songs best known from Maidenkirk to John o'Groat's--were written by Scotsmen and Scotswomen of quality. This could not have happened without a wonderful coincidence of feeling and habit between different orders. Old times can never have presented a spectacle of so-called gentlefolks knowing no more of the feelings, opinions, and humours of the good people round about their neighbourhood, than of those of the ryots of the Presidency of Madras.

During the interval between the days of Scott and Motherwell, and those in which the new generation is flourishing, Scottish Minstrelsy ought, one would think, to have increased in popular esteem and familiarity. But Mr. Aytoun's experience seems rather to have taught him that a system of pilfering' has been going on, not favourable to the morality of the public, nor very creditable to its taste for the genuine stuff.' In explaining his motives for publishing the volumes before us at this moment, he has the following remarks :

"Before my attention was drawn to active literary pursuits, almost all the floating minstrelsy, which time had spared, had been collected by able, industrious, and venerable hands-drawn from the great current, and piled in separate heaps-but not, as it appeared to me, properly assorted or arranged. I saw that a good deal of this material was being quietly pilfered for purposes of transmogrification, and that various old favourites of mine had been furbished, dressed up, and exhibited to the public, with applause as novelties; and knowing well the value of much that remained, I was not without apprehension that in the course of time the whole stock would be absorbed to reappear in modern glitter and resonance, just as if a hidden treasure of unicorns, bonnet-pieces, and Jacobuses, were to be discovered by a sly appropriator, and by him to be recast as medals bearing his own name and legend.'-Introduction, pp. xvii. xviii.

If what is here, so well said, be true, as we cannot doubt, the truth is not over-creditable to the Northern public, whose ancient literature is practically at this moment represented by their Minstrelsy alone, and who may always point to it as an unanswer able proof that there is something nobler in their blood than that 'canny' element which is their typical characteristic, according to the English satirists. We suspect, for our own parts, that a certain pseudo-fashionable preference for foreign novelties has something to do with 'Bonnie Scotland's' disposition to neglect her hereditary song. A Galloway fiddler, whose services had been engaged for a festal occasion, not many years ago, persisted in the most hideous efforts to draw from his instrument the refined strains of a great Southern master. At last, one of the company ventured to ask him whether he could not possibly

oblige the company with something native-Maggie Lauder,' for example, or Roy's Wife'? The minstrel shook his head dubiously-Weel, Sir, I'm mair in the Y'Italian way!' We fear that many Scots damsels with the paley-gold hair (for the beautiful ballad hair is still seen in the North) are too exclusively attached to 'Y'Italian' associations in music.

To be sure, as regards the ballads (and the songs, after all, can never permanently wane out of fashion), Professor Aytoun has. done the best thing possible for them. Before the date of his handsome volumes the lover of Minstrelsy was in a position of some difficulty. He might buy Mr. Whitelaw's Book of Ballads;' but pretty and portable as it is (and the really curious on the subject can hardly dispense with it), the accumulation in it of modern pieces, and of various versions of old pieces, makes it tedious to the reader who wishes for a thoroughly winnowed text of the old ballads, and that alone. On the other hand, Mr. Chambers's collection gives only sixty-eight ancient poems, to Mr. Aytoun's one hundred and thirty-seven. Thus the work of the latter must remain the edition, unless the text can be proved to be so ill-selected as to leave the reader divided between Mr. Whitelaw's book, and the necessity of purchasing, say twenty books, and collating for himself. But it is hard to see how any man of letters could come better prepared by natural faculty and peculiar attainments to his work than Mr. Aytoun; and we have much pleasure in pointing out some of the merits of his edition. He, to begin with, has supplied a new fact about Sir Patrick Spens. The absence of all mention of that worthy's name anywhere but in the ballad has long vexed the editors. Mentioning this circumstance, he observes :

'It is true that the name of Sir Patrick Spens is not mentioned in history; but I am able to state that tradition has preserved it. In the little island of Papa Stronsay, one of the Orcadian group, lying over against Norway, there is a large grave or tumulus which has been known to the inhabitants from time immemorial as "the grave of Sir Patrick Spens."'

This is certainly worth something; and we have taken the liberty of putting the most significant parts of the statement in italics. Then, he has emended a stanza of 'Sir Patrick' felicitously and simply. The common readings have

"To Norway, to Norway,

To Norway o'er the faem;
The King's daughter of Norway,

'Tis those maun bring her hame.'

very

For

For which, Mr. Aytoun reads

'To Norway, to Norway,

To Norway o'er the faem;

The King's daughter to Norway,
'Tis thou maun tak' her hame.'

This is necessary to the theory of Motherwell-which best explains the ballad, and is confirmed by a passage in Fordunthat its real subject was the expedition of Alexander III.'s daughter to Norway to marry, in 1281, Eric, king of that country.

