"Unco" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... argument with him on the subject to nothing but some inconsiderate infatuation; for when I said heedlessly, the walls are very good, he threw the brass snuff-spoon with an ecstasy in to one of the canisters, and lifting his two hands into a posture of admiration,—cried, as if he had seen an unco— ...
— The Provost • John Galt
... for my uncle, yet withal there was something about the man that misliked me much, and, to speak straight to the point, that actually 'fley'd' me, for he would gloat o' night over his glass of toddy on any scandal afloat concerning the 'unco guid,' and would speak with tongue i' the cheek of virtue in general, as if indeed hypocrisy were the true king of this world. I thought at first his purpose was to tease me and draw me out, but I soon came to believe it was all a part of the horrid ...
— Border Ghost Stories • Howard Pease
... saint and hero all in one, he's merely an unruly and unreliable human being with his ups and downs of patience and temper and passion. But, bless his battered old soul, you love him none the less for all that. You no longer fret about him being unco guid, and you comfortably give up trying to match his imaginary virtues with your own. You still love him, but you love him differently. There's a touch of pity in your respect for him, a mellowing compassion, a little of the eternal mother mixed up with the eternal ...
— The Prairie Mother • Arthur Stringer
... the back wi' his sword. He fell withoot a groan. Young Ronald, he drew his sword like a flash o' licht, but it was too late; the murderer's knife plunged deep into his brave young heart. We rushed to the spot, my leddy, but the murderer had an unco swift horse, an' he rode awa like the deil towards the Abbey o' Glendown. We could see that he wore a bit sprig o' green oak i' his helmet, an' a scarlet ribbon round his airm.' The Leddy Flora's eyes flashed ...
— Hunter's Marjory - A Story for Girls • Margaret Bruce Clarke
... looked after him; children about the doors called to others, "It's tha laird on Black Alan!" Old and young women, distaff or pan or pot or pitcher in hand, turned head, gazed, spoke to themselves or to one another. The Jardine Arms looked out of doors. "He's unco like tha auld laird!" Auld Willy, that was over a hundred, raised a piping voice, "Did ye young things remember Gawin Elliot that was his great-grandfather ye'd be saying, 'Ye might think it was Gawin Elliot that was hangit!'" Mrs. Macmurdo came to her shop door. "Eh, the laird, wi' all the ...
— Foes • Mary Johnston
... o' Mike!" laughed Sandy. "A'm unco glad—a am." He dropped to his knees beside the queen and nestled his cheek in the hand that was resting in her lap. "'Tis aricht noo." And ...
— The Primrose Ring • Ruth Sawyer
... like them maist, Ye're far frae kelpie, wraith, and ghaist, And fairy dames, no unco chaste, And haunted cell. Among a heathen clan ...
— Ban and Arriere Ban • Andrew Lang
... hear. Ralph and mysel' we were walking up to the Moss together ya day, when we heard Angus and Wilson at a bout of words. Wilson he said to Angus with a gay, bitter sneer, 'Ye'll fain swappit wi' me yet,' said he. 'He'll yoke wi' an unco weird. Thy braw chiel 'ul tryste wi' th' hangman soon, I wat.' And Angus he was fair mad, I can tell ye, and he said to Wilson, 'Thoo stammerin' and yammerin' taistrel, thoo; I'll pluck a lock of thy threep. Bring the warrant, wilt thoo? Thoo savvorless ...
— The Shadow of a Crime - A Cumbrian Romance • Hall Caine
... until they irk, Each surf-thrown afrite's eclipsed dome. And cursing clans that felt the heat That dwale obscured in shadows vague, Clash thro' the broken forest boughs Until each ronyon's stuck in loam. There, then, bivouacs a unco Cheat, Whose limbs were struck with pains of ague, Who lifts his sightless eyes and sows The seeds of Thaumaturgist's arts. Then shakes his fist above all necks (Whenas the dirges pierce the gloom) And sheds his addling tears of woe. Perturbed at sights of flashing darts That dragons hurl amongst ...
