The Ballad Sheet and Garland- Frank Kidson 1905
From: [Various Songs] by Frank Kidson, Cecil J. Sharp, Lucy E. Broadwood and Ralph Vaughan Williams; Journal of the Folk-Song Society, Vol. 2, No. 7 (1905), pp. 70-104. Published by: English Folk Dance + Song Society.
[not finished proofing]
THE BALLAD SHEET AND GARLAND.
FOLK-SONGS seldom attained the dignity of inclusion in regular song-books before the modern period of interest in their collection; their words only were printed, without music, either in " Garlands" or on ballad-sheets (otherwise "broadsides.") The printers and publishers of these were almost invariably people who made a special business of this line of trade, with off-shoots into the printing and selling of small pamphlets, children's penny books, tradesmen's handbills, etc. They would often combine the sale of tops, marbles, shuttlecocks and so on with that of ballads, and were as much looked down upon by printers and publishers of heavier matter, as were the singers of folk-songs by " regular" and legitimate musicians. In both cases time has brought its revenge, and many of the despised pamphlets, broadsides and garlands, are treasured as of great price, while the " respectable" literature has frequently had a far more ephemeral existence and sunk beneath its own weight of dullness.
As these garlands and broadsides contain the only printed versions of the songs and ballads interesting to folk-song collectors, and supply us with more or less complete copies of words often imperfectly remembered by old singers, it is hoped that the following memoranda dealing with the printers and their periods may be of use to the worker in folk-song, by supplying the approximate date of any ballad-sheet in which he may be interested. It is obvious that so large a subject can be but scantily
dealt with in the pages of a periodical like the Folk-Song Journal; but the writer has some hopes that he may at a future time give it better treatment in volume form. As a technical point, it may be explained that "broadside " is the correct term for any printed sheet of paper in which the matter is so arranged as to be read unfolded. The size makes no difference; a tradesmen's handbill is a true broadside; and though what are termed "1 broadsides" are generally printed on one side of the paper only, this is not essential. If the matter is arranged in page form and the sheet folded once, it becomes folio; further foldings produce quarto, octavo, etc.
The earlier ballad-sheets were in general fairly large, and sometimes printed the long way of the paper. At the junction of the 18th and 19th centuries many were in single slips like "galley" proofs; later they took the form now familiar, crown quarto size, with double columns. From the " twenties" to the " fifties" they were frequently issued in very long sheets of nearly three feet, with three or four columns of type, and were then sold as " Three yards of comic songs a penny."
In early days ballad-sheets were taken through the country districts by "flying stationers" and pedlars (witness Autolycus in the "Winter's Tale"), while the ballad-chanter and little stationers' stalls distributed them through the town. Bishop Percy, Ritson and other early writers, almost invariably speak of the ordinary broadsides as "stall copies." The ballad-sheet must have come in with printing, though so far as the present writer is aware there is no sheet now existing older than 1540. Wynkyn de Worde
collecled the Robin Hood ballads into volume form, but it is highly probable that either he or Caxton had previously issued them in single sheets.
Printed ballads soon became a feature in literature, for educational and political purposes as well as for amusement. Shakespeare was indebted to them for the plots of many of his plays; and in I543 the ballad-sheet had risen to such power, politically, that Henry VIII dire6ed under the direst penalties that none were to be printed. It is doubtful whether this did any harm to the ballad-sheet, for many appear to have been printed before Elizabeth's reign. The early editions of the
metrical Psalter set forth on the title page that the Psalms " turned into English
meeter are very mete to be used of all sortes of people; privately for their godly
solace and comfort, laying aparte all ungodly songes and ballades, which tend only
to the nourishing of vice and the corrupting of Youth; " so between state interference
and religious discountenance the ballad-sheet was in rather a bad way.
