Glen Collection of printed music > Printed music > Jacobite relics of Scotland > [First series]

INTRODUCTION.
It has always been admitted, that our Jacobite songs and tunes
are the best that the country ever produced. The apophthegm
is so well established in popular opinion, that it is never contro-
verted, and has become in a manner proverbial ; yet to this day
scarcely any attempt has been made to collect these together and
give them to the public in their original spirit and simplicity.
Ritson gave a few of them, with the melodies. Cromek added a
number of beautiful ones to the list ; and though some of these
are evidently of modern manufacture, yet have they been copied
with avidity into many subsequent collections : such is their in-
fluence over the mind, and such a charm do they possess above
songs composed on light or imaginary evils.
When we calculate on the thousands of volumes of songs and
ballads that have been published in every size and form ima-
ginable, it appears not a little extraordinary that the attempts at
collecting those party songs should have been so feeble, especially
if it is considered what an animated picture they give of the
battles and times to virhich they allude. They actually form a
delightful though rude epitome of the history of our country
during a period highly eventful, when every internal movement
was decisive toward the establishment of the rights and liberties
which we have since enjoyed ; and they likewise furnish us with