— Betelguese - A Trip Through Hell • Jean Louis de Esque
... horses have been leased by the War Department to Lord LONSDALE for racing purposes "on sharing terms" caused Mr. MCNEILL to inquire whether Mr. TENNANT would act as the Ministerial tipster; and Mr. HOGGE, who displayed a knowledge of racing which will, I fear, shock the unco' guid of East Edinburgh, thought it ridiculous that Ministers should preach economy in the City and start a racing ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, March 8, 1916 • Various
... and I foregathered in Section D. He read a very good and important paper, and I got up afterwards and spoke exactly as I thought about it, and praising many parts of it strongly. In his reply he was unco civil and complimentary, so that the people who had come in hopes of a row were (as I intended they should ...
— The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume 1 • Leonard Huxley
... he muttered; "but ye're unco melancholy the nicht, unco melancholy." And then he fell to the silence of consumption, eating prodigiously of all that was set before him; but in high dudgeon, as a man rebuked unworthily. Of the others, the doctor alone talked, chatting fluently of many European cities, and ...
— The Iron Pirate - A Plain Tale of Strange Happenings on the Sea • Max Pemberton
... danger with such a character is that it will be only a mouthpiece for woman's demand for a common moral standard for men and women; but Maggie is not a mouthpiece but a real woman, triumphantly alive, with hot anger in her heart at the injustice of the world, and at the "unco guidness" of her old-time lover, Henry Hinde. Ten years before the time of the action of the play Henry Hinde had fled, just as her child was to be born, to Liverpool, and there he has prospered, and so risen in the world that it is possible ...
— Irish Plays and Playwrights • Cornelius Weygandt
... man. The poem is a living presentment of the undiluted, puritanic doctrine of the Auld Light party, to whom Calvinism meant only a belief in hell and an assurance of their own election. It is evident that Burns was not sound on either essential. The Address to the Unco Guid is a natural sequel to this poem, and, in a sense, its culmination. There is the same strength of satire, but now it is more delicate and the language more dignified. There is the same condemnation of pharisaism; but the poem rises ...
— Robert Burns - Famous Scots Series • Gabriel Setoun
... Louis. "You would hardly know the tired jade you dismounted from last night, when she is brought out prancing and neighing the next morning, rested, refreshed, and ready to start again—especially if the brute hath some good blood, for such pick up unco fast." ...
— Woodstock; or, The Cavalier • Sir Walter Scott
... February, night was rent by the sudden glare of a search-light from Bulwaan, and soon came the scream of shells hurtling over the town. It was the Boer paean of victory, and it sent the people hurrying to their underground refuges, to which the unco' guid had given the name of "funk-holes," but did no damage. Its purport was half-divined by the defenders. The news was still said to be good, but there were head-shakings, and even the stoutest optimism found itself unequal to the ...
— Four Months Besieged - The Story of Ladysmith • H. H. S. Pearse
... man; "but I'm no sure he'll be our Member next time. The Voluntaries yonder, ye see," jerking his head, as he spoke, in the direction of the United Secession chapel of the place, "are awfu' strong and unco radical; and the Free Kirk folk will soon be as bad as them. But I belong to the Establishment; and I side wi' Dundas." The aristocracy of Scotland committed, I am afraid, a sad blunder when they attempted strengthening their influence as a class by seizing hold of the Church patronages. They have ...
— The Cruise of the Betsey • Hugh Miller
... woo, Ha, ha, the wooing o't, On blythe yule night when we were fou, Ha, ha, the wooing o't. Maggie coost' her head fu' high, Look'd asklent and unco skeigh, Gart poor Duncan stand abeigh; ...
— Old Ballads • Various
... I thee ken, Tam Lin, Or how my true-love know, Amang sae mony unco knights The like I ...
— A Collection of Ballads • Andrew Lang
... here to view Ha, ha, the viewin' o't! Lindsay's picture shop bran new, Ha, ha, the viewin' o't! John, he cast his head fu' high, Looked asklent and unco' skeigh, Vowed he'd gar James stand abeigh: ...
