The broadsides printed by Henry Such are of considerable interest to the collector, as they contain versions of folk-songs which are generally good. He was printing in 1849, and his successors of the same surname reprinted his ballad sheets up to a recent date. Provincial ballad sheet printers are Walker of Durham (flourishing in 1839), and Harkness of Preston, of a somewhat later date. R. Barr of Leeds and J. Bebbington of Manchester were broadside printers of forty or fifty years ago, while Shelmerdine & Co. of Manchester date from about 1815.
The folk-song collector cannot ignore the ballad sheet, for upon it are found the words of many folk-songs of which he may only obtain very fragmentary versions from the singer. It is not to be understood that the ballad sheet version of a folk-song is always an accurate one, but it is worth having, for the folk-song singer has generally learned his words, or at any rate refreshed his memory, from the broadside copy.
The ballad printer was too wise a business man to print on the sheet only folk-songs. He printed a popular lyric side by side with an old traditional song, for the sheet had room for at least two sets of verses, and he, by this means, catered for two classes of customers.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The following works have each a bearing upon English Folk-Song and Folk-Music, and the student will find a reference to them of great help in obtaining a full knowledge of the subject. Many others might have been named, for it is difficult, if not impossible, to fix a limit for the bibliography of a particular line of study.
COLLECTION OF BALLADS AND SONGS,
WITHOUT MUSIC
Ashton, John. A Century of Ballads.
Collected, edited, and illustrated in facsimile by ——. 1887.
—— Modern Street Ballads. 1888.