Although a certain number of the ballads in this volume belong to
England as much as to Scotland, the greater number are so intimately
connected with Scottish history and tradition, that it would have been
rash (to say the least) for a Southron to have ventured across the
border unaided. It is therefore more than a pleasure to record my thanks
to my friend Mr. A. Francis Steuart of Edinburgh, to whom I have
submitted the proofs of these ballads. His extensive and peculiar
knowledge of Scottish history and genealogy has been of the greatest
service throughout.
I must also thank Mr. C. G. Tennant for assistance with the map given as
frontispiece; and my unknown friend, Messrs. Constable's reader, has
supplied valuable help in detail.
My self-imposed scheme of classification by subject-matter becomes no
easier as the end of my task approaches. The Fourth Series will consist
mainly of ballads of Robin Hood and other outlaws, including a few
pirates. The projected class of 'Sea Ballads' has thus been split; _Sir
Patrick Spence_, for example, appears in this volume. A few ballads defy
classification, and will have to appear, if at all, in a miscellaneous
section.
The labour of reducing to modern spelling several ballads from the
seventeenth-century orthography of the Percy Folio is compensated,
I hope, by the quaint and spirited result. These lively ballads are now
presented for the first time in this popular form.
In _The Jolly Juggler_, given in the Appendix, I claim to have
discovered a new ballad, which has not yet been treated as such, though
I make bold to think Professor Child would have included it in his
collection had he known of it. I trust that the publicity thus given to
it will attract the attention of experts more competent than myself to
annotate and illustrate it as it deserves.