Page:The Book of Scottish Song.djvu/16

viii aristocratic beverage of tea,) many admirable rustic effusions that otherwise might have remained unnoted or altogether perished, and above all, for his own contributions to the stock of Scottish song. These latter unquestionably 'led the way' to many of the triumphs that have since been achieved in modern song-writing, and, after more than a century's trial, they still hold a foremost rank in the dazzling and crowded scroll of the lyrical muse of Scotland. As a song-writer, indeed, the author of 'The Gentle Shepherd' is not surpassed for honest warmth and heartiness of feeling and expression, while in the modulation of his rhythm and style of versification, he has, we consider, no equal among all his successors. In exquisite delicacy of ear, Ramsay appears to us to be among Scottish poets what Milton is among English poets on the same point—unrivalled.

The number of editions through which the 'Tea Table Miscellany' ran, not in Scotland only but in England, proves that Scottish song enjoyed, during the early half of last century, a wide-spread popularity. In confirmation of this, and illustrative also of the fashionable favour in which our native lyrics were held, William Thomson, a teacher of music in London, brought out in 1725, a collection of Scottish songs set to music, which he called 'Orpheus Caledonius,' and dedicated to the Princess of Wales, afterwards consort of George II. In 1733 he published two other volumes, with the same title, the first dedicated 'To the Queen,' and the second 'To her Grace the Duchess of Hamilton.' Most of the songs in the 'Orpheus Caledonius' are taken from the 'Tea Table Miscellany,' without acknowledgment; and honest Allan thus good-temperedly adverts to the circumstance in the preface to the 'twelfth edition:' 'From this and the following volume, Mr Thomson (who is allowed by all to be a good teacher and singer of Scots songs,) culled his Orpheus Caledonius, the musick for both the voice and flute, and the words of the songs finely engraven in a folio book, for the use of persons of the highest quality in Britain, and dedicated to the late Queen. This, by the bye, I thought proper to intimate, and do myself that justice which the publisher neglected; since he ought to have acquainted his illustrious list of subscribers that the most of the songs were mine, the musick abstracted.'

After the 'Tea Table Miscellany,' the most important collection was David Herd's 'Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, &c.' originally published in 1769, in one volume, and afterwards in 1776, enlarged to two volumes. This collection the reader will find repeatedly referred to in the