Irish Script on Screen

Acc. 9134

Songs of Alexander Stewart, Milton of Callander and Glasgow.

© Catalogue record by National Library of Scotland

Acc.9134/1 is a small octavo notebook, ca. 1840s, in marbled covers, ff.i–ii, pp. 1–110 (89–110 blank), f. iii. Bought, 1986.

It contains 31 songs, of which 27 are in Gaelic, three in Scots, and one in a macaronic mix. No names of tunes are given, but the refrains, headed 'Luinneag', are marked with great care and set apart from the stanzas by the use of a more upright style of writing, resembling the use of italic and non-italic type in contemporary printed poetry collections. They are usually given at the beginning and repeated at the end of a song..

The author, who refers to himself as "Alaistar" on p. 38, was probably Alexander Stewart, youngest son of John Stewart, farmer in Milton of Callander on Loch Venachar, and his wife Margaret MacDonald. He was baptised on 27 January 1824. He went to Glasgow University and is found enrolled in the Logics class of Prof. Robert Buchanan in 1842 (W.I. Addison, Matriculation Albums of the University of Glasgow, p. 441, no. 14415: "Filius natu quartus Joannis agricolae in parochia de Callander et Comitatu de Perth"), and also appears in the list of members for the session 1841–1842 in the minute book of An Comunn Oiseanach of Glasgow University MS Gen 1363, p. 134; see A. MacCoinnich, Sgeul na Gàidhlig. The Gaelic Story at the University of Glasgow. The relationship of Gaelic speakers with a Scottish institution since 1451 (forthcoming). His signature, "Alaistir Stiubhart", closely matches the handwriting of the present manuscript. According to an account of a contemporary of his, Mrs Stewart, taken down in 1907 by John MacGregor, he studied for the ministry but died before his studies were completed.

The majority, or possibly all, of the songs in the volume seem to have been composed while he was a student in Glasgow. He names the area of Loch Venachar, near Callander, as his home. The volume contains a mixture of traditional song themes such as love or satire, but there are additional themes more common to the song traditions of the Gaelic diaspora, such as homesickness, missing his native Gaelic language and his dislike of Glasgow, which is the subject of several songs of dispraise, also in one of his Scots songs.

Three of the songs were published with translations in Michael Newton, Bho Chluaidh gu Calasraid: From the Clyde to Callander (repr. with corr., Glasgow 2010).

A stitched but unbound booklet of 12 leaves (Acc.9134/2), containing a verse narrative in English in a different hand, is loosely inserted at the back.

Insert The loosely inserted booklet, Acc.9134/2, has 24 unnumbered pages, the last of which is blank, and contains a humorous narrative in rhymed couplets in English by an unidentified author. It tells the story of the arrival of the first steamer on Loch Katrine and its fate at the hands of the locals, 1843. It has no title, and begins Dear Robt here I once again / Lay hold upon my stumpy pen. The addressee is possibly Robert Stewart (1813–1856), Bochastle, Callander, the oldest brother of Alexander Stewart.

Acc. 9134

Acc. 9134

Songs of Alexander Stewart, Milton of Callander and Glasgow.

© Catalogue record by National Library of Scotland

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