— Songs, Sonnets & Miscellaneous Poems • Thomas Runciman
... and frequent passages in his major pieces, are directed against the false pride of birth, and what he conceived to be the false pretences of religion. The apologue of "Death and Dr Hornbook," "The Ordination," the song "No churchman am I for to rail and to write," the "Address to the Unco Guid," "Holy Willie," and above all "The Holy Fair," with its savage caricature of an ignorant ranter of the time called Moodie, and others of like stamp, not unnaturally provoked offence. As regards the poet's attitude towards some phases of Calvinism ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 - "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" • Various
... have sinned, and the heathen are the instruments whereby the Lord hath willed to chastise them," said the messenger, with that peculiar nasal inflection of voice, so characteristic of the "unco' guid." "The great sachem, Miantonimo, chief of the Narragansetts, hath plotted to cut off the Lord's people, just after the time of harvest, to slay utterly old and young, both ...
— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier
... will sing to you a sang, But oh my heart is sair! The clerk's twa sons in Owsenford Has to learn some unco lair. ...
— Ballads of Mystery and Miracle and Fyttes of Mirth - Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - Second Series • Frank Sidgwick
... the vices of many who are in no wise like him and do not stand for the things he stands for. At the same time, the so-called "sports" might well reply that it is not with any of the really admirable qualities of the "unco guid" that they quarrel, but their too narrow interpretations of virtue and duty and their groundless generalization as to ...
— Twelve Men • Theodore Dreiser
... your castigated pulse Gi'es now an' then a wallop, What ragings must his veins convulse, That still eternal gallop. Wi' wind an' tide fair i' your tail, Right on ye scud your sea-way; But in the teeth o' baith to sail, It makes an unco lee-way. ...
— English Satires • Various
... of society, the Pejinks and Pernickitys, the Picksomes and Unco-Goods, 'Lady Kirkbank is—Lady Kirkbank; and I would not allow my girls to visit her, don't you know.' 'Lady Kirkbank is received, certainly,' said a severe dowager. 'She goes to very good houses. She gets tickets for the Royal enclosure. She is always at private views, ...
— Phantom Fortune, A Novel • M. E. Braddon
... She's had some unco queer mishaps, Wi' nervish wind and clean collapse, An' naethin' does her guid but draps- Guid draps o' ...
— The Auld Doctor and other Poems and Songs in Scots • David Rorie
... help you, my child. I 'm not one of the "unco guid," but I believe most fully in the all-prevailing love of the great God and His Son, our blessed Saviour. Now kiss me, and go to your lessons ...
— Hollyhock - A Spirit of Mischief • L. T. Meade
... at the outmost door of the royal suite of rooms. It was opened by a French valet; but Mrs. Kennedy instantly advanced, took the maiden by the hand, and with a significant smile said: "Gramercy, madam, we will take unco gude tent of the lassie. A fair gude nicht to ye." And Mrs. Talbot felt, as she put the little hand into that of the nurse, and saw the door shut on them, as if she had virtually given up her daughter, and, oh! was ...
— Unknown to History - A Story of the Captivity of Mary of Scotland • Charlotte M. Yonge
... the bard has said 'Hech thrawfu' raltie rorkie! Wi' thecht ta' croonie clapperhead And fash' wi' unco pawkie!' He'll faint away when I appear, Upon his native heather; Or p'r'aps he'll only scream with fear, Or ...
— The Bab Ballads • W. S. Gilbert
... together under a title in which irony lurks. Take the volume called Charity, for example. Both the title of the book and the subject-matter of several of the sketches may be regarded as a challenge to the unco' guid (if there are any left) and to respectability (from which even the humblest are no longer safe). On the other hand, his title may be the merest lucky-bag accident. It seems likely enough, however, that in choosing it the author had in mind the fact that ...
— Old and New Masters • Robert Lynd
... superabundant—mun be heeded. Benevolence, conscientiousness, ditto, ditto. Caution—no that large—might be developed," with a quiet chuckle, "under a gude Scot's education. Just turn your head into profile, laddie. Hum, hum. Back o' the head a'thegither defective. Firmness sma'—love of approbation unco big. Beware o' leeing, as ye live; ye'll need it. Philoprogenitiveness gude. Ye'll be fond ...
— Alton Locke, Tailor And Poet • Rev. Charles Kingsley et al
... he. "Lights in a house is a thing I dinnae agree with. I'm unco feared of fires. Good-night to ye, Davie, my man." And before I had time to add a further protest, he pulled the door to, and I heard him lock me in from ...
— Kidnapped • Robert Louis Stevenson
... he had omitted the stanza only in deference to the "unco guid." Crabb Robinson remonstrated ...
