In 1871 Messrs. Ogle of Glasgow published a well edited collection of Scottish Ballads, with an interesting introduction and notes, entitled "The Ballad Minstrelsy of Scotland. Romantic and Historical. Collated and Annotated."
Upon the completion of the Percy Folio, Mr. Furnivall started the Ballad Society, for the publication of the various collections of ballads that exist. Mr. Chappell has edited half of the Roxburghe Ballads in several parts, and Mr. Furnivall himself has printed some interesting ballads from manuscripts. All these have been presented to readers with a wealth of illustrative notes.
The books referred to above form but a portion of the literature of the subject. So mighty has been the growth of the small seed set by Percy, that the despised outcasts which the literary leaders attempted to laugh out of existence have made good their right to a high position among the poetry of the nation, and proved that they possessed the germs of a long and vigorous life.
H. B. W.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See article on "Waits' Badges," by Llewellyn Jewitt, in Reliquary, vol. xii. p. 145.
[2] Chant of Richard Sheale, Brydges' British Bibliographer, vol. iv. p. 100.
[3] Ellis's Original Letters, Second Series, vol. iii. p. 49.