The ballad was almost always printed on one side of the paper only. It was the
pra6lice in those early days to paste the sheets on kitchen walls, on the inside of
cupboard doors and chest lids, in the parlours of country alehouses and in other
places of public resort; and this explains the scarcity of the early ballad-sheets.
Another reason for their rareness would be the constant foldings to which they
would be subjected when thrust hastily into the pockets of idle apprentices or serving-
maids. Few people were like the Captain Cox whose love of ballads and " histories "
is so feelingly mentioned by Laneham in his " Letter," 1575. Captain Cox's ballads
numbered more than a hundred, "all ancient," and were "fair wrapt in parchment
and tied with a whip cord." Would that there had- been more of the Captain's
careful disposition!
There are many allusions in literature to the custom of pasting ballads upon walls, and it is also shown by old prints of cottage and other interiors. Two quotations are enough to illustrate this:
"I will now lead you to an honest alehouse, where we shall find a cleanly room, lavender in the window and twenty ballads stuck about the wall."-Walton's Complecit Angler, 1653.
No wonder that the old angler and his pupil found so many delightful snatches of
quaint old song current where ballads and songs were thus fostered!
The Spectator shows that the usage had not died out in Queen Anne's time:
" I cannot, for my heart, leave a room before I have thoroughly studied the walls of it, and
examined the several printed papers which are usually pasted upon them."-No. 85, Vol. II.
A noticeable feature in the ballad-sheet is, that quite to the end of the 17th century
it was printed in " black-letter," so that the sheet may look far older than it really
is. Black-letter in ordinary literature had been discarded long before in favour of
what is now our usual type; but from some unexplained cause bibles, law-books and
romances (or, as they were then called, " histories "), were still printed in the Gothic
chara6ter. The ballad was perhaps supposed to fall into the sed6ion "romance,"
though the true " histories " were books of more or less pretension, comprising from
fifty to two hundred pages, and generally in quarto. Even Sir Thomas Malory's
" King Arthur" is called on the title-page of the I634 edition "The Historie of
Prince Arthur," and is printed in black-letter. Other old histories are those of
" Montelion," " Scoggin," "Valentine and Orson," " Tom a Lincoln," "1 Thomas of
Reading," etc., all in black-letter and published by \Villiam Thackeray towards the
end of the 17th century. The term " history " clung to this class of work down to
recent years, as shown by an advertisement issued ten or fifteen years ago by WV. S.
Fortey in which "Valentine and Orson," "Blue Beard," "\Vhittington and his
Cat," are named as " penny histories."
As to the woodcuts which from early times have adorned ballad-sheets and have
caused so much amusement by their eccentric and inappropriate application, it must
be understood that they were seldom intended to illustrate the text. The public
expected a woodcut as decoration, and the printer did his best to supply this. He
made the best of his stock, and very conscientiously fitted them to the ballads which
they best suited. They may have been cut in the first instance as illustrations to
some of the histories referred to above. It would scarcely have been worth while to
cut a block for a broadside, though even this has been essayed in a rude fashion.
Thie type, cuts, founts and presses have been passed on from one printer to another;
and we find many curious and interesting early woodcuts on modern issues. In later
times James Catnach and his successors employed many a pretty woodcut by Bewick and his pupils, which having served its original purpose in a reading or spelling book, or as a tail-piece to one of Bewick's own publications, ended its existence on a ballad-sheet. As woodcuts became more plentiful the printer had more
scope for his fancy and taste. Thus we find a ballad about Turpin's Black Bess
appropriately headed with a plodding pack-horse; "Caller Herrin " having a nautical
flavour, has allotted to it a picture of Chinese junks; and the song " Fly away,
pretty Moth," suggesting natural history, is adorned by a picture of a thrush.