— The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol. II. • William Wordsworth
... stately chiel they ca' John Bull Is unco thrang and glaikit wi' her; And gin he cud get a' his wull, There 's nane can say what he wad gi'e her: Johnny Bull is wooing at her, Courting her, but canna get her; Filthy Ted, she 'll never wed, as lang 's sae ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volumes I-VI. - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various
... original'a, -o. ornament : ornamo; garnituro. orphan : orf'o, -ino. oscillate : balancigxi, pendoli. osier : salikajxo. ostentation : fanfaronade, parado. ostrich : struto. other : alia, cetera. ought : devus. ounce : unco. outlaw : proskripcii. outlay : elspezo. outlet : defluejo, elirejo. outline : konturo, skizo. outrage : perfort'ajxo, -i. oval : ovalo, ovoforma. oven : forno. overall : kitelo, supervesto. overcoat : palto. overlook : esplori, pardoni, malatenti. overseer : laborestro, kontrolisto, ...
— The Esperanto Teacher - A Simple Course for Non-Grammarians • Helen Fryer
... to you, John." "Oh, just middling, just middling, Jenny," said John, not disposed to commit himself. "John," says she, "ye maun promise to bury me in the auld kirk-yard at Stra'von, beside my mither. I couldna rest in peace among unco folk, in the dirt and smoke o' Glasgow." "Weel, weel, Jenny, my woman," said John soothingly, "we'll just pit you in the Gorbals first, and gin ye dinna lie quiet, we'll try you sine ...
— Reminiscences of Scottish Life and Character • Edward Bannerman Ramsay
... a simmer wi' auld Will Winnet, the bedral, and howkit mair graves than ane in my day; but I left him in winter, for it was unco cauld wark; and then it cam a green Yule, and the folk ...
— The Proverbs of Scotland • Alexander Hislop
... the "unco guid," and Madame de Maintenon, with her smooth expression, double chin, sober garments and ever-present symbols of piety, revolts me. I know it is wrong. I know that historians laud her for the wholesome influence she exercised ...
— A Versailles Christmas-Tide • Mary Stuart Boyd
... thoucht a heap aboot it, an' I daurna say 'at I'm jist absolute clear upo' the maitter. But there may be pairt clear whaur a' 's no clear; an' by what we un'erstan' we come the nearer to what we dinna un'erstan'. There's ae thing unco plain—'at we're on no accoont to return evil for evil: onybody 'at ca's himsel' a Christian maun un'erstan' that muckle. We're to gie no place to revenge, inside or oot. Therefore we're no to gie blow for blow. Gien a man hit ye, ye're to take it i' God's ...
— Donal Grant • George MacDonald
... as a figure in fiction, he is very firmly drawn. The abortive duel of Balfour with the Highland Ensign, who conceives high esteem of "Palfour," is in the author's best manner, as are the days of prison in that "unco place, the Bass," and he was justly proud of the wizard tale of Tod Lapraik. The bristling demeanour of Alan Breck and James Mor (a very gallant but distinctly unfortunate son of Rob Roy), seems a correct picture. Indeed, James Mor was correctly divined, probably from letters of his published ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition - Vol. 1 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... was thankfully accepted. Dribble's cottage proved odoriferous at dinner-time for the several following days; and when asked, after a week had gone by, how she had relished the great goose which the gentleman had seat, she replied, that it was "Unco sweet, but oh! teuch, teuch!" For years after, the reply continued to be proverbial in the place: and many a piece of over-hard stock-fish, and over-fresh steak, used to be characterized as, "Like Dribble Drone's eagle, unco sweet, but oh! ...
— My Schools and Schoolmasters - or The Story of my Education. • Hugh Miller
... bittock "; then extended themselves into "four mile or thereawa"; and, lastly, a female voice, having hushed a waiting infant which the spokeswoman carried in her arms, assured Guy Mannering, "It was a weary lang gate yet to Kippletringan, and unco heavy road for foot passengers." The poor hack upon which Mannering was mounted was probably of opinion that it suited him as ill as the female respondent; for he began to flag very much, answered each application of the spur with a groan, ...
