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Broadside ballad entitled 'Flora the Lily of the West' |
CommentaryVerse 1: 'It's when I came to England some pleasure for to find, / Where I espied a damsel most pleasing to my mind, / Her rosy cheeks and rolling eyes like arrows pierced my breast / And they called her lovely Flora, the lily of the west.' This song was published at 192 Overgate, Dundee, probably by the Poet's Box. The practice of performing songs for public entertainment predated printing, and knowledge of many ballads was passed on from performer to performer or handed down though families. Inevitably different versions of one story would evolve, and even when ballads began to be collected and printed several differing sets of words might be found accompanying the same tune or title. 'Flora the Lily of the West' is one such ballad. This appears to be an English lyric, but versions set in Ireland and America are also extant. It is not clear what the connection between the different Poet?s Boxes were. They almost certainly sold each other?s sheets. It is known that John Sanderson in Edinburgh often wrote to the Leitches in Glasgow for songs and that later his brother Charles obtained copies of songs from the Dundee Poet?s Box. There was also a Poet?s Box in Belfast from 1846 to 1856 at the address of the printer James Moore, and one at Paisley in the early 1850s, owned by William Anderson. Broadsides are single sheets of paper, printed on one side, to be read unfolded. They carried public information such as proclamations as well as ballads and news of the day. Cheaply available, they were sold on the streets by pedlars and chapmen. Broadsides offer a valuable insight into many aspects of the society they were published in, and the National Library of Scotland holds over 250,000 of them.
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Probable period of publication:
1880-1900 shelfmark: L.C.Fol.70(87a)
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