From
Commentary to Line 12: that crystal land"
"Medical
care was spreading to the confines of the state: less and less often, on his
tour of the country, every autumn, when the rowans hung coral-heavy, and the
puddles tinkled with Muscovy
glass, the friendly and eloquent monarch would be interrupted by a pertussal
"backdraucht" in a crowd of schoolchildren"
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"Pertussal"
simply pertains to "cough".
"Backdraucht"
is a Scottish term glossed as in (2).
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BACKDRAUCHT, n.
[ˈbɑkˈdrɑxt]
(1) The drawing in
of the breath.
*Ags.(D) 1922 J. B. Salmond Bawbee
Bowden xii.:
Wi’ the backdraucht [he]
sent a moofu’ o’ tea up throo his nose.
*Fif.
1825 Jam.2:
We was whaslin
like a blastit stirk i’ the backdraucht.
(2) The gasp of
one with whooping-cough.