In 1706 the first part of a collection of 'Comic and Serious Scots Poems' was printed by James Watson at Edinburgh; a second part was issued in 1709, and a third in 1710. This collection contains 'Fy, let us a' to the bridal,' and other pieces mentioned in the course of the present compilation.
In 1724 appeared the first volume of Ramsay's 'Tea Table Miscellany'—a work which may be said to form the foundation of all other collections of Scottish song. A second and a third volume were issued by the year 1727, and a fourth some time after the year 1733. The extreme rarity of the early editions prevents us from stating their exact dates. The copy in our possession is said to be 'the twelfth edition,' and is printed at London in 1763; but we understand there are other two 'twelfth editions,' one printed at Glasgow in 1753, and one at Edinburgh in 1760. The 'Tea Table Miscellany' is valuable as being the repository in which many of our best and most popular old songs, which had been floating on the memory of generations, or at best but enjoying the doubtful security of a ballad broadside, were first preserved:—it is also valuable as containing a number of songs by Ramsay himself, and by Ramsay's contributors, the most distinguished of whom were Robert Crawfurd and Hamilton of Bangour. Beyond this, its merits do not go; for Ramsay unfortunately had little reverence for antiquarian lore; numerous old ditties he altered and remodelled according to his own discretion, without apparently the slightest remorse, or without apprizing the reader of the extent of the alterations; and throughout the whole four volumes he does not give a single note or commentary, or even an author's name! All that we have to guide us in the work is the following notification affixed to the Index: 'The songs marked C, D, H, L, M, O, &c. are new words by different hands; X, the authors unknown; Z, old songs; Q, old songs with additions.' This note, meagre though it be, is yet of eminent service; and the reader will see, in glancing over the present compilation, of what use it has been in pointing out the songs that were considered old in Ramsay's day, in specifying those that had undergone alterations from his own pen, and in enabling us to guess at the productions of his contributors. If it is to be lamented that Ramsay did not favour us with any traditional information (which must have been rife in his day,) regarding the many old songs which he has preserved, let it never be forgotten how much the Iyrical literature of the country owes to him,—first, for collecting and introducing to the upper circles of society (for his Miscellany, as its title imports, aimed at the patronage of those who indulged in the then
