Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Songs of Scotland prior to Burns

xiv INTRODUCTION.
names, and with little difference of strain, in the Skene Manu-
script. 1
As far as the literature of the subject is concerned, it fully
appears to have pursued a life of contempt till after the Restora-
tion, when what Eitson calls the golden age of song commenced
in England. The earliest glimpses we have of it on the horizon
of the parlour or concert-room, occur in the reigns of Charles II.
and James II. It is not in Scotland, however, that it first
emerges among the polite, but in England. It fell to the lot of
those who supplied music and song to the court and its connected
circles in London, to perceive that there was some merit in the
songs which passed from mouth to mouth amongst the people
of Scotland. They accordingly began to write new verses for
the Scotch tunes, and to compose new tunes and songs in what
was called 'the Scotch manner:' some of the latter, strange to
say, made their way back to Scotland, and were accepted there
as true Scotch productions. The famous Thomas Durfey was an
active labourer in this field, as appears from Ms w r ell-known
collection styled Wit and Mirth ; and the Roxburghe Collection
of broadside ballads in the British Museum, shews that Grub
Street contributed a large quota to the stock of what may be
called Anglo-Scottish songs.
When Scotland herself began, after the Revolution, to rise
above her religious troubles, and to pay some attention to
secular matters, the upper class, and especially that section of
it which inclined to Episcopacy and Jacobitism, became also
aware that their country possessed an inheritance of some value
in her popular songs and melodies. 2 There remained, indeed,
1 The tunes in the Skene Manuscript were printed with a learned
dissertation by "William Dauney, Esq. Edinburgh, 4to, 1 838.
2 The earliest published collection of Scottish music appears to have
been Henry Playford's, which is dated 1700, being for the violin and
flute. In the list, which embraces thirty-nine tunes, many of them
dances, we recognise what may be presumed to be still existing favourites
in, I love my Love in secret ; Good-night, and God be with you ; Gingling
Geordie ; Stir her up and haud her gaun ; Bessie Bell ; Wap at the