Where else would you like to go in Scotland?
Parliamo Scots?
- Crime and Punishment
All about crime..
- "Blackmail" - a payment made in return for protection from plunder or injury, originating in the protection of sheep during the night by the black watch.
- "Burthensack" - a theft of only as much food as can be carried on the thief's back.
- "Chaud Mellé" - a crime committed in the heat of the moment.
- "Depradation" - the offence of driving away cattle by armed force.
- To be taken in a "fang" is to be caught in the act of stealing.
- "Forethocht" - premeditated
- "Hamesucken" - an assault on somebody in their own house.
- "Pauchle" or "Pochle" - steal or embezzle
- "Picky -fingered" or "Tarry-fingered"- light fingered
- "Reive" - rob, steal and pillage as in the Border Reivers.
- "Rook" - plunder. These days, to say that you are "rooked" indicates you have no money left.
- "Spreach" - a herd of cattle stolen and driven off in a raid, especially by Highlanders from Lowlanders (one of Rob Roy's activities!).
....and punishment!
- "Barisdall" - an instrument of torture invented (and used!) by MacDonald of Barisdale.
- "Dool tree" - a gallow tree. "St Johnston's Ribbon" was the hangman's rope.
- "Failze" - an amount to be paid for non-performance of an obligation.
- "Jougs" - a hinged collar n which the criminal was locked, attached by a chain to a wall.
- "Letters of slains" - a letter signed by a relative of someone killed in a private fued, acknowleding payment of compensation, setting aside further claims for revenge and requesting the king to grant remission.
- "The Maiden" - name for the guillotine used in Edinburgh.
- "Laws of Clan MacDuff" - a priviledge granted to men of Fife who could have their sentence to be hanged for murder set aside by the killer paying compensation.
- "Put to the horn" - proclaimed an outlaw (as in the case of Rob Roy MacGregor). Rob also suffered from "Letters of Fire and the Sword" - a warrant from the Privy Council to enforce a court decree by removal and ejection from his home.
- "Solatium" - damages for injury to feelings or for pain and suffering.
- "Tolbooth" - the town prison, often consisting of cells below and the town hall above. The most famous Tolbooth was the one in Edinburgh. The original name for the Edinburgh Tolbooth was "Heart of Midlothian". It is now marked by a heart shaped arrangements of cobbles on the roadway - and is also the name of a local football team....
Where else would you like to go in Scotland?