Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/436

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NOTES AND QUERIES. nis.m. JUNE 3, 1911.

George Fox, author of ' Synopsis of the New- 'castle Museum,' 8vo. Newcastle, 1827.

James Jennings, author of ' Ornithologia, British and Foreign Birds,' 8vo. London, 1828.

W. E. Baxter, author of ' The Feathered Vocalist, or History of British Singing Birds,' 12mo. Lewes, Sussex Press, 1830.

John Cotton, author of ' The Resident Song- Birds of Great Britain,' 8vo. London, 1835 (17 plates). London, 1836 (33 plates).

H. L. Meyer, author of ' Illustrations of British Birds,' 4 vols., 4to (in 80 parts). London, 1835-9.

Charles Thorold Wood, author of ' The Ornitho- logical Guide,' 8vo. London, 1835.

W. B. Clarke, author of ' The Guide to Hayling,' 8vo. Hayling, 1836.

Neville Wood, author of ' British Song-Birds,' 8vo. London, 1836.

J. C. Bellamy, author of ' The Natural History of South Devon,' 8vo. Plymouth, 1839.

John Mossop, author of ' Ornithologia Bri- tannica, a Synopsis of British Land Birds,' 8vo. London, 1841.

George Maton, author of ' The Natural History of Wilts,' 8vo. London, 1843.

Robert Garner, author of ' The Natural History of the County of Stafford,' 8vo. London, 1844.

J. R. Harvey, author of ' Contributions towards a Fauna and Flora of the County of Cork,' 8vo. London, 1845.

Please reply direct.

W. H. MULLENS.

Westfield Place, Battle, Sussex.

BURNS AND * THE WEE WEE GERMAN LAIRDIE.'

(US. iii.'286, 354.)

CROMEK'S ' Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song,' which appeared in 1810, was not a work that was likely to arouse general interest. Antiquaries and literary specialists would give it ready attention, but, apart from those in the district it represented, general readers would almost entirely fail to make its acquaintance. Yet, when Hogg in 1819 published his ' Jacobite Relics,' he said that ' The Wee 'Wee German Lairdie,' which he had sub- stantially taken from the ' Remains,' was impression clearly given by his note on the subject is that the song had long been generally popular, and that the version in Cromek's book was such as in the main to satisfy his sense of accuracy. He gives part of a stanza which is neither in Cromek nor in Cunningham's ' Scottish Songs ' of 1825, and^he is careful to explain that this is
 * a great favourite all over Scotland." The

taken from an older collection." What he says of the tune to which he sets the lyric is also significant. This, he remarks with characteristic candour, " was composed by me a number of years bygone, and it having been so often sung to it, I found that, all over the south country, any other would have been reckoned spurious." To be quite exhaustive, however, and fair to all con- cerned, he appends an old air, which, pre- sumably, had been associated with the lyric in its earlier days, and before the popu- larity attained by his own composition. Altogether, Hogg obviously considered that in ' The Wee Wee German Lairdie ' he had to do with a traditional Jacobite song, with which he and countless others had been familiar apart altogether from the Cromek- Cunningham miscellany. After an interval of only ten years, he could hardly have taken up the position he did, had the lyric come to his notice for the first time through that publication. Besides, Allan Cunningham was there, to impugn, if necessary, the liberties taken by a fresh compiler, and there is nothing to show that he had a word to say against the Shepherd's calm assumptions and ingenuous statements.

It is not surprising that Peter Cunningham should have claimed the song for his father. It was loyal of him to do so, especially as there is a paternal letter of 8 September, 1810, written to uncle James, which would very^naturally lead him to form his con- clusion. " Well," the writer observes in one passage,

'' we have at last printed that volume of ' Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song.' ... .The thing that pleases me in it, every article but two little scraps was contributed by me, both poetry and prose."

"Contributed" does not necessarily imply authorship, but then again it may, especially if a purpose has to be served by a perfectly plausible inference. Honest Allan, however, may simply have meant that he furnished the material for the book, without intending to convey the impression that he was the sole begetter except for the " two little scraps."

The subject is too large and complicated for present discussion, but it may not be amiss to show from a prose passage how the writer sometimes compassed his contribu- tions. Discussing the Jacobite attitude in the Introduction to the ' Remains,' he writes as follows :

" The rival claims of Stuart and Brunswick are to the present generation no more a matter of dispute than those of York and Lancaster : they have been for ever set at rest by the total extinction of the ancient line of the native kings