ABSTRACT
Ballads were a popular form of song across European cultures; some songs travelled widely and were well-known, others reflected local histories and musical styles. In the nineteenth century, middle-class antiquarians increasingly associated the ballad with a traditional peasant culture that many thought was dying out with industrialisation and similar economic and social transformations. The two ballads, Jamie Douglas, and Early of Aboyne , were well-known Scottish ballads that survive in other forms and tell local histories. Motherwell recorded that these versions were given to him by a Mrs Brown and Widow Nichol in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Motherwell recorded that these versions were given to him by a Mrs Brown and Widow Nichol in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Little is known about the women who sang these ballads for him, although, based on Motherwell’s collecting patterns, they were likely elderly Scottish peasant women.
