Scott's Border Minstrelsy Exhibition

“Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border: consisting of historical and romantic ballads, collected in the southern counties of Scotland; with a few of modern date, founded upon local tradition”, 1802 by Sir Walter Scott The 1802 Minstrelsy consisted of two volumes. This picture shows the title page for the first volume which consists of ‘historical ballads’. These ballads were considered by Scott to have some grounding in historical fact. This volume therefore features the ballads which are associated with the border reiving clans who created epic ballads about their ‘heroes’ and their ‘heroic’ deeds. The second volume contains ‘romantic ballads’ which Scott considered to have little or no basis in historical fact. The print, included with the title page, reflects the theme of the first volume displaying a typical border keep castle which border reivers would have been very familiar with. The Abbotsford library holds two copies of this first edition of Scott’s Minstrelsy, one of which is the copy given by Scott to his mother.