The Balladists

THE BALLADISTS
BY JOHN GEDDIE
FAMOUS ·SCOTS· ·SERIES·
PUBLISHED BY OLIPHANT ANDERSON & FERRIER · EDINBURGH AND LONDON
The designs and ornaments of this volume are by Mr. Joseph Brown, and the printing from the press of Messrs. T. and A. Constable, Edinburgh.
Not much more has been attempted in these pages than to extract the marrow of the Scottish Ballad Minstrelsy. They will have served their purpose if they help to awaken, or to renew, a relish for the contents of the Ballad Book. To know and love these grand old songs is its own exceeding great reward; and it is also, alas! almost the only means now left to us of knowing something concerning their nameless writers.
Questions involving literary or critical controversy as to the age and genuineness of the ballads have been, as far as possible, avoided in this popular presentation of their beauties and their qualities; and in case any challenge may be made of the origin or authenticity of the passages quoted, I may say that, in nearly every case, I have prudently, and of purpose, refrained from giving the authority for my text, and have taken that which best pleases my own ear or has clung most closely to my memory.
J. G.
July 1896.

'Layés that in harping Ben y-found of ferli thing; Sum beth of wer, and sum of wo, Sum of joye and mirthe also; And sum of treacherie and gile; Of old aventours that fell while; And sum of bourdes and ribaudy; And many ther beth of faëry,— Of all things that men seth; Maist o' love forsoth they beth.'
The Lay of the Ash.