The irrefragable results noted by Dr Murray will probably come as a surprise to many, though they have now been before the public for more than forty years.

The Durham dialect of the _Cursor Mundi_ and the Aberdeen Scotch of Barbour are hardly distinguishable by grammatical or orthographical tests; and both bear a remarkable resemblance to the Yorkshire dialect as found in Hampole.

What is now called Lowland Scotch is so nearly descended from the Old Northumbrian that the latter was invariably called "Ingliss" by the writers who employed it; and they reserved the name of "Scottish" to designate Gaelic or Erse, the tongue of the original "Scots," who gave their name to the country.

Barbour (_Bruce_, IV 253) calls his own language "Ynglis." Andro of Wyntown does the same, near the beginning of the Prologue to his _Cronykil_.

The most striking case is that of Harry the Minstrel, who was so opposed to all Englanders, from a political point of view, that his whole poem breathes fury and hatred against them; and yet, in describing Wallace's French friend, Longueville, who knew no tongue but his own, he says of him (_Wallace_, IX 295-7): Lykly he was, manlik of contenance, _Lik to the Scottis_ be mekill governance _Saiff off his tong_, for _Inglis_ had he nane.
Later still, Dunbar, near the conclusion of his _Golden Targe_, apostrophises Chaucer as being "in _oure Tong_ ane flouir imperiall," and says that he was "_of oure Inglisch_ all the lycht." It was not till 1513 that Gawain Douglas, in the Prologue to the first book of his translation of Virgil, claimed to have "writtin in the langage of Scottis natioun"; though Sir David Lyndesay, writing twenty-two years later, still gives the name of the "Inglisch toung" to the vulgar tongue of Scotland, in his _Satyre of the three Estaitis_.
We should particularly notice Dr Murray's statement, in his essay on _The Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland_, at p.