Note 17 — Chapter III · APPRENTICESHIP.
Reading edition
The Auld Brig is also called the Brig o’ Balgownie. Byron, who lived for some years at Aberdeen in his boyhood, says—“The Brig of Don, near the ‘auld toun’ of Aberdeen, with its one arch and its black deep salmon stream, is in my memory as yesterday. I still remember the awful proverb which made me pause to cross it, and yet lean over it with a childish delight—being an only son, at least by the mother’s side—
‘Brig o’ Balgownie, wight (strong) is thy wa’; Wi’ a wife’s ae son on a mear’s ae foal Down thou shalt fa’.’“