Inglis Collection of printed music > Printed text > Early Scottish melodies

PREFACE.
In placing this volume before the public, we have little doubt that many
may think it uncalled for. Our Scottish Songs have already been published
in so many and so varied forms, that any further issue may well seem
superfluous. Our intention, however, is not to add to the number of these
editions, but to reclaim Melodies which primarily and "properly belong to
Scotland, and to renounce others erroneously supposed to be Scottish produc-
tions. The necessity for such a work will be apparent when it is understood
that a considerable number of our National Melodies have been claimed
for England, while on the other hand many Anglo-Scottish tunes manu-
factured in London and elsewhere for the English market, have found
admittance into our National Collections, and so given rise to perplexities
and misunderstandings. One great transgressor in the domain of Scottish
Song is the late William Stenhouse, whose work, " Illustrations of the Lyric
Poetry and Music of Scotland," contains many errors of this and other
descriptions. We may well believe that this Author sinned chiefly in
ignorance, or at worst, in carelessness, but as he is frequently accepted
as an authority, it becomes a matter of importance to indicate, and as far
as possible correct, his numerous inaccuracies, all the more because many
later annotators have quoted largely from his pages without taking trouble
to verify his statements or to collate them with original sources of
information. Another offender is the late William Chappell, who, in his
otherwise admirable work, " Popular Music of the Olden Time," appropriates
as English Melodies a number of undoubtedly Scottish Tunes simply
because they happened, for reasons hereafter explained, to be first published