Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/21

 n s. iv. JULY i, MIL] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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thought of it. The poem, rudely printed, seemed old, and had every appearance of being a genuine relic of antiquity. In reality, however, it was the work of Cun- ningham himself, originally printed in a local newspaper, whence it had been reprinted without his knowledge, and utilized by ballad-singers up and down the country. Hogg, having read it over, was profoundly impressed, and there and then pronounced it to be a genuine version of an old song. Cunningham, who at first had no intention of concealing the authorship, was amazed at Hogg's credulity, and feeling that the tables, so far as fooling was concerned, had now been turned upon his friend, he kept silence as to its real origin, only mentioning where and when he had picked it up. The facility with which he deceived Hogg on this occasion is believed to have encouraged him to perpetrate a similar deception on Cromek. At all events, the first step on the downward path if we may so call it was the result of a harmless bit of fun, and not due to deliberate premeditation, as Maginn insinuates.

It is to be remembered that in the early years of last century people were extremely fond of old songs and historical ballads. The ballad-singer, laden with copies of songs and equipped with a few tunes to which he sang them, was warmly received in every rural town and country district where he appeared. So great, indeed, was the de- mand for poetry of this sort that the supply fell far short of what was wanted. A traffic in spurious ballads and sham-antique songs sprang up in many printing centres, especially in Newcastle. A Border clergy- man is mentioned as having been particu- larly skilful in this species of imposture. His sham-antiques were printed by the hundred in Newcastle, sold to ballad-singers, and by them disseminated over the country. Even with such questionable practices, however, the demand was always ahead of the supply, and hence it happened that magazines and newspapers were plundered without compunction of poems likely to appeal to the popular taste. In some such manner as this, Cunningham's song, which imposed upon Hogg, is conjectured to have found its way into public favour.

3. We arrive now at the evidence of Hogg himself, admirably summarized by MB. BAYNE. Maginn in his strictures on Cun- ningham makes no mention of ' The Wee Wee German Lairdie ' ; neither is it named expressly in the story referred to above. Hogg, however, saw it, and knew

that it formed part of "an older collection " than that of Cromek. Presumably this older collection was the same as the collec- tion of " Jacobite relics " given by Cun- ningham to Hogg, according to Maginn, and the same as the collection of Cunning- ham's poems, partly MS. and partly printed, as indicated in the other narrative. Hogg had the older version of ' The Wee Wee German Lairdie ' in his possession long enough, at least, to set it to a tune of his own composing. He was able to quote from it part of a stanza not in the Cromek version, thereby proving that Cunning- ham had to some extent altered it before handing it over to the London pub- lisher. The fact of its being " a great favourite all over Scotland " is merely an evidence of the ballad-singers' popularity. A few months would be sufficient to make it popular all over Scotland wherever the ballad-singer appeared.

These considerations, together with Cun- ningham's own words about Cromek' s book (all contributed by him, except two little scraps), and the claim made by the son for the father's authorship, constitute, I venture to submit, pretty strong cumulative proof in favour of ' The Wee Wee German Lairdie ' being solely due to the pen of Allan Cunning- ham.

May I be permitted to add a few words in closing ? Much less than justice, I fear, is done to the memory of Allan Cunningham with regard to the Nithsdale and Galloway songs. It may be impossible to make any adequate defence of the deception practised oh Cromek, or to justify Cunningham's somewhat free use of other men's material. At the same time, let us glance at the parties mainly interested in Cromek' s publication. There was Cromek himself, a man altogether destitute of critical faculty, and utterly incompetent to edit a book of songs, which was undertaken as a purely commercial speculation. There was the undiscerning public, eager to swallow every species of song or ballad, genuine or sham, offered for acceptance by literary quacks like Cromek. And there was the young author, who, to his own astonishment, found himself capable of producing the kind of article the public clamoured for, and whose labours were rewarded in the end with a single bound copy of the book he did so much to produce. Why should his shoulders be made to bear the entire blame of the deception, such as it was ? If he is to be condemned, what are we to say of Hogg, who indulged in similar escapades, if we are to believe