ill-scrapit

Updated: May 9, 2025

Popery is at present, as you say, suing for grace in these regions in forma pauperis; but let royalty once take it up, let old gouty George once patronise it, and I would consent to drink puddle-water if, the very next time the canny Scot was admitted to the royal symposium, he did not say, "By my faith, yere Majesty, I have always thought, at the bottom of my heart, that popery, as ill-scrapit tongues ca' it, was a very grand religion; I shall be proud to follow your Majesty's example in adopting it."

George Henry Borrow - Lavengro; the Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest

Popery is at present, as you say, suing for grace in these regions in forma pauperis; but let royalty once take it up, let old gouty George once patronise it, and I would consent to drink puddle-water if, the very next time the canny Scot was admitted to the royal symposium, he did not say, “By my faith, yere Majesty, I have always thought, at the bottom of my heart, that popery, as ill-scrapit tongues ca’ it, was a very grand religion; I shall be proud to follow your Majesty’s example in adopting it.”’

George Henry Borrow - Lavengro: The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest

I have heard wives flyte in England and Scotland it's nae marvel to hear them flyte ony gate; but sic ill-scrapit tongues as thae Highland carlines' and sic grewsome wishes, that men should be slaughtered like sheep and that they may lapper their hands to the elbows in their heart's blude and that they suld dee the death of Walter Cuming of Guiyock,* wha hadna as muckle o' him left thegither as would supper a messan-dog sic awsome language as that I ne'er heard out o' a human thrapple; and, unless the deil wad rise amang them to gie them a lesson, I thinkna that their talent at cursing could be amended.

Sir Walter Scott - Rob Roy — Volume 02

I have heard wives flyte in England and Scotland it's nae marvel to hear them flyte ony gate; but sic ill-scrapit tongues as thae Highland carlines' and sic grewsome wishes, that men should be slaughtered like sheep and that they may lapper their hands to the elbows in their heart's blude and that they suld dee the death of Walter Cuming of Guiyock,* wha hadna as muckle o' him left thegither as would supper a messan-dog sic awsome language as that I ne'er heard out o' a human thrapple; and, unless the deil wad rise amang them to gie them a lesson, I thinkna that their talent at cursing could be amended.

Sir Walter Scott - Rob Roy — Complete

Popery is at present, as you say, suing for grace in these regions in forma pauperis; but let royalty once take it up, let old gouty George once patronise it, and I would consent to drink puddle-water, if the very next time the canny Scot was admitted to the royal symposium he did not say: 'By my faith, yere Majesty, I have always thought, at the bottom of my heart, that popery, as ill-scrapit tongues ca' it, was a very grand religion; I shall be proud to follow your Majesty's example in adopting it'."

George Henry Borrow - Lavengro: The Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest

Augusta would miss me, yes, and some of the poor folk, but I've too ill-scrapit a tongue to be much liked. Sorrow ought to make people more tender, but it made my tongue bitter. To an unregenerate person with an aching heart like myself it is a relief to slash out at the people who annoy one by being too correct, or too consciously virtuous. I admit it's wrong, but there it is.

O. Douglas - Penny Plain