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Anna Gordon (ballad Collector)
Anna Gordon (24 August 1747 – 11 July 1810), also known as Mrs Brown or Mrs Brown of Falkland, was one of the most important British ballad collectors. Life Rather little is known of Anna's life. She was born in Old Aberdeen, youngest daughter to Lilias Forbes of Disblair and her husband Thomas Gordon (1714–1797), who was the professor of humanity at King's College, Aberdeen. Details of Anna's education are unclear. On 13 December 1788 she married the Revd Dr Andrew Brown (c. 1744–1805), who, following work as a chaplain in the army, became minister of Falkland, Fife (1784–1802), and then Tranent. Thus Anna is widely known among scholars as Mrs Brown of Falkland. However, Anna is famed as a collector of Scottish ballads. Fifty of Anna's ballads were written down between about 1783 and 1801; some were published by Walter Scott and Robert Jamieson (antiquary), Robert Jamieson in ''Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border'' (1802) and ''Popular Ballads and Songs'' (1806). 27 of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Europe, and later in Australia, North Africa, North America and South America. Ballads are often 13 lines with an ABABBCBC form, consisting of couplets (two lines) of rhymed verse, each of 14 syllables. Another common form is ABAB or ABCB repeated, in alternating eight and six syllable lines. Many ballads were written and sold as single sheet broadsides. The form was often used by poets and composers from the 18th century onwards to produce lyrical ballads. In the later 19th century, the term took on the meaning of a slow form of popular love song and is often used for any love song, particularly the sentimental ballad of pop or roc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old Aberdeen
Old Aberdeen is part of the city of Aberdeen in Scotland. Old Aberdeen was originally a separate burgh, which was erected into a burgh of barony on 26 December 1489. It was incorporated into adjacent Aberdeen by Act of Parliament in 1891. It retains the status of a community council area. The town's motto is ''"concordia res parvae crescunt"'' ("through harmony, small things increase"). Location To the north of Aberdeen city centre, Old Aberdeen was for a long time fairly isolated at the edge of the city, being followed to the north by the River Don, Seaton Park and the small Brig o' Balgownie hamlet. Since the 1960s, and the North Sea oil boom of the 1970s, however, housing development has surrounded the area, in particular with the nearby Tillydrone development. History Old Aberdeen was an important political, ecclesiastical and cultural centre since the Late Middle Ages. In the 1630s the Covenanters challenged the Doctors of Aberdeen by holding a meeting in Muchall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Falkland, Fife
Falkland ( gd, Fàclann), previously in the Lands of Kilgour ( 1200), is a village, parish and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, at the foot of the Lomond Hills. According to the 2008 population estimate, it has a population of 1,180. Etymology The earliest forms of this name include ''Falleland'' (c. 1128) and ''Falecklen'' (c. 1160), with the second element being the Scottish Gaelic ''lann'' (enclosure) or possibly its Pictish cognate, but the exact etymology is unclear since the first element could be the Gaelic ''falach'' (hidden), ''failc'' (wash), or ''falc'' (heavy rain). The later folk etymologies "falcon land" and "folkland" are not plausible., p. 158. In the Middle Ages, the name Falkland only applied to the Castle; the burgh and parish were known as Kilgour, which may mean "church/cell of Gabrán". History The lands of Kilgour existed at Falkland prior to the 12th century. However, this was not until the erection of Falkland Castle some time after 1160 which wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tranent
Tranent is a town in East Lothian (formerly Haddingtonshire), in the south-east of Scotland. The town lies 6 miles from the boundary of Edinburgh, and 9.1 miles from the city centre. It lies beside the A1 road, the A1 runs through the parish splitting the parish from its associated villages and hamlets namely Meadowmill and the port of the parish Cockenzie. The original main post road ran straight through the town until the new A1 was built. Built on a gentle slope, about above sea level it is one of the oldest towns in East Lothian. The population of the town is approximately 12,140, an increase of over 4,000 since 2001. Tranent was formerly a major mining town, but now serves as a commuter town for Edinburgh. History The name is thought to be of Brythonic origin, possibly containing the elements ''Tre'' and ''Nant'', meaning town over the stream Travernant. Tranent was once an important mining town, and coal was first worked there in the thirteenth century by the monks ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', ''Rob Roy (novel), Rob Roy'', ''Waverley (novel), Waverley'', ''Old Mortality'', ''The Heart of Mid-Lothian'' and ''The Bride of Lammermoor'', and the narrative poems ''The Lady of the Lake (poem), The Lady of the Lake'' and ''Marmion (poem), Marmion''. He had a major impact on European and American literature. As an advocate, judge and legal administrator by profession, he combined writing and editing with daily work as Clerk of Session and Sheriff court, Sheriff-Depute of Selkirkshire. He was prominent in Edinburgh's Tory (political faction), Tory establishment, active in the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, Highland Society, long a president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1820–1832), and a vice president of the Society o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Jamieson (antiquary)
