The delay of the publication of this Ninth Part of the English and Scottish Ballads has been occasioned partly by disturbances of health, but principally by the necessity of waiting for texts. It was notorious that there was a considerable number of ballads among the papers of Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, and it was an important object to get possession of these, the only one of the older collections (with a slight exception) which I had not had in my hands. An unexpected opportunity occurred upon the sale of Sharpe's manuscripts last year. All the ballads, including, besides loose sheets, several sets of pieces, were secured by Mr. Macmath, and turned over to me (mostly in transcripts made by his own hand) with that entire devotion to the interests of this undertaking which I have had so frequent occasion to signalize. A particularly valuable acquisition was the "old lady's complete set of ballads," mentioned by Scott in his correspondence with Sharpe, which was the original of most of the pieces in the Skene Manuscript.
This Ninth Part completes the collection of English and Scottish ballads to the extent of my knowledge of sources, saving that William Tytler's Brown Manuscript has not been recovered. Copies, from Mrs. Brown's recitation, of all the pieces in this Manuscript are, however, elsewhere to be found, excepting in a single instance, and that of a ballad which is probably a variety of one or another here given in several forms (No 99 or No 158).
I have to thank Mr. MACMATH once more for his energetic and untiring co-operation; the Rev. WILLIAM FINDLAY, of Sabine, for permission to make use of his ballad-gatherings; the Rev. S. BARING-GOULD, Mr. P.Z. ROUND, Mr. WILLIAM WALKER, and Mr. R. BRINLEY JOHNSON, for texts; Professor WOLLNER, of Leipzig, for the most liberal assistance in Slavic matters; Mr. KAARLE KROHN, of the University of Helsingfors, for a minute and comprehensive study of the Esthonian and Finnish forms of No 95; Dr. AXEL OLRIK for Scandinavian texts and information relating thereto; Professor KITTREDGE for notes; and Mr. R.B. ARMSTRONG, of Edinburgh, Dr. ÅKE W:SON MUNTHE, of Upsala, Miss M.H. MASON, of London, Mr. ALFRED ROGERS, of the Library of the University of Cambridge, Mr. H.L. KOOPMAN, late of Harvard College, and Mrs. MARIA ELLERY MACKAYE, for kind help of various descriptions.
It is intended that Part X (completing the work) shall contain a list of sources, a full and careful glossary, an index of titles and matters and other indexes, and a general preface.
F.J.C.
April, 1894.
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