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

16 INTRODUCTION.
man in his boat, have written or composed songs ; and even the
tramps and vagrants have been known in our days, as well as in
those of Allan Ramsay and Robert Burns, to have been the au-
thors of no contemptible emendations and new readings of the
old ballads, as well as of original snatches of poetry adapted to
the old tunes. The cities of Edinburgh and of Glasgow alone
have produced within the last dozen years as many good Scottish
songs as would fill three or four such volumes as that we now
offer to the public, and the greater portion of which have been
collected and published under the title of "Whistle Binkie."
A few of the compositions of the late Alexander Rodger and
Donald Carrick, the most distinguished contributors to that
volume, will be found in our pages, — which, by the kind per-
mission of the publisher,. might have included many more, had
not the limited space at our command imperatively forced us
to exclude the multitude of living writers that would have had
as much title to appear as any one whom we might have se-
lected. " For," to use the words of Burns,
" the great genius of the land
Has many a light aerial band,
Who all beneath his high command,
Hai-moniously,
As arts or arms they understand,
Their labours ply.
Some hint the lover's harmless wile.
Some grace the maiden's artless smile,
Some soothe the labourer's weary toil
For humble gains,
And make his cottage scenes beguile
His care and pains."