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piled from lists given in pamphlets and periodicals from
time to time. All the examples of idiomatic phrases
and proverbs given by MacAlpine have been retainedy as well as Armstrong's, where not practically the same,
and many from Nicolson's Gaelic Proverbs have been
added, with large numbers from various other sources,
Local words and provincialisms from Common speech,
&c., many never printed before.
My thanks are chiefly due to his Most Gracious
Majesty the late King Edward, for graciously awarding
me a Civil List Pension when only about one half of
the Dictionary had been issued to the public, and his
Majesty's lamentable death is one of the dark shadows
that mars my pleasure at the completion of my life-work,
by preventing the possibility of my offering a copy for
his acceptance. The great expense entailed by the
publication of a book of this magnitude singlehanded, i&
a constant and heavy drain on the income of anyone of
small means, and were it not for the receipt of this-
the continuation of the
pension when it was awarded,,
publication beyond page 600 would have been, at least
for many years, an absolute impossibility. Before
proceeding any farther, I should have had to execute
enough remunerative work to enable me to purchase the
necessary materials to continue the Dictionary as well as
to live upon, an exceedingly hard task after the struggles
1 had already gone through, and one which would have
no doubt eventually ended in the abandonment of the
publication in an unfinished state. Owing to unfortunate
investments I had already had to earn all the
money to purchase the necessary materials to produce this
book as well as much of my living for some years by
doing any printing I could get but the strain on brain
;
and eyesight entailed by thus always working at the highest
pressure and for
exceptionally long hours, so that
the Dictionary might be completed as quickly as possible,
could not have been continued much longer.