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[...]close direct or indirect connection with Fergusson's printed text. John Ray printed Fergusson's collection in a partially anglicized form with minor changes and additions of uncertain origin in A Collection of English Proverbs (London, 1670). This book became, after several editions, the foundation of the standard modern collections. Except for anglicization, "D" in Ray, and Fergusson, 1641, agree exactly even to tearm [term] in "Dead and marriage make tearm-day." Variations not found in the edition of 1641 like reply for plie [plea] in "Na plie is best" and churn for kirne in "Na man can seek his marrow in the kirne, sa weill as hee that has been in it himself" suggest that Ray may have been following a later edition than that of 1641. According to Beveridge (p. xvi), Fergusson's collection also appears in A Select Collection of Scots Poems, Chiefly in the Broad Buchan Dialect (Edinburgh, 1777, 1785). The two editions are the same, except that that of 1777 has no publisher's name and that of 1785 was issued by T. Ruddiman and Co. The proverbs come at[...].

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