake till daylight warns you it is time to rise to your daily labour. The parish minister noticed a pig's stone trough in Jock's kailyard, which he had missed for some time from' his glebe. On asking Jock how it came there, he coolly replied, " Minister, it maun hae been a strong sou- waster that bIeAV it ower the wa' . ' ' Joel: was heard complaining of the dullness of trade generally ; and as for himself, he declared he •' hadna' buried a living sowl this six weeks," meaning a single individual. Possibly some of the older inhabitants of Danbar and its neighbourhood may be able to tell us something more about Jock.