The English and Scottish popular ballads, volume 5 (of 5)

by Unknown

MANUSCRIPTS.

MS. B. 14. 39, Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, 13th century. Recently recovered (see V, 288). (No 23.)

Rawlinson MS. D. 328, 15th century (before 1445). Bodleian Library. (No 1.)

MS. F. f. 5. 48, Library of the University of Cambridge, c. 1450. (No 119, a.)

One leaf of MS. in Bagford Ballads, vol. i, art. 6, British Museum, c. 1450. (No 119, b.)

Sloane MS. 2593, British Museum, c. 1450. (Nos 22, 115.)

MS. E. e. 4. 35, Library of the University of Cambridge, C. 1500. (No 121.)

Rawlinson MS. C. 813, beginning of the sixteenth century. Bodleian Library. (No 111.)

Cotton MS. Cleopatra, C. iv., British Museum, c. 1550. (No 161, A, a.)

MS. Ashmole 48, Bodleian Library, Oxford, 1550, or later. (No 162.)

MS. in York Minster Library, 16th century. (No 167, C, IV, 503.)

Cotton MS. Vespasian, A. xxv, British Museum, end of 16th century. (No 178.)

Harleian MS. 293, leaf 52, British Museum, about 1620. (No 161 A, b.)

Percy MS., British Museum, Additional MSS, 27879, c. 1650.

Philiphaugh MS. of No 305, Edinburgh, 1689-1708(?). Not now accessible: printed by Aytoun. A supposed transcript extant among the Philiphaugh papers is not older than 1848. (V, 191.)

Fly-leaf of a volume printed at Edinburgh, 1670. Laing MSS, Div. II, 358, Library of the University of Edinburgh. (Fragment, V, 202 b.)

Elizabeth Cochrane’s Songbook, Collection of Songs English and Scots, 1730(?). Harvard College Library. (Nos 5, E, I, 76; 76, A, II, 215; 144, B, III, 195; 293, A, V, 160.)

Mrs Cockburn’s MS. of No 305, used by Scott, and described by him as “apparently of considerable antiquity.” Edinburgh. Not now accessible. (V, 191.)

Bishop Percy’s papers. MS. copies of ballads from Rev. P. Parsons of Wye, Miss Fisher of Carlisle, Principal Robertson of Edinburgh, the Dean of Derry, George Paton of Edinburgh, Rev. Robert Lambe of Norham, Roger Halt, the Duchess Dowager of Portland, and others. In all about 33. 1766-80. Harvard College Library.

David Herd’s MSS, two volumes folio, the second volume duplicating a portion of the first. 1776. British Museum, Additional MSS, 22311-12. (See Mr H. L. D. Ward’s Catalogue of Romances, I, 531.[130])

MSS of Mrs Brown of Falkland. 1783-1801.

(1) Jamieson-Brown MS., mostly taken down from the mouth of Mrs Brown by Professor Scott of Aberdeen about 1783. Laing MSS, Library of the University of Edinburgh.

(2) William Tytler’s Brown MS. Fifteen ballads, with the airs: thirteen being revisions of pieces in (1). Presented by Mrs Brown to W. Tytler in 1783. Described by Anderson in a letter to Percy, Nichols’s Illustrations, VII, 176 ff. The MS. has disappeared, but, excepting one, all the pieces it contained are substantially known from (1) or other sources.

(3) Alexander Fraser Tytler’s Brown MS. Nine ballads sent A. F. T. by Mrs Brown in 1800; with the airs. Anderson, as above, VII, 179 f. Aldourie Castle, Inverness-shire.

Sir Walter Scott’s collection, Abbotsford. 1783-1830.

(1) Small folio without title, Library, L 2 (Catalogue, p. 57). Two fragments.

(2) ‘Scottish Songs,’ 1795. Library, N 3 (Catalogue, p. 104). Seven ballads with airs and three fragments. All the ballads appear to be Mrs Brown’s copies altered.

(3) Letters addressed to Sir Walter Scott, 1796-1831. Ballads enclosed have in most cases been removed, but some seven remain.

(4) ‘Scotch Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy,’ a folio volume made up at a recent date from detached pieces to the number of above eighty.

(5) ‘North Country Ballads’ in a quarto volume with the title ‘Miscellanea Curiosa,’ Library B 5 (Catalogue, p. 15).

(6) ‘Miscellanies,’ a folio with one ballad and a fragment.

Glenriddell MS., 1791. In vol. XI of Robert Riddell’s collection of Scottish Antiquities. (There is an earlier transcript of one of the ballads in vol. VIII.) Library of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

MS. described by Scott as the ‘collection of an old lady’s complete set of ballads.’ In two portions, the first in 53 pages, on paper of 1805-6-7; the second in 10 pages, on paper of 1818. Contains thirty-two popular ballads and gives the titles of others known to the compiler. Obtained by Skene of Rubislaw in the north of Scotland (but obviously not so early as 1802-3 as endorsed by Scott on the cover of the Skene MS.), turned over to Scott by Skene, and in 1823 by Scott to C. K. Sharpe. In the possession of Mr Macmath.

Skene MS., nine separate quires, amounting in all to 125 pages, and containing thirty-six pieces. Almost all of these are found in the Old Lady’s Collection, from which they appear to have been transcribed, but with misreadings and changes. 118 pages in the possession of Mr Alexander Allardyce of Edinburgh; the remainder in the possession of Mr Macmath.

