Sc. Also 8–9 leglin, 9 leglan. [? variant of LAGGIN.] A milk-pail. Also attrib. leglen-girth, the lowest hoop upon a leglen. To cast a leglen-girth: to have an illegitimate child (cf. LAGGIN 3).
1725. Ramsay, Gentle Sheph., II. iv. [When] I to milk the ewes first tried my skill, To bear a leglen was nae toil to me.
c. 1750. Miss Elliot, Song, ‘Flowers of the Forest,’ ii. Ilk ane lifts her leglin, and hies her away.
1822. Scott, Lett. to Joanna Baillie, 10 Feb., in Lockhart. Miss Edgeworth … carries her literary reputation as … easily as the milk maid in my country does the leglan. Ibid. (1822), Nigel, xxxii. Ganging a wee bit gleed in her walk through the world; I mean in the way of … casting a leglin-girth, or the like.
1881. J. Sands, Sketches of Tranent, 20. Tradition says that a leglen or milking pail of excellent small beer could be bought in Tranent for twopence halfpenny.
