Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Illustrated book of Scottish songs from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century

2S INTRODUCTION.
ought to have been shared with England as the mother and
source from which they were derived. It is possible that, in
attempting to clear up some of the misconceptions which
appear to exist upon this subject, we may run counter to the
preconceived notions of many persons. But we shall not rob
" the land of cakes" of any thing — not of a single melody out of
the many hundreds of beautiful compositions that have given
Scottish music a reputation as wide as the civilised world ; we
shall merely endeavour to show that English and Scottish music
and song are of the same root and stock, that the birth-place
of both was England, and that their separate growth and indi-
viduality have by no means effaced the strong family-likeness.
All readers and singers will readily admit that the stores of
Scottish song are not only extremely fertile, but that the Scot-
tish mind has a tendency to develop its overflowing tenderness
and earnest passionateness in lyrical strains of the simplest
beauty, which no literature and no age of the world have sur-
passed. It is also beyond doubt that the Scottish lyra pos-
sesses, in addition to all the excellences which it can derive
from the fervid and vigorous English language, a quaintness
and a grace, an elegant simplicity, and an affectionate tender-
ness, which are peculiarly its own. But in acknowledging all
this, and much more, it is not necessary to admit the claim of
those who assert Scottish music to be a thing apart as well
as transcendent, and who would deny England any share in its
merits, or in the glory of having either originated it or deve-
loped it.
Nearly all the beautiful music and delicious snatches of
song, commonly considered to be Scottish, belong to that sec-
tion of Scotland known as the Lowlands, a country in which
the people speak one of the many " Doric" dialects of the