The task of gathering old traditionary song is surely a pleasant and a
lightsome one. Albeit the harvest has been plentiful and the gleaners many,
still a stray sheaf may occasionally be found worth the having. But we must
be careful not to "pick up a straw."
One of your corespondents recommends, as an addition to the value of your
pages, the careful getting together of those numerous traditional ballads
that are still sometimes to be met with, floating about various parts of
the country. This advice is by no means to be disregarded, but I wish to
point out the necessity of the contributors to the undertaking knowing
something about ballad literature. An acquaintance with the ordinary
_published_ collections, at least, cannot be dispensed with. Without this
knowledge we should be only multiplying copies of worthless trifles, or
reprinting ballads that had already appeared in print.
The traditional copies of old _black-letter_ ballads are, in almost all
cases (as may easily be seen by comparison), much the worse for wear. As a
proof of this I refer the curious in these matters to a volume of
_Traditional Versions of Old Ballads_, collected by Mr. Peter Buchan, and
edited by Mr. Dixon for the Percy Society. The Rev. Mr. Dyce pronounces
this "a volume of _forgeries_;" but, acquitting poor Buchan (of whom more
anon) of any intention to deceive, it is, to say the least of it, a volume
of _rubbish_; inasmuch as the ballads are all worthless modern versions of
what had appeared "centuries ago" in their _genuine_ shape. Had these
ballads _not existed in print_, we should have been glad of them in any
form; but, in the present case, the publication of such a book (more
especially by a learned society) is a positive nuisance.
Another work which I cannot refrain from noticing, called by one of the
reviewers "A valuable contribution to our stock of ballad literature"? is
Mr. Frederick Sheldon's _Minstrelsy of the English Border_. The preface to
this volume {50} promises much, as may be seen by the following passage:--
"It is now upwards of forty years since Sir Walter Scott published his
_Border Minstrelsy_, and during his 'raids,' as he facetiously termed
his excursions of discovery in Liddesdale, Teviotdale, Tyndale, and the
Merse, very few ballads of any note or originality could possibly
escape his enthusiastic inquiry; for, to his love of ballad literature,
he added the patience and research of a genuine antiquary. Yet, no
doubt many ballads _did_ escape, and still remain scattered up and down
the country side, existing probably in the recollection of many a
sun-browned shepherd, or the weather-beaten brains of ancient hinds, or
'eldern' women: or in the well-thumbed and nearly illegible leaves of
some old book or pamphlet of songs, snugly resting on the 'pot-head,'
or sharing their rest with the 'Great Ha' Bible,' _Scott's Worthies_,
or Blind Harry's lines. The parish dominie or pastor of some obscure
village, amid the many nooks and corners of the Borders, possesses, no
doubt, treasures in the ballad-ware that would have gladdened the heart
of a Ritson, a Percy, or a Surtees; in the libraries, too, of many an
ancient descendant of a Border family, some black-lettered volume of
ballads, doubtlessly slumbers in hallowed and unbroken dust."