Auld Scots Ballants

Excerpt from Auld Scots Ballants
Notwithstanding the many benefits resulting from the immense popularity of the Scottish daily and weekly newspapers, the universality of the latter has given an effectual check to the circulation of the rude Old Ballad Literature which, from fifty to a hundred years ago, formed so important an item in the pack of every itinerant chapman in the land; and to-day the tragic ballads of "Sir James the Rose," and "Mill o' Tifty's Annie," "The Hunting of Chevy-Chase," the pathetic tale of "Gil Morrice," and the humorous and once popular story of "Thrummy Cap," and others such like, are known chiefly to the literary antiquary. Some of our rare old chap-ballads, indeed, such as "Thrummy Cap," "The Wife o' Beith," "The Herd's Ghaist," "Young Gregor's Ghost," and "The Blaeberry Courtship" - none of which, strange to say, has been incorporated in the Standard Collections - are fast threatening to become extinct, copies of some of them being already almost unobtainable. This being the case, and considering that the custom hitherto has been to publish the collections of what has been aptly termed "the literature of the common people" at a price almost beyond the limits of the common purse, it occurred to me some time ago that a volume comprising the more popular and entertaining of the old Chap-Ballads, together with the best of those preserved in the Collections, would, if published at a moderate price, meet with approval. In the course of last year I accordingly issued a little collection in paper covers, under the title of "Rare Old Scotch Ballads."
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.