— Guy Mannering • Sir Walter Scott
... be noted. This was a mixture of picture-puns and broken words, after the fashion of the dreary puzzles still published in snippet weeklies. It is a melancholy attempt to turn Bible texts to picture puzzles, a book permitted by the unco' guid to children on wet Sunday afternoons, as some younger members of large families, whose elder brothers' books yet lingered forty or even fifty years after publication, are able to endorse with vivid and depressed remembrance. Foxe's "Book of Martyrs" and ...
— Children's Books and Their Illustrators • Gleeson White
... (baith hens an' eggs, Baith books an' writers, stars an' clegs) Noo stachers upon lowsent legs An' wears awa'; The tack o' mankind, near the dregs, Rins unco law. ...
— Underwoods • Robert Louis Stevenson
... could write. By this time, also, Major Macadam was made a colonel, and lived with his lady in Edinburgh, where they were much respected by the genteeler classes, Mrs Macadam being considered a great unco among them for all manner of ladylike ornaments, she having been taught every sort of perfection in that way by the old lady, who was educated at the court of France, and was, from her birth, a person of quality. In this year, ...
— The Annals of the Parish • John Galt
... Gilgan was by far the most powerful politician on the South Side, Hand sent for him. Personally, Hand had far less sympathy with the polite moralistic efforts of men like Haguenin, Hyssop, and others, who were content to preach morality and strive to win by the efforts of the unco good, than he had with the cold political logic of a man like Cowperwood himself. If Cowperwood could work through McKenty to such a powerful end, he, Hand, could find some one else who could be made as powerful ...
— The Titan • Theodore Dreiser
... a witty wight, And had o' things an unco slight! Auld Reekie aye he keepit tight And trig and braw; But now they'll busk her like a fright— ...
— Penelope's Progress - Being Such Extracts from the Commonplace Book of Penelope Hamilton As Relate to Her Experiences in Scotland • Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
... began to dig round it with their sticks, and loosen the manure, when out it came all at once, writhing and twining, and trying to fasten upon Dick's head; but the dog's shaggy, wiry hair protected him, and shaking the unco' brute off for a moment, he got another gripe at it close up to the head, and shook it, and worried it, until the poor snake hardly moved, but ...
— Hollowdell Grange - Holiday Hours in a Country Home • George Manville Fenn
... "Yes,—that, I think, very fairly expresses him. 'Unco' guid,' we would say up north. But, all the same, he is Margaret's uncle and guardian and trustee. He is also the kind of man whom nothing can turn from a line ...
— Pearl of Pearl Island • John Oxenham
... has an immensely important function, but no power beyond such authority as its representative character may afford. Any attempt to deal with a large educational problem by a clause in a measure of this kind would have alarmed the whole force of unco-ordinated pedagogy, and perhaps have wrecked the Bill. The clause as it stands is in harmony with the whole spirit of the new movement and of the legislation provided for its advancement. The Committee may be very useful in suggesting ...
— Ireland In The New Century • Horace Plunkett
... solemnly, "a guid man an' haly' was auld Paul. Unco puir, by reason o' seven bairns. I kennt the daddie weel. I mak sma' doubt the captain'll tak ye hame wi' him, syne the mither an' sisters still be i' the cot i' Mr. ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
... preparations to meet the emergency hardly went beyond the expedients to which they would have resorted for any ordinary campaign. In this they resembled a sea-captain who should make ready to encounter a gale when his ship was threatened by a typhoon. Hence their unco-ordinated efforts, their chivalrous treatment of a dastardly foe, their high-minded refusal to credit the circumstantial stories of sickening savagery emanating first from Belgium and then from France, their gentle remonstrances with ...
— England and Germany • Emile Joseph Dillon
... our tale.—Ae market night Tam had got planted unco right Fast by an ingle bleezing finely Wi reaming swats that drank divinely; And at his elbow Souter Johnny, His ancient, trusty, drouthy crony; Tam lo'ed him like a very brither— They had been fou for ...
— The Golden Censer - The duties of to-day, the hopes of the future • John McGovern
... was one of feverish, if somewhat unco-ordinated, activity. The production of a protective appliance, the gas mask, was vital. This development will be considered later. Allied chemical warfare organisations arose, to become an important factor in the later stages of the war. The history of Allied gas organisation is one of the gradual ...
