Broadside entitled 'Elegy'

Commentary

This memorial notice begins: 'ELEGY On the late WEE GEORDIE MORE, a well known Character in Auld Reekie, who Died on Friday, the 18th January 1828, and was Buried in the Greyfriars Church-yard, on Sunday the 20th.' The elegy begins: 'Lament, ye wee men, ane an' a, / For wee, wee Geordie's now awa''. An epitaph has been included at the bottom of the sheet.

The National Library of Scotland's broadside collection includes a large number of elegies, many of which lament the passing of local characters such as Wee Geordie. Whilst these individuals were obviously popular enough to warrant an elegy or lamentation, they have since been forgotten with the passing of years. It is obvious from this elegy that Wee Geordie was a familiar sight around Edinburgh, and was going to be sorely missed by many. In fact, an illustration of Geordie appears on another broadside advertising Mr Percival's Edinburgh-based artists' studio.

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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