Broadside ballad entitled 'The Edinburgh Royal Highland Volunteers'

Commentary

Verse 1 begins: 'LET Frenchmen threat invasion great, / And a' their venom shaw, man'. The text preceding this reads: 'A SONG - - - - - - - - - Tune, Killicrankie'. An explanation of the Scots words and references have been included at the bottom of the sheet. No further publication details have been included.

The inclusion, at the bottom of the sheet, of the translations for many of the Scots words, suggests that this song was not just for circulation in Scotland, but also in England, Wales and possibly Ireland. This is further supported by the fact that many of the veiled references to Scotland's military heroes have had to be further explained! This sort of attempted translation is not at all unusual and can be found on other sheets held in the National Library of Scotland's collection. This broadside was probably published during the Napoleonic period, when fear of invasion from France was prevalent.

This style of text, with its implicit political propaganda, would not only have made for compelling entertainment, but would also perhaps have stimulated political thought, reasoning and debate.

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