— by Victor LeFebure • J. Walker McSpadden
... living, organic history that is necessary, he would consider, to the proper understanding of present problems and the proper furnishing of the human mind. He desires to see and grasp the development of Europe as a symmetrical whole, not as a conglomeration of unco-ordinated parts or a succession of unrelated accidents. He believes that Europe has developed from prehistoric man by way of the Roman Empire, the Christian religion, and the French Revolution, in an orderly, organic manner. He believes, far ...
— Hilaire Belloc - The Man and His Work • C. Creighton Mandell
... deluded cranky resistive unco-operative will-less hipped obsessed hypocritical of mean disposition excitable fearful exacting dissatisfied undecided wilful self-centered morbid doubtful demanding retarded abusive depressed ...
— Applied Psychology for Nurses • Mary F. Porter
... long as we think we're happy?" and who would indulge in balls and theatres, and in every other form of amusement, while such pursuits afforded them, or seemed, to afford them, any pleasure. To the first section, i.e., the "unco guid," DRURIOLANUS has nothing to offer, not even a course of sermons by popular preachers; but to the two others he has much to say. For these, last Saturday, he commenced the first of his series of Lenten Oratorios at Covent Garden—it ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 100. February 21, 1891 • Various
... folk in Ba'weary. Lang or that, she had had a wean to a dragoon; she hadnae come forrit[2] for maybe thretty year; and bairns had seen her mumblin' to hersel' up on Key's Loan in the gloamin', whilk was an unco time an' place for a God-fearin' woman. Howsoever, it was the laird himsel' that had first tauld the minister o' Janet; and in thae days he wad have gane a far gate to pleesure the laird. When folk tauld him that Janet was sib to the deil, it was a' superstition by his way of it; an' when ...
— Masterpieces of Mystery, Vol. 1 (of 4) - Ghost Stories • Various
... stole a glance At Malcolm's soften'd face—a bird-soft touch Let flutter on the rugged silver snarls Of his thick locks, and laid her tender lips A second on the iron of his hand. "And did you ever meet," he sudden ask'd, Of Alfred, sitting pallid in the shade, "Out by yon unco place, a lad,—a lad "Nam'd Maxwell Gordon; tall, and straight, and strong; "About my size, I take it, when a lad?" And Katie at the sound of Max's name, First spoken for such space by Malcolm's lips, Trembl'd ...
— Old Spookses' Pass • Isabella Valancy Crawford
... unco uncertain place for accommodations, we do not go on shore, the first night, but, standing close beside the bulwarks, feel a benevolent pleasure in seeing our late companions swallowed and carried off like tidbits by the voracious boatmen ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, No. 20, June, 1859 • Various
... have come in ram-stam an' stern forrit; for the bows of her are aften under, and the back-side of her is clear at hie-water o' neaps. But, man! the dunt that she cam doon wi' when she struck! Lord save us a'! but it's an unco life to be a sailor—a cauld, wanchancy life. Mony's the gliff I got mysel' in the great deep; and why the Lord should hae made yon unco water is mair than ever I could win to understand. He made the vales and the pastures, the bonny ...
— The Merry Men - and Other Tales and Fables • Robert Louis Stevenson
... his mother; "—no your enemy, an' sair (serve) a bairn like that! My certy! but he's the enemy o' the haill race o' mankin'. He trespasses unco sair against me, I'm weel sure o' that! An' I'm glaid o' 't. I'm glaid 'at he has me for ane o' 's enemies, for I forgie him for ane; an' wuss him sae affrontit wi' himsel' er' a' be dune, 'at he wad fain hide his heid ...
— Sir Gibbie • George MacDonald
... that he should still have an affection for a place, who never, when in it, received above common civility; who never brought anything out of it except his brogue and his blunders. Surely my affection is equally ridiculous with the Scotchman's, who refused to be cured of the itch because it made him unco' thoughtful of his ...
— Oliver Goldsmith • Washington Irving
... a bit house on my land in Libberton's Wynd. Her man's awa, puir body; or they tell me sae; and I'm concerned for her (she's unco bonnie to be left her lane). But it sets me brawly to be finding faut wi' the puir lass, and me an elder, and should be at the plate. (There'll be twa words about this in the Kirk Session.) However, it's nane of my business that brings me, or I should tak' the mair shame to mysel.' ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume XV • Robert Louis Stevenson
... kept up a constant correspondence with Jeanie Burns, and he used to talk to me of her coming out, and his future plans, every night when our work was done. If I had not loved and respected the girl mysel' I should have got unco' tired o' ...