Again: Mr. Chambers has admitted some stanzas, the inferiority of which is so marked as to prove their spuriousness, into his copy of Sir Patrick; and these Mr. Aytoun omits. But we question the propriety of leathern shoon' for 'cork-heeled shoon,' for why should the Scots lords be laith to wet them, and what becomes of the fun in that case? If the common reading is an intrusion, better excise than spoil it. That excision is one of the rights of a ballad editor, we hold to be indubitable. He is certain-of what an editor of the classics often only guesses at that his text has been added to in the course of time and tradition; nay, he has often reason to suspect his last editor even, for men have less scruple in adding to an old ballad than they would have in foisting a piece into one of Cicero's orations. Besides, the task is easier; and where are the MSS. in most cases by which to convict him? Accordingly, we have watched the exercise of this right in Mr. Aytoun's edition, and find a judicious use of the knife. Mr. Chambers is frequently far too tender; and yet he allows himself full powers over the text. The Professor has purged Johnny of Braidislie' wisely of a good deal that his more lenient predecessor had left; and the same may be said of his May Collean,' Clerk Saunders,' 'Dowie Dens of Yarrow,' and others. Mr. Aytoun, indeed, everywhere shows a wholesome dread of accepting too much. We are not infrequently told by editors that 'the following was obtained from recitations,' without a hint of evidence as to time, place, and authority. We are left to decide on the probable genuineness of something obtained' by one, whom we know to be himself a clever versifier, from an anonymous 'old woman.' So, a scrupulous and fastidious editor is welcome; and Mr. Aytoun is both.begy borin

Collation, however, like cookery, is much pleasanter in the results than in the process, and therefore we forbear to make a merciless use of the notes before us, in which the 'readings' of Aytoun are compared with those of some of his best pre

decessors

decessors a comparison which has led us to the favourable

judgment we have pronounced. What is of more general interest to remark is, that here we have in his volumes a final work on the Ballads of Scotland. There may be new editors who, fancying that they are more capable of editing than Mr. Aytoun, may try to supersede him. But what we mean is, that these ballads have passed into literature as completely as the lyrics of Horace; that the days when ballads can be recovered from recitation have passed away; and that all future editors will deal with these creations of the popular genius, as printed portions of our letters-living only in type. That some are spontaneously sung in Scotland to this hour is probably true; but that any are still sung which have not been printed-still less that any new ones worthy of printing are in course of creation-is in the highest degree improbable. Mr. Aytoun has nothing new to offer us, except a traditionary ballad on the old theme of the Battle of Harlaw, which, after all, is not equal in merit to the general run of previously established favourites. And he holds out no hope of our recovering any more. Whatever marks an epoch is worthy of special observation, and an epoch is marked by this statement. Antiquaries like Mr. Maidment, whose 'Scottish Ballads and Songs' will find its place on the shelves of the curious, may, indeed, recover 'stall copies' and broadsides, good contributions to the history of Scottish manners, and sometimes valuable in helping editors to improved ballad texts. But, then, these publications (though the more we have of them, from the editor of the North Countrie Garland,' the better) do not affect our point-a point not for the antiquary only, but for the historian and the philosopher. Did Fletcher of Saltoun, when he made his celebrated observation about 'writing the ballads,' foresee that a day would come when ballads would die out? Are we drifting to a period when the popular literature will only be that which is made for the people (some of it not in the best spirit), and when none will be forthcoming among them? For, be it observed, that literature may be written by persons said 'to belong to the people;' but who, writing only in the wake of books, and for what is called the 'reading_public,' may never really address the popular heart at all. These are grave questions. We know that a change of the kind took place in the commonwealths of antiquity; that Aristophanes deplored the decay of ancient song in Athens, and Cicero the extinction of antique verse in Rome. We see similar phenomena among ourselves; and it is not for what the change is only, but for what it is a sign of, that we should study it. If

all

all tradition and regard for tradition is dying away, that can be no trifle; and unless something be poured into the vacuum for ever forming itself, what have we to hope?

Scotland will be one of the last countries in Europe-much as she has been changing of late years to lose her ancient characteristics. With all the prose in her daily life, all her eagerness in money-making, all her sectarian severity, all her hard-headed, hard-handed efforts to be only practical, and to take the lead in what is practical; and with her radicals sitting for every borough, a strong vein of feudalism, a thread of minstrelsy, runs through the old kingdom, and has far more effect upon her than the people themselves suppose. This is the secret of their Wallace Monuments, Burns Centenaries, and Scottish Rights Movements; of that respect for historic families and ancient names which sometimes breaks out even ludicrously in persons who are determined to deny the political deductions from such a sentiment. Now, all this ardour of temperament is at once the cause of her minstrelsy, and is acted on by her minstrelsy; as the mist which at one time rises from the bosom of earth descends upon it at another in the form of refreshing dew. The very differentia of the Scot's character is the union of more than ordinary worldly keenness with more than ordinary susceptibility to romantic influences.

We have dealt, on this occasion, principally with that section of the Minstrelsy of Scotland which comprises the ballads. To do equal justice to the songs would demand an inquiry into the origin and history of the melodies themselves, such as scarcely belongs to the province of literary criticism, or, at all events, would carry us far beyond the limits of a single essay. But we must not conclude without pointing out the relations which the common songs of the country bear to those more ancient, important, and elaborate productions which we have been busy with up to this time.

The literary history of the songs is much the same as that of the ballads. Many of them are lost. They waned out of fashion for a long time in the same way. They were revived by the congenial care of Ramsay, and were illustrated by the laborious researches of Ritson. But they have always enjoyed a greater vitality than their kindred the ballads. The ballads were sung, or perhaps, we should say, chanted, yet who can now point out to what tunes or under what laws this was done? Then, some of the finest songs can be determined to some fixed modern date, while the ballads are generally lost in antiquity, or, at least, are as old as the seventeenth century. The province of the ballad is more

limited;