SONGS AND BALLADS OF CUMBERLAND, TO WHICH ARE ADDED DIALECT AND OTHER POEMS; WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, NOTES, AND GLOSSARY. EDITED BY SIDNEY GILPIN, OF DERWENT COTTAGE. And at request would sing Old songs, the product of his native hills. WORDSWORTH. LONDON: GEO. ROUTLEDGE AND SONS; EDINBURGH: JOHN MENZIES; PREFACE. HIS work was undertaken with the object of laying before the public a general collection of the Songs and Ballads of Cumberland, beginning with Relph of Sebergham-the first writer in the dialect-and endeavouring to gather up everything worthy of note down to the present time. The want of such a collection has been long felt and acknowledged by many. That it has not been supplied before must occasion surprise to all who are acquainted with the abundant stores of lyrical poetry possessed by this county. It is not too much to say that a full collection of Cumberland songs presents such a picture of the actual life lived by our sturdy forefathers as cannot be found elsewhere. No single county within the British Isles has produced a volume of ballad literature so peculiarly its own-so illustrative of the manners and customs of its people. Let it not be understood, however, that this work consists exclusively of pieces in the dialect. On the contrary, a broader principle has been followed throughout; and due attention paid to all productions left us by Cumberland writers, whether written in a more northern Doric or in ordinary English. We can iv. now claim for " canny auld Cummerlan"" one of the best hunting songs in our language, D'ye ken John Peel; and one of the best sea-songs, The Old Commodore; whilst some of our finest love-songs are among those left us by Miss Blamire of Thackwood. Then, again, we have Anderson's ballads and Stagg's poems, many of which stand unrivalled as specimens of dialect-writing; whilst Relph's pastorals and Ewan Clark's poems will be found to contain much truthful painting of rural life and character. And, finally, there has fallen to the lot of Cumberland a rich treasury of old border ballads, which would in themselves form a volume at once rare and unique. In the preparation of this work, all known sources have been ransacked, some of which have yielded considerable results. The Scaleby Castle manuscripts of Miss Blamire's poetry-written expressly for her friend Miss Gilpin-contained no less than seven unpublished pieces, (five of which we print ;) and so important are the songs which have been traced to the pen of Mark Lonsdale, that they will ultimately entitle him to take a fair stand among the song-writers of England. Mr. Chappell, the greatest authority we have in song-literature, has kindly sent us a couple of very old and very good songs; and through his valuable work, "The Popular Music of the Olden Times," we have recovered other Cumberland songs from the British Museum and the Bodleian Library. No biographical notice has hitherto been published of Miss Gilpin of Scaleby Castle, Ewan Clark, Stagg, Mark Lonsdale, or John Woodcock Graves. Sufficient material, however, for short sketches of these writers has been obtained from various reliable sources; and much information has |