The " Garlands" were generally the size of a ballad-sheet folded twice, and thus
folded varied in size from about 6 x 4 to 7i x 5ins. The front page was reserved for
the title and list of contents, and was usually adorned with a central woodcut, which
had seldom anything to do with any piece in the interior. Sometimes the garland
was entirely occupied by one lengthy ballad, after which it was named, as "Catskin's
Garland;" and the words still retained the garland title, even when printed in
ballad-sheet form. In general, however, the garland consisted of a collection of
songs; whence the name, bestowed in the first instance on such little anthologies by
somie romantic-minded printer who compared his wares to a string of choice flowers.
Some of the titles of the i6th and I7th century booklets of song are poetic enough,
as, "A Hardful of Pleasant Delites," I584, "The Crown Garland of Goulden
Roses;" " The Garland of Goodwill;" "The Garland of Loyalty,"- etc. They
frequently at this period ran to twenty or thirty pages; but, as the i8th century came
in, the garland was confined to the single sheet folded twvice, and this style held in
favour until nearly the middle of the i9th century.
To prevent misconception, it may here be stated that music was never printed in
garlands. Nor was it upon broadsides, with the exception of a very few ballad-
sheets of the 17th century where a rough wood-engraving of a tune heads the ballad.
Amongst these rare exceptions are some broadsides printed by Deacon at the Angel in Guiltspur Street.
Although the music did not accompany the words of these publications the ballad
was, in a great number of cases, dire(ed to be sung to a particular tune, or some-
times a choice of airs was given. It is one of the delights of the Musical Antiquary
to identify these tunes from early printed works or musical manuscripts; Chappell
and Rimbault were most clever and industrious in the pursuit, yet many of the
16th and 17th century tunes named still remain unidentified.
London was the home of the ballad and garland-printer before the middle of the
18th century, but after that time the provinces had many ballad-printers. Edinburgh
had, however, been issuing broadsides from the end of the 16th century, and Glasgow
was possibly fairly early in the field. Ballads and garlands were printed at Stirling and Newcastle at a fairly early date; and Manhester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Leeds, Durham, Preston, Gloucester and many other provincial towns were also
ballad-printing centres.
In London the principal locality of the ballad-printer was, during the 16th century, St. Paul's Churchyard, Cheapside-nd Paternoster Row. In the I7th century
Pye Corner and Holborn, with Smithfield and London Bridge, were the principal
addresses on the imprints; while in the igth century Smithfield, Bow Churchyard
and Aldermary Churchyard were the favoured places of production. In the early
part of the 19th century the Seven Dials and St. G;iues gave forth the ballad-sheet
in greatest plenty.
The following printers, who were in general typographers of standing, and in
many cases members of the Stationers' Company, may be metinned as among
those whose names appear on the earliest species of the ballad sheet now remaining:
John Gough, " at the signe of the Mermayd" in Ch was a printer of considerable repute. He printed ballads in I540 and was working beiore that date.
J7ohn Redinan, " at ye signe of our Ladye " in Paternoster Row, was also responsible for a ballad in 1540, as was Richard Ban kes at the same date. In 1550 John Walley, in Foster Lane, was printing ballads, and, with the widow of a printer,
named Robert Toy, is named as having printed many ballads whose qaint titles alone
remain to us. Richard Lant, William Pickerinige, John Cawood, Thomas Gosson
and others all belong to the i6th century, as does also Richard Jones or Jhones,
who printed ballads in 1572, and a celebrated song-book, " A Handful of Pleasant
Delites," in 1584. He lived in Fleet Lane, near Holbourn Bridge (just where the
Holborn Viaduct now stands).
In the 17th century ballad-printing became more general, and maniy of the pub-
lishers clubbed together, so that we find several names on an imprint. Other sheets
merely give the name of the publisher, who got different printers to work for him.
