ON SCOTTISH SONG BY ROBERT BURNS = WRITTEN IN AN INTERLEAVED COPY OF THE SCOTS MUSICAL MUSEUM WITH ADDITIONS BY ROBERT RIDDELL EDITED BY THE LATE JAMES C. DICK HENRY FROWDE LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK AND TORONTO PREFACE THE principal part (I) of the following text is a verbatim copy of holograph Notes of Robert Burns in an interleaved copy of the first four volumes of Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, which belonged to Robert Riddell of Glenriddell, the friend and neighbour of Burns at Ellisland. Then follow (II) the Notes written by Riddell in the same volumes. The interleaves in the volumes being incomplete, I have described (III) the missing leaves, with the songs which faced them in the volumes, with a copy of three important notes which R. C. Cromek inserted in his Reliques of Robert Burns, 1808, as from the hand of Burns. Obviously these cannot be verified. The last part (IV) consists of a series of spurious notes, also printed by Cromek in the Reliques. These are not in the volumes, and never were there. The object of the present small book is simply to correct the misleading statements of Cromek, whose work was received with acclamation, and was so successful that a second edition was printed in 1809. In the year 1813 it was again published as the fifth volume of Currie's Works of Robert Burns, and the Notes now referred to, being a considerable and important part of the volume, have remained, and have been accepted as the authentic writing of the poet. Cromek was so enamoured of his success, that he reproduced all the |