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MacFarlane’s Geese

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The proverb is that “MacFarlane’s geese like their play better than their meat.” The wild geese of Inch-Tavoe (Loch Lomond) used to be called MacFarlane’s Geese because the MacFarlanes had a house and garden on the island. It is said that these geese never returned after the extinction of that house. One day James VI. visited the chieftain, and was highly amused by the gambols of the geese, but the one served at table was so tough that the king exclaimed, “MacFarlane’s geese like their play better than their meat.”

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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M
M
M
M or N
M.B. Waistcoat
M.D
M.P
MS., manuscript; MSS., manuscripts;
Mab
MacAlpin
MacFarlane’s Geese
MacFlecknoe
MacGirdie’s Mare
MacGregor
MacIntyre (Captain Hector)
MacIvor (Fergus)
MacPherson
MacTab
MacTurk (Captain Mungo or Hector)
Macaber
Macadamise