One of these was Henry Gossont in i6i6 and later; and another, ditn Tr, Jundlle, wvho
had a shop in Cripplegate, was such a noted ballad-vendor t1ai he iD -named in Ben
Jonson's " Every Man in his Humour." He published in 1615 and I624. In I642
and for twenty years later flourished Francis Coles or Coules, with a shop on Saffron
Hill. He was a prominent ballad-seller, and published in conjunction with T. Vere
and William Gilbertson. Of this period also were Alxannder Milbournz, Fra.ncis
Grove, _7. Wrighlt, William Onzley, and the "A ssignes of Thomas Symcocke." In
1687 William Thackeray at the " Angel in Duck Lane " issued, with T. Passenger at the "Three Bibles on London Bridge," many interesting ballads, garlands, histories and chap-books.
Whether at the opening of the 18th century ballad-printing rather slackened, or
whether the ballads have not been preserved, is uncertain; but they seem to be far
scarcer at this period. Many, too, were issued without the names of publisher or
printer. John Cluer, who afterwards became a noted music-publisher, first began
in Bow Churchyard, Cheapside, with the printing of ballads, about 1700-I0. He
was directly followed in this line by William Dicey, about 1730; the imprint then
merely gave, "Printed and sold in Bow Church Yard"; but Dicey & Co. and
Dicey & Okell were at work as late as I763, selling patent medicines, after the
fashion of small printers and stationers of that day, and advertising largely in pro-
vincial newspapers. Dicey, prior to taking up Cluer's business in London, had been
established at Northampton, where, in partnership with Robert Raikes (afterwards a
Gloucester printer and music-publisher, and father to Robert Raikes the founder of
Sunday Schools), he had carried on an extensive business. In 1720 Raikes and
Dicey were printing nmany excellent and interesting ballad-sheets, and at this date
they advertise "1 all sorts of ballads, broadsheets and histories with finer cuts, better
print and as cheap as any place in England." Judging by the specimens I have
seen, this statement appears to be true.
At a somewhat later date ballads are found bearing the imprint, " Printed and sold
in Aldermary Church Yard. In I793-4, J. Marshall was at this address, issuing
engraved song-sheets, each adorned with a pictorial heading. Then arose John
Evans, of 42, Long Lane, Smithfield. He was printing ballads in I791, and no
doubt had been established long before this date. Besides the ordinary typographical ballad-sheet, he published some engraved song-sheets of the same date and
nature as those just mentioned. C. Sheppard, of I9, Lambeth Hill, Doctors Common, was also printing this kind of engraved sheet in I786. John Evans appears to
have had several sons, who succeeded in due course to their father's business, having
been previously in partnership with him. About i8oo the firm is Y. Evans & Son,
afterwards "6 Sons," and they were printers to the Religious Tract Society, producing
for it many quaint religious penny stories with pretty and clever woodcut adornments, just in the same style as the old garlands. The famous "Shepherd of Salisbury Plain " was one of these. Another Evans imprint is Y. & C. Evans-evidently
two brothers in partnership after the death of the father, at the old address, 42,
Long Lane. Another of the family, T. Evanis, was at 79, Long Lane, about i800-5,
while the original firm at 42, Long Lane, became prior to i8io, Howard & Evans,
and by 1815 had reverted to its old style of " John Evans & Son."
It was about the beginning of the 19th century that 7. Pits first appeared. It is said that "Johnny" Pitts was really a female, who had been a bum-boat woman, serving the fleet with "soft tack," tobacco and a thousand and one other things, no
doubt including ballad-sheets. (See Hindley's Life of Jantes Caitnach). But whether
this really was the case or not it is difficult to decide. He (or she) did a very large
business in ballad and garland-printing and vending, besides having a warehouse for
the sale of toys, marbles and other children's wares. The first address was I4,
Great St. Andrews Street, Seven Dials, but in later issues the address changes to
No. 6 in the same street. Pitts probably disappeared from the ballad-printing world
about 18I5.
