Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. In dealing with the Irish and the Scottish sections I have striven to be just to each. When selected portions of the Stories were appearing in Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper, I was assailed quite violently by certain Scottish gentlemen, who were highly indignant with me for various statements I made as to who wrote and who did not write particular songs that had generally been accepted as having been born in Scotland. But nobody has yet proved that abuse is either argument or logic, and as I have found no reason to alter the views I originally expressed, they remain exactly as I first wrote them down, except in one or two instances where I have been enabled to strengthen my convictions.