Richard (01:12) is right to pull me up on the post from 6.28.

I gave two quotations from Roud with the intention of demonstrating that his comments on Harker were not entirely 'facile', or simply about Harker expressing political views. The adjective 'facile' was applied by Roud to some aspects of Harker's work (p178), and had in turn been applied to Roud. Perhaps I should have marked these clearly as quotations, rather than, as I intended, letting this become clear as the post continued.

I had 'lost' a better post (honestly, it was better!!), and then I got lazy.

The 2nd quotation was from p578. It relates to a song called 'The Original Bob Cranky', which stayed in print for a long time. According to Roud, it first came out in 1804. The earliest known version states that it was written by a 'Gentleman of Newcastle' ie John Selkirk, who attended clubs where singing and songwriting were in fashion. The song is from a collection made by Bell, whose manuscripts Harker and a colleague produced an edition of. I'm sure a) the ironies here (Harker's use of a text which in some sense turns out to be 'fake') were not lost on Roud and b) the 'just because the earliest edition was print doesn't mean it wasn't by the ordinary people' argument may be brought to bear on the example.

For example, Roud disagrees with Harker's (alleged) assessment of the work of William Chappell. Roud disagrees that the work of this man, which took half a lifetime to complete and probably wasn't cheap to carry out, was done just to make money. I don't think this section by Roud is oversimplified. Others may, of course disagree.

On page 580, Roud quotes an idea of Harker's and the argument behind it with interest, so I don't think he just dismisses everything Harker had to say (in case anybody had got that idea from my posts).

I also get the idea that Roud isn't wholly opposed to people making money from working on folklore, that he feels if this had not been done, much more of the material might have been lost.

I think Roud, while not agreeing with everything Harker says, acknowledges his work eg in the NE.

But those who are interested can buy the book and judge for themselves. Roud describes it as an exercise in evidence gathering. As a relative newcomer to books about folk in England, it suggest to me not only places to look for songs but also places to go to read more generally.


Jim 9.39: It entertains us. Amen.

Most recent joke I read was about why Eeyore was looking down the loo, but I won't insult your intelligences by providing the answer.