THE ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY OF BUCK-HAVEN.
[This is one of the most valuable folk-lore chap-books ever issued from the press. Its richness in this respect has attracted the attention of Professor Stephens of Copenhagen, who gave some quotations from it in the second volume of The Folk-Lore Record. The edition used here is from the library of Alexander Macdonald, Esq., and bears the following on the title-page:—‘The Ancient and Modern History of Buck-haven in Fife-shire. Wherein is contained, The Antiquities of their old Dress. The Bucky-boat, with a flag of a green tree; with their dancing, Willy and his trusty rapper. Their Burgess Ticket, with a view of their new College: the noted sayings and exploits of Wise Willy in the Brae, Witty Eppie the ale-wife, and Lingle-tail’d Nancy. By Merry Andrew at Tamtallon. Glasgow, Printed by J. and M. Robertson, Saltmarket, 1806.’ It is a 24 pp. 12mo, and is illustrated by several rough woodcuts which had apparently done service in other chap-books. The editor has carefully collated it with the following editions:—One, undated, by Morren, Cowgate, Edinburgh; another, also without date, by Morren, but a different issue from the other, there being a change in the illustrations; one published in 1817 by R. Hutchison & Co., 10 Saltmarket, Glasgow; and an abridged one by M. Randall, Stirling (without date), with this short title—‘The Exploits of Wise Willie, and Witty Eppie the Ale-Wife of Buchaven.’ The three editions last mentioned, were courteously sent to the editor, all the way from Copenhagen, by Professor Stephens. There is also a modern Glasgow edition, greatly abridged, the text, as issued by Randall, having evidently been used by its publishers.]