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MR EDITOR,

I was pleased to see in your first Number, an old ballad introduced which was always my greatest favourite—"The Wyfe of Auchtermuchtie." It is singular that this song, or rather poem, should have been so often overlooked by our late collectors of ballads, though, in many instances, they have raked them up to the very lees. I wish you could have afforded us some key to the author, either drawn from record or probability, for I have heard some violent disputes about this since it appeared. I cannot now tell how it is, but ever since I remember, I have been impressed with the belief that it was the production of King James V.; that I have heard this asserted a hundred times I know, but yet I can scarcely believe that it was from tradition alone that I at first had this intimation. So thoroughly was I convinced of the truth of it, that I had nearly quarrelled outright with a very intimate friend, for saying that there was no proof nor insinuation in any work extant that warranted such a belief; and after a good deal of research, to my great disappointment, I confess that I can discover none, excepting the resemblance between this ballad and those that are usually supposed to have been written by that prince. This likeness may be chimerical, for fancy is powerful in modelling images that she believes or wishes to exist, but to me it seems fully apparent. The same disposition to depict the manners of low life, and of the country people, with their blunders and perplexities, predominates in them all. As one instance it may be noted, that the insurmountable difficulties of the Gudeman of Auchtermuchtie,—the perplexity of the Gudewife in the ballad of "The Gaberlunzie-man," when she found that her daughter had eloped,—and the utter despair of the lass in "The Jolly Beggar," when she discovered that she had lain beside "the puir auld bodie," bear all strong evidences of the same mind and the same mode of thinking. Poets have generally but a few situations in which they naturally incline to place their principal characters. The favourite one of James was that of a ludicrous perplexity.

The resemblance between this ballad and "Christ's Kirk on the Green," is still more striking;^[1] in particular, the serio-comic way that prevails in both, of relating the most extravagant incidents, which, above all other things, has the effect of heightening the humour. In short, sir, if either you or any of your correspondents can adduce farther proof that this ballad was indeed written by the redoubted "Gudeman of Ballangeich," I will account myself much beholden to you; and though my evidence may appear frail, till I will hang by the tradition; and unless some of my opponents can advance; something more conclusive on the other side, I will retain my integrity, and refuse to pay the dinner and drink that I betted on the issue of the research.

I cannot help remarking here, while I am on this subject, how wonderful it is that no regular collection has been made of our humorous songs by themselves. If these were well selected, arranged, and set to their own old ranting tunes, they could not fail of being highly acceptable to the lovers of innocent frolic and social glee. The best of our old songs are those of humour. That class, at the head of which we may place "The Wyfe of Auchtermuchtie," "Fy let us a' to the Bridal," "Rob's Jock," and "Muirland Willie," are greatly superior to the Damons and Phillises of the same age. Our forefathers had one peculiarity in song-writing, which their children seem to have lost; it was the art of picking up an occurrence, of all possible ones the most unfeasible, whereon to found a song. This adds greatly to the comic effect. The following song, entitled, "Simon Brodie," as it is short, and rarely to be met with, may be given as an instance.