The very rare first edition of an important work on Scottish folklore, focused on and around Dunblane in Perthshire. A much more common 1885 edition was published in Glasgow, but this first iteration, published by a Stirling newspaper proprietor, seems to have survived in only a handful of copies.
The content includes explications of place names including the “Seven Stanes” standing stones of Wester Biggs and Strathallan. There is much by way of battlefield lore and history relating to the Jacobite uprising of 1745, and the section entitled “Legendary Tales” includes local stories of witches, ghosts and fairies. The biographical sketches significantly enhance these oral histories by describing the kinds of characters from whom they were collected. These affectionate descriptions are replete with vernacular language and custom. The final section is a collection of poetry and verse including a Jacobitical Song, with many explanatory notes by the compiler.
The final 4pp of the volume comprises an extensive and detailed subscribers’ list, which gives the profession and location of each subscriber.
Rare: OCLC locates copies at BL, Dundee, NLS, Boston Athenaeum, Geneva Col PA, U South Carolina, Harry Ranson and Memorial U Newfoundland only. Rare Book Hub finds this copy only, Maggs catalogue 847, 1957.
