Old Scots Words - Bahuif or Bawhufe

Today's 'B' word is a truly strange looking one:

'Bahuif' (or 'Bawhufe')

I had never come across this one before, but found it when looking at a list of the items belonging to James V, King of Scotland (pdf available here).  It refers to a large chest or coffer or trunk and King James had a few of these:

ane greit bawhufe into the palzeon houses and ane bawhufe into the tapestry house and the third into the pantrie hous.

[a great chest in the tent house and a chest into the tapestry house and the third into the pantry house]

The Dictionary of the Scots Language has examples of its use dating mostly from the 1500s and quotes its use in the Treasury Accounts of 1535:

'for keping of the kingis gracis claithis, twa balhoyis'

[for keeping the King's graces clothes, two chests] 

It can appear in more humble settings too - but watch out for bizarre spelling variations - I have seen it as 'balhoy', 'bawhuvis', 'bahouuis', 'behewuis', 'balhuves' - you need your wits about you sometimes to spot this wee word!

Old Scots Words - Afaldly or Afauldly

Today is the first in what will be a (semi) regular look at some of the more unusual words that I have come across in my research.  It makes sense to start with 'A', so today we have:

'Afaldly' (or 'Afauldly')

An odd looking word to modern eyes, but it crops up quite often in some older texts.  It means something along the lines of 'sincerely' or 'honestly' or 'faithfully' and you might find someone swearing 'afaldly' to abide by something.

You might see it used in a sentence like the following from the Aberdeen Burgh Records from 1494:

'the aldirmane, balʒeis…schew that tha wald ayfaldly defende thair landis and heretage'

[the aldermen, bailies,...show that they would sincerely defend their lands and heritage] 

or in this example from a bond of manrent from the charter chest at Gask: September 5th 1471 (full extract available here):

'sal serf hym afauldy in peise and in vayr for al the tym and spaise befor vrittyn'

[shall serve him faithfully in peace and in war for all the time and space before written]

It might crop up in all sorts of places, especially in earlier documents.  The Dictionary of the Scots Language has examples of its use dating from the 1400s to the 1600s, so it is one to look out for in those early records. 

Wordless Wednesday - Images of the Construction of the Forth Bridge, 1886-87

Works at Inchgarvie from wind gauge on castle ruins

General view from North Queensferry hills depicting the three cantilevers

Queensferry cantilever from end of Hawes Pier

Images are from the NLS collections and are available under a Creative Commons License.

These and many other images can be viewed on the NLS website.

Mystery Monday - Who's that man?

In one of the bundles of photographs at home we have this one of a young soldier, presumably from the First World War period:

My grandfather, Malcolm, had four brothers who served in the war, John, Alexander, Duncan, and Peter.  The family sadly lost three of these boys in the war and only Peter and my grandfather (the youngest) survived, along with their sister Mary.

We presume that this is one of the boys, but do not know which one - as far as we can gather the boys served as follows:

• Peter Cameron Macdonald served as a private in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, spending the war mostly in the Balkans and France

• John Macdonald was a corporal in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (A company, 2nd battalion) and previously in the 93rd Highlanders.  He died at Arras, 24 April 1917 aged 25

• Alexander Macdonald was a sergeant in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and in the Black Watch (8th battalion) - he died 19 July 1918, aged 23.

• Duncan MacCrimmon Macdonald was a private in the Highland Light Infantry (1st/5th battalion) and died 24 August 1918, aged 21.

Now, the man in the above photograph seems to have at least one stripe on his arm, which makes me think that it should be John or Alexander as they are the ones who held a rank above private (as far as we know), but we just do not know which of them it could be.

There is another photograph that may hint at this definitely being one of my grandfather's brothers:

 

In this photo (of my grandfather) there is another photo above the fireplace of a man in uniform with a moustache - this man looks a bit like the one in the photo that I began this blog post with - I have tried to zoom in a bit, but can't really get close enough to tell:

Anyway, the 'working hypothesis' is that it is probably John or Alexander in the 'big picture' and that this might be the same person in the 'little picture' seen at the family home.  If there are any military experts out there who recognise the cap badge, or anything distinctive about the uniform then I would love to hear from you...until then, my photograph remains labelled as simply 'probably one of the Macdonald boys'.