— Roughing it in the Bush • Susanna Moodie
... of the kirk, became involved, through his friendship with Gavin Hamilton, in the controversy between the Old Light and New Light clergy. His Holy Fair, Holy Tulzie, Two Herds, Holy Willie's Prayer, and Address to the Unco Gude, are satires against bigotry and hypocrisy. But in spite of the rollicking profanity of his language, and the violence of his rebound against the austere religion of Scotland, Burns was at bottom deeply impressible ...
— Brief History of English and American Literature • Henry A. Beers
... father the love of serious reading; some of his tact, perhaps, as well, but that which was only policy in the father became black dissimulation in the son. The face of his behaviour was merely popular and wild: he sat late at wine, later at the cards; had the name in the country of "an unco man for the lasses"; and was ever in the front of broils. But for all he was the first to go in, yet it was observed he was invariably the best to come off; and his partners in mischief were usually alone to pay the piper. This ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. XII (of 25) - The Master of Ballantrae • Robert Louis Stevenson
... sangs, an' friendly cracks, I wat they didna weary; An' unco tales, an' funnie jokes, Their sports ...
— The Wide, Wide World • Susan Warner
... early youth, was "unco' wastefu'" of Marys. There was his distant cousin, Mary Duff (afterwards Mrs. Robert Cockburn), who lived not far from the "Plain-Stanes" at Aberdeen. Her "brown, dark hair, and hazel eyes—her very dress," ...
— Byron's Poetical Works, Vol. 1 • Byron
... gude Jock Warren, Thou's still jocose and ay auld farren, Gentle and kind, blythe, frank and free, And always unco' gude to me. And now thou's sold thy country ware And towards hame mean to repair.[19] Accept these lines although but weak And read them for thy Comrade's sake. May plenty still around thee smile And God's ...
— A Canadian Manor and Its Seigneurs - The Story of a Hundred Years, 1761-1861 • George M. Wrong
... consider now, Ye're unco muckle dantet: But ere the course o' life be thro' It may be bitter santet. An I hae seen their coggie fou, That yet hae tarrow't at it; But or the day was done, I trow, The laggen ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 211, November 12, 1853 • Various
... nothing of the French, a pack of cowardly scoundrels. And with regard to the English country, it is na Scotland, it is true, but it has its gude properties; and, though there is ne'er a haggis in a' the land, there's an unco deal o' gowd and siller. I respect England, for I have an auntie ...
— Lavengro - The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest • George Borrow
... of fallen man And choirs repeat the chant, While unco' guid with unction urge Repression of the joys that surge, And jail for those who can't. The poor deluded duds forget That something drew the sting When Adam tiptoed to his fall, And made it hardly hurt at all. Of Mother Eve ...
— The Eye of Zeitoon • Talbot Mundy
... just died. Preaching on this subject I will have something to say about my own dear, good, anxious mother, and of how she used to say when I was a boy, "What a terrible thing it will be if I see you shut out of heaven!" She did not say terrible; "unco" was ...
— James Gilmour of Mongolia - His diaries, letters, and reports • James Gilmour
... special scenes, the pancake party, with a bevy of grisettes, is perhaps the liveliest of all such things, and, but for one piece of quite unnecessary Smollettism or Pigaulterie, need only scandalise the "unco guid." The whole has, in unusual measure, that curious readableness which has been allowed to most of our author's books. Almost inevitably there is a melodramatic end; but this, to speak rather ...
— A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 - To the Close of the 19th Century • George Saintsbury
... lines—lines written out of the freshness of his heart, simply to please himself, with no furtive eye on Dumfries, Edinburgh, the Kirk, or the Unco Guid of Ayrshire; and these are the lines that have given him his place ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 5 (of 14) • Elbert Hubbard
... lie, thou who hast served, surely, since Eve's day, used without doubt by Helen of Troy, Cleopatra and all the other unsaintly women, ancient and modern, whose stories are so much more entertaining than those of the unco' guid—oh, Splendid Mendax, where should ...
— The Halo • Bettina von Hutten |