Robert Jamieson (1772 – 24 September 1844) was a Scottish antiquarian. He was born in Moray. In 1806 he published a collection of 149 traditional ballads and songs, along with two pleasing lyrics of his own, entitled ''Popular Ballads And Songs From Tradition, Manuscripts And Scarce Editions With Translations Of Similar Pieces From The Ancient Danish Language.'' Walter Scott, through whose assistance he received a government post at Edinburgh, held Jamieson in high esteem and pointed out his skill in discovering the connection between Scandinavian and Scottish legends. Scott also published some of Jamieson's translations, such as The Ghaist's Warning in the notes to The Lady of the Lake The Lady of the Lake (french: Dame du Lac, Demoiselle du Lac, cy, Arglwyddes y Llyn, kw, Arloedhes an Lynn, br, Itron al Lenn, it, Dama del Lago) is a name or a title used by several either fairy or fairy-like but human enchantresses in the .... Jamieson's work preserved much oral trad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minstrelsy Of The Scottish Border
''Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border'' is an anthology of Border ballads, together with some from north-east Scotland and a few modern literary ballads, edited by Walter Scott. It was first published in 1802, but was expanded in several later editions, reaching its final state in 1830, two years before Scott's death. It includes many of the most famous Scottish ballads, such as '' Sir Patrick Spens'', '' The Young Tamlane'', ''The Twa Corbies'', '' The Douglas Tragedy'', '' Clerk Saunders'', '' Kempion'', ''The Wife of Usher's Well'', '' The Cruel Sister'', '' The Dæmon Lover'', and ''Thomas the Rhymer''. Scott enlisted the help of several collaborators, notably John Leyden, and found his ballads both by field research of his own and by consulting the manuscript collections of others. Controversially, in the editing of his texts he preferred literary quality over scholarly rigour, but ''Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border'' nevertheless attracted high praise from the first. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francis James Child
Francis James Child (February 1, 1825 – September 11, 1896) was an American scholar, educator, and folklorist, best known today for his collection of English and Scottish ballads now known as the Child Ballads. Child was Boylston professor of rhetoric and oratory at Harvard University, where he produced influential editions of English poetry. In 1876 he was named Harvard's first Professor of English, a position which allowed him to focus on academic research. It was during this time that he began work on the Child Ballads. The Child Ballads were published in five volumes between 1882 and 1898. While Child was primarily a literary scholar with little interest in the music of the ballads, his work became a major contribution to the study of English-language folk music. Biography Francis James Child was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His lifelong friend, scholar and social reformer Charles Eliot Norton, described Child's father, a sailmaker, as "one of that class of intelligent a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas The Rhymer
Sir Thomas de Ercildoun, better remembered as Thomas the Rhymer (fl. c. 1220 – 1298), also known as Thomas Learmont or True Thomas, was a Scottish laird and reputed prophet from Earlston (then called "Erceldoune") in the Borders. Thomas' gift of prophecy is linked to his poetic ability. He is often cited as the author of the English ''Sir Tristrem'', a version of the Tristram legend, and some lines in Robert Mannyng's ''Chronicle'' may be the source of this association. It is not clear if the name ''Rhymer'' was his actual surname or merely a sobriquet. In literature, he appears as the protagonist in the tale about Thomas the Rhymer carried off by the " Queen of Elfland" and returned having gained the gift of prophecy, as well as the inability to tell a lie. The tale survives in a medieval verse romance in five manuscripts, as well as in the popular ballad "Thomas Rhymer" (Child Ballad number 37).Child Ballad #37. "Thomas the Rymer", The romance occurs as "Thomas off ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1747 Births
Events January–March * January 31 – The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital. * February 11 – King George's War: A combined French and Indian force, commanded by Captain Nicolas Antoine II Coulon de Villiers, attacks and defeats British troops at Grand-Pré, Nova Scotia. * March 7 – Juan de Arechederra the Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines, combines his forces with those of Sultan Azim ud-Din I of Sulu to suppress the rebellion of the Moros in the Visayas. * March 19 – Simon Fraser, the 79-year old Scottish Lord Loyat, is convicted of high treason for being one of the leaders of the Jacobite rising of 1745 against King George II of Great Britain and attempting to place the pretender Charles Edward Stuart on the throne. After a seven day trial of impeachment in the House of Lords and the verdict of guilt, Fraser is sentenced on the same day to be hanged, drawn and quartered; King George alters Fraser's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1810 Deaths
Year 181 ( CLXXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelius and Burrus (or, less frequently, year 934 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 181 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Imperator Lucius Aurelius Commodus and Lucius Antistius Burrus become Roman Consuls. * The Antonine Wall is overrun by the Picts in Britannia (approximate date). Oceania * The volcano associated with Lake Taupō in New Zealand erupts, one of the largest on Earth in the last 5,000 years. The effects of this eruption are seen as far away as Rome and China. Births * April 2 – Xian of Han, Chinese emperor (d. 234) * Zhuge Liang, Chinese chancellor and regent (d. 234) Deaths * Aelius Aristides, Greek orator and w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
