Of the airs from manuscript some are very likely to have been published already; the ascertaining of the fact would have cost considerable labor, and was not demanded for a list which avowedly includes repetitions from printed books. The earliest noted down are, I suppose, the five from the Abbotsford MS. entitled “Scottish Songs,” which appear to have been derived from William Tytler’s unrecovered Brown MS. This lost MS. was obtained by William Tytler in 1783, and contained fifteen ballads with the melodies as written down by Professor Scott from Mrs Brown’s singing; of which melodies it is said: “Being then but a mere novice in music, he added in the copy such musical notes as he supposed might give some notion of the air, or rather lilts, to which they were sung.” Twenty-three airs are given from the Harris Ballad-MS. as sung by Mrs Amelia Harris to her children about 1830. Miss Jane Harris, one of them, says that the airs are to be “orally and directly traced from my great father’s (Rev. P. Duncan, Tibbermore) manse from 1745.” Six airs are from a MS. of Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe written on paper with a watermark of 1822. The remaining airs are very recent communications from various duly registered sources, and were all but a very few seemingly written down within a year or two.
The compilation of the list of printed airs was undertaken for me by my constant friend Mr William Walker, of Aberdeen. Some additions have been made. Mr Walker also furnished me with several melodies from the north of Scotland. Revision of the manuscript airs was required in some cases to correct obvious errors of notation, and this was performed for me by Mr W. R. Spalding, of Harvard College, who has not gone beyond the amendment of self-evident errors of transcribers.
ABBREVIATED INDICATIONS OF BOOKS REFERRED TO
Baring-Gould. S. Baring-Gould, English Minstrelsie. Edinburgh, 1895-. 8 vols (7 published.)
Baring-Gould, S. Baring-Gould and Sheppard, Songs and Ballads of the West. London, [1889-91]. Four parts.
Barsanti. Francis Barsanti, A Collection of Old Scots Tunes. Edinburgh, [1742?].
Bramley. H. R. Bramley and J. Stainer, Christmas Carols, New and Old. London, [187-?].
Broadwood. L. E. Broadwood and J. A. F. Maitland, English County Songs. London, 1893.
Bruce. J. C. Bruce and J. Stokoe, Northumbrian Minstrelsy. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1882.
Burne. Charlotte Sophia Burne, Shropshire Folk-Lore. London, 1883-6.