The Northumbrian Minstrel

The Northumbrian Minstrel is a songbook, giving the lyrics of local, now historical songs, printed and published at Alnwick in 1811 by William Davison. The majority of the songs are from the north of the, and therefore the content differs from most of the other popular Northumbrian chapbooks.

Details

The full title of the book is The Northumbrian Minstrel: A Choice selection of Songs. The book contains almost 60 pages and 45 song and folksong lyrics, many in Geordie dialect. The songs, from north Northumberland and southern Scotland, would have been popular, or topical, at the date of publication. There is nothing in the way of biographies of the authors or histories of the events. No music is included, only lyrics.
The book includes both anonymous or traditional lyrics and works by named authors, including a significant number by Robert Burns.
The book is included in Oliver Heslop's Bibliographical List of Works Illustrative of the Dialect of Northumberland, published in 1896 by the English Dialect Society.

The publication

The front cover of the book was as thus :-

THE

Northumbrian

MINSTREL

A

CHOICE SELECTION

OF

SONGS

----

_____

ALNWICK

PRINTED BY W. DAVISON

----

1811

Are as below :-

page	title	songwriter	tune	comments	Notes	Ref

5	The Northumbrian Minstrel			page heading
5	Cottager's Daughter	Mr Vint
6	Beggar Girl	Mr Sheridan
7	Banks of Doon	R Burns
8	Wandering Mary	not given
9	Down-Hill of Life	Mr Collins
11	Woodlands
11	Caledonia	R Burns
12	Wounded Hussar	Mr Campbell
14	Auld Langsyne
15	The Days O' Langsyne
16	Cot on the Hill
17	Parting Moments
18	Dull Care
18	Exile of Erin	Mr Campbell
20	Wandering Beggar
21	Lad for the Lasses
22	Black-Eyed Susan
24	Prisoners Welcome
25	Land O' the Leal	R Burns
26	Soldier's Return
27	Thorn
27	Love and Glory
28	From Thee, Eliza, I Must Go	Burns
28	Beautiful Maid
29	Peck O' Maut	R Burns
30	My Nanie, O	R Burns
31	Blue Bell of Scotland
32	A Man's A Man For A. That	R Burns
33	Tak' Your Auld Cloak About Yer	Allan Ramsey
35	Farewell to Ayrshire	R Burns
36	Death of Mary	Mr G Solomon
36	Tomb of Love
37	Negro Boy
38	Banks of the Dee
39	Plato's Advice
40	Go, Gentle Sigh
41	Rose Tree
41	Galley Slave
42	Way-Worn Traveller
43	When Our Country calls to Arms	Mr I Cross
44	Mary, I Believ'd Thee True	Mr Moore
44	Mary's Dream at Sandy's Tomb
45	Lass of Low Degree	Mr M G Lewis
46	John Anderson, My Joe	R Burns
48	Negro's Complaint
48	End of number first
49	blank
52	list of books printed for and by W Davison, Alnwick	William Davison
56	rear outer

The Northumbrian Minstrel

Details

The publication

Contents