Such coins as testoons, placks, bodles, bawbees and turners, do not appear
in his accounts, but some of them are casually mentioned in the text of the
MSS., and are explained in footnotes.


LANGUAGE AND SPELLING

No alteration has been made on the text of the MSS. except the substitution
of capital letters for small ones, where capitals would now be used. In
this matter Lauder's practice is capricious, and it may safely be said that
it was governed by no rule, conscious or unconscious. He spells the pronoun
I with a capital, and usually begins a sentence with one. But names of
persons and places are very often spelt with small letters. The use of
capitals was not yet fixed, as it is now, and the usage of different
languages, such as English, French and German, as it came to be fixed, is
not identical. Some changes in the punctuation have also been made in
transcription for the sake of clearness, but the punctuation, which is
scanty, has not been systematically altered. In the MSS. some single words
have been erased, or rubbed off, at the top and the foot of the page. The
blanks are indicated, and as a rule, but not quite invariably, explained in
footnotes. MSS. X and H are printed entire, with two unimportant omissions,
one in each, which are noted and explained, and as regards MS. H, with the
exception of some detached pages of accounts, and a catalogue of some
books. Of these it was thought that the Appendix contains enough. From MS.
K only extracts are given. The remainder contains more accounts, and a
further catalogue of books, without the prices, and other memoranda and
reflections, now of no interest. The spelling is to a large extent
arbitrary.[39] It is less regular than, for example, the contemporary Acts
of Parliament, but more regular than the letters of some of Lauder's
contemporaries, in high positions.[40] A word is often spelt in different