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Broadside ballad entitled 'Bonnie Den o' Airlie' |
CommentaryVerse 1: 'It fell upon a day, on a bonnie simmer's day, / We got up in the morning early, / To hae our annual jaunt to that romantic spot, / Yoo've heard o' the Bonnie Den o' Airlie.' The sheet was published in Dundee by the Poet's Box. There are other ballads which mention Airlie. For instance, 'The Bonnie Braes o' Airlie' celebrates the area's beauty. Then there is another, more famous, song about the burning of Airlie Castle, the seat of the Ogilvies, by the Earl of Argyle's covenanting forces in 1640. This is called 'The Bonnie Hoose o? Airlie'. The Den of Airlie was made a national nature reserve in March 2001. It is located in Angus, between Ruthven and Kirkton of Airlie. 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(130b)
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