Below is the typed out prospectus of this 1904 Merry Muses
of Caledonia manuscript issued by Farmer & Hendly. If you wish you can download a
PDF of the photographed pages.
For Private Circulation.]
A LIMITED NUMBER (FIFTY ONLY) OF
MANUSCRIPT COPIES OF
AUNIQUE RELIC OF BURNS
Will be issued in Large Quarto, on the best
linen
hand-made paper, bound in half morocco, t.e.g.
PRICE TEN GUINEAS NET
(Right is reserved to raise the price of the
last
twelve copies.)
Each copy will be carefully transcribed in bold
and legible script, and will be collated with a
certified copy of the only known example of
the printed book (which is now, and is likely
to remain, in private hands), formerly in the
possession of W. Scott Douglas, whose copious
annotations are included, with others by the late
Mr. William Ernest Henley, together with notes
as to the present whereabouts of manuscript
copies made by Burns of some of the songs,
which he sent to friends and intimates.
THE
MERRY MUSES OF
CALEDONIA
'A RELIC OF BURNS'
[The following Note, in regard to matters of
fact, was
supplied by the late Mr. William Ernest Henley
when editing the 'Edinburgh Edition' of the
poet's works.]
On the night of Burn's death (21st July 1796), a
manuscript volume
of 'loose and humorous' poetry disappeared from his bedroom.
The genesis of the collection appears to be
found in that 'enthusiastic
attachment to the poetry and music of Old
Caledonia which led Burns to
co-operate with Thomson (1792-6) in his attempt
to select and collate
the most favourite of the national melodies of
publication.' When
approaching Burns on the matter (Sept. 1792),
Thomson remarked that
some airs were united to 'rhymes loose and indelicate,' and said that 'to
remove this reproach would be an easy task' to
Burns. In the course of
the correspondence that ensued there are many
allusions and references
that point to the present collection as those
'old Scots songs as originally
set,' to which in some instances Burns fitted
new words to suit Thomson's
purpose, but which, likewise, he occasionally
touched up, or even wrote a
'second setting' for another purpose.
It is a matter of history that 'the peasant
poet' had the keenest of
noses for the country-side songs of his day -- a
ribald rhyme would take
him twenty miles out of his road to see it. It
is also equally well known
that most of the popular lyrics were, to put it
mildly, only fit for smoking-
room consumption.
Thus it is one of the last glories of Burns
that, in retouching the
THE MERRY MUSES OF CALEDONIA
popular minstrelsty, he purified and rendered
acceptable for general use
so many lewd songs and vagabond ballads.
On the other hand, Burns was a man of varying
mood and mixed
composition: one of whom it may be said that 'if
his head was in the
heavens, his feet were in the clay.' If he
purified much that passed
through his hands, he also 'wrote up' a part for
the amusement of
convivials and intimates.
Merry, and very free-spoken, were the songs and
ballads of that
manuscript collection. Who took the book, or
what immediately became
of it, is unknown.
The first trace of it occurred some four years
after the poet's death,
when, about the year 1800, there appreared a
mean-looking, chap-like
book of 122 pages, undated and without a
publisher's name, entitled :--
THE MERRY MUSES OF CALEDONIA: a Collection of
Favourite Scots Songs, Ancient and Modern,
selected for the
use of the Crochallan Fencibles. . . . .
Internal evidence, known or published testimony,
and the existence in
autograph manuscript of some of the contents,
are strongly -- indded,
almost certainly -- in favour of a relationship
between this volume and the
manuscript that was presumedly stolen on the night of Burn's death.
A single copy (only) is now known to exist. The
fate of the edition
can only be conjectured. It is, however,
reasonably supposed that 'unco
guid' partisans of Burns destroyed every copy
that came to hand: in no
other way can so complete an effacement of an
entire edition of a modern
printed book be explained. Verily, as
mysterious a disappearance as that
of the manuscript copy!
Be this as it may, in 1827 the contents of the
volume of 1800 seem to
have become a tradition. The Merry Muses of the
later date is utterly
unlike the original. Indeed, the edition of 1800 appears to have been so
completely lost that no subsequent collection of
The Merry Muses of
Caledonia is even a 'colourable imitation' of
the Simon Pure. Each and
all contain some of the songs -- chiefly those
that were common property --
but the lyrics directly traceable to Burns, or
those 'retouched' by him, are
missing in the 1827 and later issues. Of the
eighty-seven songs of the
original only thirty-nine -- less than half --
appear elsewhere, and even
these are very corrupt in text: as stated,
Burns's 'additions and retouches'
are wanting.
William Scott Douglas, who edited Burns in 1871,
succeeded in dis-
covering a copy of the original edition of 1800;
since then, although
THE MERRY MUSES OF CALEDONIA
upwards of thirty years have elapsed, every
attempt to unearth another
example has failed. IT may thus fairly be
assumed that the copy in
question is, in every sense of the word, unique.
Whilst in Scott Douglas's possession, he
copiously annotated its pages.
The 'Scott Douglas' copy passed, by auction
sale, at his death, to
Mr. Wm. Hamilton Bruce for [Pound symbol]80. It
subsequently changed hands for
a very much larger sum, and passed into the
possession of the Right Hon.
the Earl of Rosebery.*
Two certified manuscript copies of the 'Scott
Douglas' copy, including
that gentleman's notes and additions, were made
by Mr. Hamilton Bruce.
One of these copies Mr. Bruce presented to the
late Mr. Crailbe Angus,
of Glasgow, the fine-art and Burns collector.
This manuscript copy was
sold at auction by Mr. Dowell on he 9th December
1902, to Mr. Hugh
Hopkins, bookseller, of Glasgow, who purchased
it 'for a client.'
The other copy, also in manuscript, Mr. Bruce
placed in the hands of
Mr. William Ernest Henley, to do with as he
would; if circumstances per-
mitted, to edit it and publish it as 'A Relic of
Burns.'
Early in 1903, after some discussion, the idea
of reprinting the 'Scott
Douglas' copy began to take shape; though it was
then uncertain --
(1) Whether Mr. Henley would issue it himself;
(2) Whether it would in any way be made use of
in a supplement
to the 'Edinburgh' Burns; or
(3) Whether it would ultimately fall to my own
lot to undertake
the task, Mr. Henley informing me that if he did
not find an
opportunity I was to be at liberty to do so.
The manuscript is carefully collated, and
includes annotations of Mr.
Henley's not included in any other copy.
Such, briefly, are the main facts. All
questions relating to authenticity
and to the evidence of the descent of the
printed book or the manuscript
copies are here necessarily left untouched.
Those are matter for another
place.
JOHN S. FARMER.
* P.S. -- Since writing the above, Lord
Rosebery has very kindly placed
the original at my disposal for the purpose
of another and
personal collation.---J.S.F.
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