vocabulary. Further, in its comparative isolation, Scots developed or
retained peculiarities in grammar and pronunciation unknown or lost in
the South. Thus by 1550, the form of English spoken in Scotland was in
a fair way to become an independent language.

This process, however, was rudely halted by the Reformation. The
triumph of this movement in England and its comparative failure in
France threw Scotland, when it became Protestant, into close relations
with England, while the "auld Alliance" with France practically ended
when Mary of Scots returned to her native country. Leaders like John
Knox, during the early struggles of the Reformation, spent much time
in England; and when they came home their speech showed the effect of
their intercourse with their southern brethren of the reformed faith.
The language of Knox, as recorded in his sermons and his _History_, is
indeed far from Elizabethan English, but it is notably less "broad"
than the Scots of Douglas and Lindesay. Scotland had no vernacular
translation of the Bible; and this important fact, along with the
English associations of many of the Protestant ministers, finally made
the speech of the Scottish pulpit, and later of Scottish religion in
general, if not English, at least as purely English as could be
achieved.

The process thus begun was carried farther in the next generation
when, in 1603, James VI of Scotland became King of England, and the
Court removed to London. England at that time was, of course, much
more advanced in culture than its poorer neighbor to the north, and
the courtiers who accompanied James to London found themselves marked
by their speech as provincial, and set themselves to get rid of their
Scotticisms with an eagerness in proportion to their social
aspirations. Scottish men of letters now came into more intimate