The folk song manuscripts
Baring-Gould’s gift to posterity is that he had the foresight to make fair copies of the songs he collected and to ensure that one of these copies (Known as The Fair Copy) was given to Plymouth Library, together with the rough notes of tunes taken down in the field by his collaborators Bussell and Sheppard (The Rough Copy). These were the only manuscripts that researchers had to work with up until 1992 when it was discovered that Baring-Gould’s personal fair copy of the songs (The Personal Copy) had also survived with his books and other papers in Killerton House near Exeter where his collection of bookshad been moved in the 1970s. This started a period of exploration with the help and encouragement of Baring-Gould’s great-granddaughter, Merriol Almond and with the assistance of a number of other enthusiasts. The manuscripts were transferred to the Devon Heritage Centre, Exeter. on permanent loan. The collection of books that was used to be at Killerton House is now in the Special Collections Library at Exeter University.
Baring-Gould’s Folk Song Manuscripts
Sabine Baring-Gould’s intention in collecting the folk songs of Devon and Cornwall was not to pin them, like butterflies, into the museum case of a printed text. His desire was to hear them sung and enjoyed by as many people as possible, particularly by children who would keep the songs and the traditions associated with them alive. The articles he wrote and the books he published were done with this in mind. Early on in his collecting days he also started to arrange performances of his songs, initially in concerts but, increasingly, as staged performances with costumes and a plot that joined the songs together. In doing this he knew that the songs could not be performed exactly as he had collected them. Victorian audiences were not attuned to unaccompanied singing outside of the church. If he was to be successful in popularising the songs, they had to be matched to the tastes of the listeners. This meant that piano accompaniments were obligatory. He also had to tone down some of the more ‘unsuitable’ songs. He wrote:
“Of course, it is only some, and they are not very numerous among the popular lyrics, that are objectionable, and the singers have no thought that they are offending ears polite, when they mention in their songs and ballads matters not generally talked about, and when they call a spade “a spade” and not “an agricultural implement employed by gardeners.”
Less understandably, Baring-Gould sometimes edited on the grounds of personal taste and his feeling of what the singer might have sung if they hadn’t omitted a verse.
Other Baring-Gould Manuscript Collections
Other locations have collections Baring-Gould manuscripts or street literature which are of interest, including:
- The Houghton Library at Harvard University (USA) has a collection of letters and songs sent by Baring-Gould to Prof. Francis J. Child. This collection has been included in those presented on the VWML website. The collection can also be viewed on the Harvard University Library’s website – go here.
- The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at Cecil Sharp House, London has letters sent by Baring-Gould to Cecil Sharp and to Lucy Broadwood. These can now be seen on the VWML Digital Database (www.vwml.org). There are also some letters from Baring-Gould to Broadwood in the collection of her papers at the Surrey History Centre, Woking.
- Plymouth Library has the ‘Fair Copy’ manuscript of Baring-Gould’s collection as well as the ‘Rough Copy’ of music notes made primarily by his colleague, Frederick Bussell. The library also has a fine collection of books by Baring-Gould together with manuscript material that was bequeathed to them by Francis Nicolle, who had tried to make a collection of everything that Baring-Gould wrote – and did a pretty good job of it. There is a lot to be discovered in this collection.
- When he started to collect songs, Baring-Gould recognised that the street literature (broadsides, chap-books, and songster) contained the texts of many of the songs that he was hearing. He made a very large collection of this material and a number of volumes remained in his library. The greater part of the collection, however, was given by him to the Printed Books Department of the British Museum in 1898. It is now in the British Library, Kings Cross, London. They also have a number of Icelandic sagas given by Baring-Gould soon after his 1862 visit to Iceland.
- The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, has a volume of broadside ballads that was once the property of Baring-Gould. There is a second volume from the same original source, which he bought at the same time, in the John Rylands Library in Manchester. It is assumed that he sold these two volumes at some point to raise some cash.
- A transcription of Baring-Gould’s 1862 diary-notebook, which contains the record of stories, songs, and riddles that he collected in Yorkshire can be seen on Dr Ronald Wawman’s website: www.nevercompletelysubmerged.co.uk. Ron’s website includes transcriptions of a number of other important documents, though no others are related to his song collection.
While these are the folk song manuscripts that are known about and are available to researchers it is possible that other material will come to light as the search goes on. I live in hope!
The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library Digital Database
The greater part of Baring-Gould’s folk song manuscripts has now been photographed as high quality digital images and can be viewed on the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library’s Digital Database – go to www.vwml.org. It is not, though, easy to understand the Baring-Gould collection without a little more guidance than the site currently provides, and it is not always obvious which manuscript you are looking at. I have prepared a guide to the Baring-Gould Manuscript Collection which will, I hope, help. To read the guide, click the button below:
I have also prepared a simple index to the Personal Copy Manuscript (the most important of the Baring-Gould folk song manuscripts.
This is a precursor to a more comprehensive index that I am working on which will give the locations of the songs in each of Baring-Gould’s manuscripts.