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Broadside ballad entitled 'On the banks of Allan Water' |
CommentaryThis ballad begins: 'On the banks of Allan Water / When the sweet spring-time did fall / Was the miller's lovely daughter, / Fairest of them all.' The text preceding it reads: 'This Popular Song can always be had at the Poet's Boz, 224 Overgate Dundee.' The River Allan, Perthshire, was a popular literary motif during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This song first and foremost is a poem of high drama and emotion which would probably have admirably entertained an audience. It is also used as a vehicle of social instruction though - as a warning to young men and women about their behaviour and other people's motives. 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. Early ballads were dramatic or humorous narrative songs derived from folk culture that predated printing. Originally perpetuated by word of mouth, many ballads survive because they were recorded on broadsides. Musical notation was rarely printed, as tunes were usually established favourites. The term 'ballad' eventually applied more broadly to any kind of topical or popular verse.
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Probable period of publication:
1880-1900 shelfmark: L.C.Fol.70(98b)
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