NOT ENOUGH SMEDDUM
Sur,—May I venture to point out that your excellent paper has (not, of course, surpris- ingly), followed the Lord Lyon in his curious lapse from accuracy in the controversy between him and the Wick Town Council over their new motto. Lyon has forgotten'that in Scots wark is the substantive, but the verb is to work' (pronounced wurk '), i.e., you work your wark, you dinna wark it. (In Middle Scots the verb appears also as wirk; or werk,' while to wark' means to ache: cf. Jamieson.) Wick Town Council is per- fectly justified in refusing to accept this curi- ous Lyonine version, and. in suggesting, not as you remark that Wick Works Well' would be preferable to its Lowland Scots equivalent," but that " Wick-Works Weel" is the Lowland, or Lallans, form.—Yours faithfully, M. Y. RAN1S1Y
11 Saxe-Coburg Place, Edinburgh 3
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