The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume 6. / The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century

IN SIX VOLUMES;
VOL. VI.
EDINBURGH: ADAM & CHARLES BLACK, NORTH BRIDGE, BOOKSELLERS AND PUBLISHERS TO HER MAJESTY.
M.DCCC.LVI.
EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY, PAUL'S WORK.
TO CHARLES BAILLIE, ESQ., SHERIFF OF STIRLINGSHIRE, CONVENER OF THE ACTING COMMITTEE FOR REARING A NATIONAL MONUMENT TO THE ILLUSTRIOUS DEFENDER OF SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE, THIS SIXTH VOLUME OF The Modern Scottish Minstrel IS DEDICATED, WITH SENTIMENTS OF THE HIGHEST RESPECT AND ESTEEM, BY HIS VERY OBEDIENT FAITHFUL SERVANT, CHARLES ROGERS.


As if pointing to a condition of primeval happiness, Poetry has been the first language of nations. The Lyric Muse has especially chosen the land of natural sublimity, of mountain and of flood; and such scenes she has only abandoned when the inhabitants have sacrificed their national liberties. Edward I., who massacred the Minstrels of Wales, might have spared the butchery, as their strains were likely to fall unheeded on the ears of their subjugated countrymen. The martial music of Ireland is a matter of tradition; on the first step of the invader the genius of chivalric song and melody departed from Erin. Scotland retains her independence, and those strains which are known in northern Europe as the most inspiriting and delightful, are recognised as the native minstrelsy of Caledonia. The origin of Scottish song and melody is as difficult of settlement as is the era or the genuineness of Ossian. There probably were songs and music in Scotland in ages long prior to the period of written history. Preserved and transmitted through many generations of men, stern and defiant as the mountains amidst which it was produced, the Minstrelsy of the North has, in the course of centuries, continued steadily to increase alike in aspiration of sentiment and harmony of numbers.
Quhen Alysandyr oure kyng wes dede, That Scotland led in luve and le, Away wes sons of ale and brede, Of wyne and wax, of gamyn and gle: Oure gold wes changyd into lede. Cryst, borne in-to virgynyté Succour Scotland and remede, That stad is in perplexyté.