MY FRIEND, ROBT.
I hate to write to you on this beggarly paper, but I had no better past me. I should like to know how you are pleased with my Old Tar Song. “The Smuggler's Grave” was buzzing in my ear at the time I wrote it, so I thought
proper to adapt it to its measure. The other is the one you were speaking of for Mr. Shaw. [1]
Yours, &c.,
R. TANNAHILL.
“BRECHIN, Oct. 30, 1846.—This letter, received by me from Mr. R. A. Smith a short time before his death in 1829, I now present to my esteemed friend, David Vedder, Esq., with every sentiment of respect and gratitude. [2]
“ALEX. LAING”
[1] John Shaw, commonly called “Jack Shaw,” an eccentric comedian and comic vocalist, in the theatrical company of James Moss then in Paisley. The theatres in which he chiefly appeared were Glasgow, Paisley, and Greenock. The song referred to by Tannahill was “Jessie the Flower o Dunblane,” which had appeared in the March No. of the Scots Magazine for 1808. R. A. Smith had it act to music, and arranged with James Stevens, music publisher, in Wilson Street, Glasgow, to publish it. Jack Shaw, who was acquainted with Smith, applied to him for a copy of the song, to sing it in the Paisley Theatre. It appears Tannahill had made a copy for Shaw, and enclosed it in the letter to Smith. Shaw sung the song in the Paisley Theatre, and afterwards in the circus in Glasgow at that time. The celebrated vocalist, John Braham, came to Glasgow, and appeared in the Theatre Royal, Queen Street, Glasgow, with his company of vocalists. Shaw obtained an engagement with him for Scots singing, and sang the favourite and popular melody of the “Flower o Dunblane” to large audiences. Smith's music was now published and entered in Stationers' Hall to secure the copyright. Braham, on returning to London, engaged Shaw for his concerts, where he appeared on the London boards and sang the song of the period, which was received with rapturous applause. Shaw became emboldened with the copy of the song in the author's handwriting, and entered into an arrangement with a London publisher; but on the matter coming to the ears of Smith and Stevens, they immediately threatened the London publisher with a suit for infringement of copy-right, and he yielded and gave up his plate. In a subsequent letter, written on 28th September, 1859, by James Barr, “blythe Jamie,”—then in the 78th year of his age, to his friend William Porteous, of the Glasgow Post Office, several of the foregoing circumstances are very graphically detailed. This was one way in which the song obtained notoriety and popularity; but Smith, in all his multifarious correspondence with editors, never related a single syllable of these circumstances.—Ed.
[2] The memorandum is in the handwriting of Alexander Laing, a lyric poet, and editor of the Brechin edition of Tannahill's songs, published in 1833. He explains how he received the letter from Smith himself shortly before his death on 3rd January, 1829; and how he again presented it to his esteemed friend, David Vedder, on 30th October, 1846.
David Vedder was born in the parish of Burness, Orkney, in 1790. He was a lyric poet of considerable originality, and wrote several poems, the first of which appeared in 1811. His collected works of Legendary, Lyrical, and Descriptive Poems, were published in 1841. He died at Edinburgh on 11th February, 1854, aged 63.
In the latter year, Robert Blair, a grand nephew of Tannahill's, was residing in Arthur Street, Edinburgh, and either in that or the following year his wife sent to a grocer for a pound of butter, which was brought home in a piece of old paper. She took off the paper, and, in doing so, observed the name “R. Tannahill,” and having heard her husband frequently speak about his friends, and particularly the poet, she preserved it. Robert Blair at once knew his grand-uncle's handwriting, and sent it to his brother, Matthew Blair, Paisley,—in whose possession it still is. On undertaking the duties of editor, we resolved to print every letter of the author's, however insignificant they might appear, for we have frequently found one word to be the missing link to a great discovery. The writing of the letter, enclosing a copy of a song for Shaw, the singing of the song in Paisley, Glasgow, and London, the presentation of the letter to Laing, the re-presentation to Vedder, his relations sending his papers to a grocer as waste paper, the discovery and preservation by a relative of the original writer, and the revelations it has brought to light, may, in the present instance, be well styled a romance.
When copying the letter for the present edition, we thought the ink rather blacker and brighter than that of Tannahill's other letters, and on narrowly examining the letter and ink we found it was a lithograph. We then accidentally heard that John M‘Watters, watchmaker, Buchanan Street, Glasgow, was in possession of a letter of Tannahill's, addressed to James King, and we wrote him for a copy of it. He kindly sent us a copy, stating that his letter was addressed to R. A. Smith, and mentioning that he had received the original letter seventeen years ago for singing the song of “Jessie, the Flower o Dunblane.” The copy we received was the same as that of Matthew Blair's; and we accordingly waited on M‘Watters with Blair's lithograph, and saw M‘Watter's original letter (preserved in a gilt frame); but instead of being the original, it was another copy of the lithograph. Being aware that Vedder's son-in-law, Frederick Schenk, was an artist and lithographer, we waited on him in Edinburgh, and he informed us he recollected of lithographing Tannahill's letter from the “beggarly paper” it had been written on. Schenk showed us a thin volume, published in 1848, with the title page of “The Pictorial Gift Book, or Lays and Lithographs.” The poetry by David Vedder, C.M., A.S.E., and the illustrations by Frederick Schenk. We wrote Vedder's daughter, Mrs. Edie, Lasswade, respecting the original, who replied she much regretted that she could not gratify our desire, as it was not in her possession.—Ed.