Excerpt from The Book of Scottish Song: A Comprehensive Collection of the Most Approved Songs of Scotland, With Historical and Critical Notices Regarding Them and Their Authors and an Essay on the Song Writers of Scotland The book OF scottish song contains, in all, somewhere about twelve hundred and seventy songs; and it is presumed that every standard lyric in the language - every song of established reputation - is included within its pages. Some omissions may possibly have been made; but the Editor trusts that they are of a Very unimportant character.* A large number of the songs in the collection are taken from hitherto unexplored sources, and may be con sidered (to use Coleridge's phrase) as good as manuscript. Another portion, though not so large, are bona fide originals, ' that is to say, they have the claim to originality at least, in having been here first printed. Of this portion, about one hundred and thirty in all, many, it is confidently trusted, will be admitted even by the most fastidious, to possess very superior merit; while the whole, though forming but a subordinate feature of the work, will be found, it is hoped, to add no inconsiderable or unworthy heap to the lofty and ever accumulating cairn of Scottish song. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.