6 JULY 1934, Page 32

THE SCOTTISH NATIONAL DICTIONARY By Dr. William Grant When in

January, 1932, near the anniversary of that "Janwar win'," which "blew hansel in on Robin," Dr. Grant, the Editor of the Scottish National Dictionary, appealed "fiir ' financial aid in his great work to about 270 Btirns-_Clubs, he received one donation of Despite .this,_ apparent indifference towards a language of which the Scots profess themselves so proud, the work of the Dictionary goes un- dauntedly on, and Part III (The Scottish National Dictionary . Association) has just appeared. And side by side with the National Dictionary, which examines and catalogues Scots speech from 1700 to the present day, runs Sir William Craigie's A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (The -University of Chicago Press, 21s.), of which we are glad to note the publi- cation of Part III. Both books have already been noticed in the columns of The Spectator, and it is unnecessary here to add to our commendation of these two Very important contributions to the history of the English linguage=Eng- lish, for in essentials the dialects on both sides of the Border take rise from a common source.