From "Anti-Scot" to "anti-Scottish sentiment": cultural nationalism and Scottish song in the late 18th-19th centuries

The unique appeal of Scottish song has resulted in considerable interest in the repertoire for over three centuries. Two particular English scholars provoked controversy with their own published song collections, one of Scottish songs, and the other largely of English songs. In each case, the questions of origin and concomitant cultural capital loomed large. In the lateeighteenth century, Joseph Ritson published his two-volume Scotish Song, despite having signed himself as 'Anti-Scot' ten years earlier, in 1784. Meanwhile, William Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time was published in the mid-nineteenth century, appearing in subsequent editions until the early twentieth century. Chappell stood accused of being anti-Scottish by song collectors north of the Border. The background to the accusations, and indeed the subsequent history of his book posthumously, show the situation to have been more complex than one would at first imagine. Both stories demonstrate the fact that information history embraces more than just the printed word, and underline the importance of national and cultural considerations in the study of popular traditions. We owe some of our current understanding to the far-sightedness of two further collectors, David Laing and Andrew Wighton, whose papers survive in major collections to this day.