[A composite volume : containing The ballads and songs of Ayrshire ...

EEMARKS
THE EIRST SERIES OF THE "BALLADS AND SOMS."
(Frotn the " Ayrshire Monthly Neivs-Letter:')
The Editor, in the introduction to this the First Series of his very
beautifully printed " Ballad Book," observes, that " Renfrewshire has
her Harp—^why not Ayrshire her Lyre " Why not ! say we. For
our own part, v/e should like to see the idea carried out to the fullest
extent—until every county in Scotland had a record of the traditionary
lore contained therein.
A praiseworthy volume, entitled " The Contenaporaries of Burns,"
published by H. Paton, Edinburgh, 1840, gave some curious information
respecting the satellites that revolved round our great poetic luminary.
All of them, it is true, had " committed the sin of rhyme,"
as Burns expressed it ; but had they been tried, in the coui-t of Apollo,
by a jury of poets, for trespassing on the hill of Parnassus, and \
endeavouring to carry away a flask of inspiration from the fountain \
of Hippoci'ene, one and all of them would have been found " Not
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guilty !" Some of them were tolerable versifiers, but none of them >
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Makkars, in the true sense of the word. If we mistake not, the
same Editor has again bi'ought his antiquarian knowledge to bear
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upon " The Ballads and Songs of Ayrshire." We being inveterate
ballad-mongers, few things, to our minds, ai'e more delightful than a
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gossip about old songs, and the Editor who brings a work of this de-
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scription under our notice deserves our special thanks. In short, we \
may say with Shakespeare, that we love a 'ballad even too well. Nay, \
we are fi-ee to confess that we have spent much of our time \
" Dreaming of nought but idle poetry, \
That fruitless and unprofitable art,
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Good unto none, but least to the possessors."
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The First Series of the Ballads, &c., now before us, opens with
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" Johnie Faa," the gipsy laddie. The Editor remarks, " There are
several versions of this ballad ; the one we have copied is from the l
Collection by Finlay, who added considerably to the imperfect one \
which first appeared in the Tea Table Miscellany. He also appended
some traditional particulars to the subject of the ballad." It would
have been more correct, if the Editor had simply stated that Mr Finlay
added the third and fourth stanzas, modified some of the expressions,
and, by altering the orthography, rendered the ballad more