PREFACE.
This work was undertaken with the object of laying before the public, in a single volume, and at a moderate price, a comprehensive collection of the Songs of Scotland, ancient and modern, accompanied with such particulars regarding their history, age, or authorship, as could be gathered from the literary records of the country, or might be elicited from personal inquiry and research among the lovers of song. It may excite surprise to know, but nevertheless it is undeniable, that no publication of the kind here aimed at, whether as regards extent of design in text and commentary, or adaptation in size and price for general circulation, has hitherto been attempted, amid the multifarious song-collections that have issued from the press. Ritson, near the close of the last century, was the first, as an editor of Scottish song, who endeavoured to ascertain the age and authorship of the pieces in his work,[1] and his example has been followed by one or two other editors; but the compilations adverted to are at once limited in their range, and removed by their cost beyond the reach of ordinary purchasers. Ritson's collection did not, in all, amount to more than one hundred and eighty songs, and the collections of succeeding editors, though in some instances extending to several volumes, do not in any case contain one half of the number of songs given in the present publication.
The great majority of song books, whether of elegant or humble exterior, display, as every body must be aware, a total want of any thing like histori-
- ↑ 'Scottish Songs: In Two Volumes, London MDCCXCIV.' Misprint in title page of first volume, 'MDCCXIV!' It is amusing to contemplate what effect this blunder, when discovered, would have upon a man of Ritson's excessive love of accuracy, punctilious adherence to literal facts, and infirmity of temper.
