toppes had towched the firmament; and thir mountaynes were als
_brant_ upri3*te as thay had bene walles, so that ther was na
clymbyng upon thame," Life of Alexander, MS. Lincoln, fol. 38]; JD
[~brent~, _adj_. high, straight, upright; " My bak, that
sumtyme _brent_ hes bene, Now cruikis lyk are camok tre,"
Maitland Poems, p. 193; _followed by a discussion extending to more
than 160 lines of small print, which we forbear to quote_];
~brentest~, _superl_. S2. 13. 379 ["And bowed to þe hy3*
bonk þer _brentest_ hit were (MS. wern)," Allit. Poems, l. 379;
_already cited in_ Mätzner, _above_].'

The work, in fact, contains a very large collection of words, in many
variant forms, appearing in English literature and in Glossaries
between A.D. 1150 and A.D. 1580. The glossaries in S2, S3 (Specimens
of English, 1298-1393, and 1394-1579) have furnished a considerable
number of words belonging to the Scottish dialect, which most
dictionaries (excepting of course that of Jamieson) omit.

The words are so arranged that even the beginner will, in general,
easily find what he wants. We have included in one article, together
with the Main Word, all the variant spellings of the glossaries, as
well as the etymological information. We have also given in
alphabetical order numerous cross-references to facilitate the finding
of most of the variant forms, and to connect them with the Main
Word. In this way, the arrangement is at once etymological and
alphabetical--adapted to the needs of the student of the language and
of the student of the literature.

The meanings of the words are given in modern English, directly after
the Main Word. The variant forms, as given in their alphabetical