Pitcairn’s MSS, 1817-25. Three volumes in the writing of Robert Pitcairn; partly from printed sources. In the possession of the representatives of Mr James L. Mansfield, Edinburgh.

Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe’s Collection (besides the Old Lady’s MS. and the Skene MS.). (1) ‘Songs,’ 12mo, in Sharpe’s handwriting. (2) MS. of 32 pages, small 4to, on paper of 1822, not in Sharpe’s hand. (3) MS. of 12 pages, on paper of 1820, not in Sharpe’s hand. (4) An independent transcript by Sharpe of the pieces entitled by Scott ‘North Country Ballads.’ (5) Letters from Motherwell to Sharpe, enclosing ballads. (6) Single copies of ballads, not in Sharpe’s hand. All in the possession of Mr Macmath.

Motherwell’s MS., 1825 and after. A folio, almost entirely in Motherwell’s hand, containing, besides some pieces not indexed, 228 indexed ballads. Most of these are from the West of Scotland, but not a few were given Motherwell by Buchan and are duplicates of copies which occur in Buchan’s MSS. In the possession of Mr Malcolm Colquhoun Thomson, Glasgow.

Motherwell’s Note-Book, c. 1826-27. A small octavo containing various memoranda referring to ballads, including the whole, or a portion, of several copies. Formerly in the possession of Mr J. Wylie Guild.

Kinloch MSS, 1826 and after. Seven volumes, the fourth being an interleaved (printed) copy of Kinloch’s Ancient Scottish Ballads with additions and variations. Vols I, II, III, VII, are almost wholly in Kinloch’s hand; V, VI are mostly in the writing of James Beattie, John Hill Burton, and Joseph Robertson. Harvard College Library.

Peter Buchan’s MSS, about 1828. Two volumes, folio. British Museum, Additional MSS, 29408-9. For a description, see Mr Ward’s Catalogue of Romances, etc., I, 537.

Mr. David Scott of Peterhead possesses a volume entirely in Buchan’s writing “which contains all [the ballads] that Buchan ever collected except some ‘high-kilted’ ones in another volume.” [The two volumes here mentioned are now in the Child Memorial Library of Harvard University. The “high-kilted” volume is entitled ‘Secret Songs of Silence.’]

Joseph Robertson’s MSS, 1829-32. Four small notebooks, one entitled ‘Journal of Excursions;’ another, ‘Adversaria’; also an annotated copy of The New Deeside Guide [1832]. In the possession of Dr Robertson’s representatives.

John Hill Burton’s MSS, 1829-30. Mostly in the Kinloch collection, but his daughter, Mrs Rodger, Aberdeen, has a small volume containing portions of two ballads.

Alexander Laing of Brechin’s MS., 1829-35. ‘Ancient Ballads and Songs, etc., etc., from the recitation of old people; never published, 1829.’ Three ballads and a fragment. Harvard College Library.

Robert White’s Papers, 1829 and after. Ballads selected from his collectanea by Mr White of Newcastle-on-Tyne. Harvard College Library.

British Museum, Additional MSS, 20094. 1829. (No. 4.)

Campbell MSS, 1830 or earlier. ‘Old Scottish Songs collected in the counties of Berwick, Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles.’ 2 volumes. Collector unknown. At Marchmont House, Berwickshire.

‘Scottish Songs and Ballads,’ copied probably before 1830, by a granddaughter of Lord Woodhouselee, mostly from print or from A. F. Tytler’s Brown MS., but containing two or three versions of popular ballads not found elsewhere.

Harris MS. Ballads learned by Amelia Harris in her childhood from an old nurse in Perthshire (the last years of the 18th century); taken down by her daughter, who has added a few of her own collecting. With an appendix of airs. Harvard College Library.

Joseph Robertson. An interleaved and annotated copy of The New Deeside Guide [1832] (of which J. R. was the author).

Gibb MS., 1860. Twenty-one ballads written down from the recitation of his mother by Mr James Gibb of Joppa, representing the form in which ballads were recited about the beginning of the century in Angus and Mearns. Harvard College Library.

David Louden’s MS., 1873. Contains four popular ballads derived from reciters in Haddingtonshire. Harvard College Library.

Murison MS., about 1873. Some forty pieces collected by Mrs A. F. Murison in Old Deer, among which there are several traditional popular ballads. Harvard College Library.

A few detached ballads collected by Dr Alexander Laing of Newburgh-on-Tay. About 1873.

Findlay MSS. Two volumes, the first (only) containing several ballads and many fragments gathered from recitation by Rev. William Findlay, of Saline, Fifeshire, 1865-85. In the hands of the collector.

Macmath MS. Ballads and songs recently collected by Mr Macmath. In the possession of the collector.

“Common Place Book filled with a collection of Old Ballads of the 17th century,” a MS. formerly belonging to J. Payne Collier, now in the British Museum. Contains thirty ballads written in a forged hand of the 19th century, some of the pieces being also spurious. Nos 8 C, 137, 168 are in this MS.

Communications, noted in their places, of a single ballad or of several ballads, taken down or remembered by friends or correspondents in Europe and America, and several taken down by myself. [Child MSS, Harvard College Library.]