Note 5 — CHAP. II.
Reading edition
Bauseant or Bausant, was, in old French, a pie-bald horse. The word is still preserved with its original meaning in the Scotch dialect, in the form Bawsent:—
"His honest, sonsie, baws'nt face, Aye gat him freends in ilka place,"
says Burns, describing the "Ploughman's Collie" in his Tale of the "Twa Dogs;" and in the Glossary, Dr. Currie explains Bawsent as meaning "having a white stripe down the face." Some conceive that the word Beauseant may be merely an old variation of the modern French word Bienséant, as referring to something handsome or attractive.