of Mrs.
Brown, a famous reciter and collector of the eighteenth century; and
the Abbotsford MSS. show isolated stanzas from Hogg, and a copy from
Will Laidlaw. Mr. T. F. Henderson's notes {10a} display the methods
of selection, combination, emendation, and possible interpolation.
By these methods Scott composed "a standard text," now the classical
text, of the ballads which he published. Ballad lovers, who are not
specialists, go to The Minstrelsy for their favourite fare, and for
historical elucidation and anecdote.
Scott often mentions his sources of all kinds, such as MSS. of Herd
and Mrs. Brown; "an old person"; "an old woman at Kirkhill, West
Lothian"; "an ostler at Carlisle"; Allan Ramsay's Tea-Table
Miscellany; Surtees of Mainsforth (these ballads are by Surtees
himself: Scott never suspected him); Caw's Hawick Museum (1774);
Ritson's copies, others from Leyden; the Glenriddell MSS. (collected
by the friend of Burns); on several occasions copies from recitations
procured by James Hogg or Will Laidlaw, and possibly or probably each
of these men emended the copy he obtained; while Scott combined and
emended all in his published text.
Pages:
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43