It was in I813 that Yames Catnach first came to London, and set up business at
2 and 3, Monmouth Court, Seven Dials. He was the son of a printer, also named
J. Catnach, at Alnwick. The elder Catnach printed and published books (chiefly
poems illustrated by Bewick), in the choicest style of typography, and bearing the
dates of the early years of the 19th century. At one time he was in partnership
with a person named Davison. James Catnach the younger, when he came to
London, made a revolution in ballad-printing; he had the excellent traditions of his
father's work to keep up. He discarded the coarse, blue-tinged or whitey-brown
paper on which Pitts and Evans had printed, and used white paper of good quality,
always in crown quarto size, and exceedingly thin, though durable. His type was
good, not the confusion of founts known as " printers' pye"; and his woodcut deco-
rations were generally printed from artistic and well-cut blocks. He soon established a great trade, and printed, besides ballads, innumerable penny song-books of
all sizes, some little bigger than a postage stamp. These were the " Little WAarb-
lers," once so popular. Catnach retired in 1838 and died in 1841. On his retire-
ment the business was taken over by his sister, A nnie Ryle, who reprinted Catnach's
ballads and added to them. She advertises " 4,000 sorts," with the imprint Ryle &
Co. Her manager was James Paul, and at one time the imprint ran 7. Pauil & Co.
In I845 it returned to " A. Ryle & Co," and this remained until at least 1856. W. S. Fortey, who had been in the business many years, now took over the concern,
and occupied the old shop in Monmouth Court until modern improvements swept it
away. He then removed to adjoining premises at 4, Great St. Andrews Street. It
was in Catnach's time that stereotypes were introduced into the ballad-printing
trade; and it is perhaps fortunate for the preservation of the old versions that this
was done, for reprinting became an easy matter, and we get on Fortey's issues many
of the original Catnach ballads.
Contemporary with James Catnach were T. Batchelor, of Little Cheapside, Moor-
fields, afterwards of 14, Hackney Road Crescent; G. Piggot, 6o, Old Street; and T.
Birt, 39, Great St. Andrews Street, Seven Dials. 3. Davenport, 6, George Court,
was rather earlier; he was printing in 1802. Later than Catnach were E. Hages,
" from Pitts," 3I, Dudley Street, Seven Dials, afterwards of 26, Gratton Street, and
Hentry Disley, 57, High Street, St. Giles, who was printing in i86o.
One of the most important of modern ballad-printers was Henry Parker Such.
He was apparently the son or other relation of John Such, who printed in Budge
Row, Cannon Street, from the early forties up to the sixties. In I848 Henry Parker
Such was a grocer in Bermondsey; but the following year (X849) he tumed news-
vendor, and no doubt printer, at I23, Union Street, Borough. We find a great
number of Such's ballad-sheets bearing this address. His later addresses were,
(I869) I77, Union Street, and (i886) I83, Union Street-probably the same pre-
mises re-numbered. I am not sure whether the Such firm is now printing ballads so
largely as in its golden days, but its issues contain much that is valuable in the
matter of folk-song.
There is, perhaps, yet space to glance at some Scottish and provincial ballad and
garland-printers. Edinburgh was early in the field. Robert Lekprewicke, or Lek-
previck, an Edinburgh printer of note, who was the first to print music in the north,
issued ballads about I570 at the Netherbow in Edinburgh, and others in 1572 at St.
Andrews, where he lived for some months after working at Stirling and before re-
turning to Edinburgh. There is no room here to trace the early Scottish ballad-
printers, but it may be mentioned that in I823-6 a great number of garlands were
printed by Willian Macnie at Stirling, while about the same period we find similar
publications with the imprint G. Caldwell, Paislej. At Airdrie song-garlands were
printed about I823-5 by 5. & 5. Neil; and Glasgow, in I829, is represented by a big
series with no other imprint than " Glasgow, printed for the booksellers."
At Newcastle-on-Tyne, about 1820-5, the chief printer of garlands was 7. Marshall,
in the old Flesh Market. About fifteen or twenty years ago, so many garlands by
Marshall got into circulation among the second-hand booksellers, that many people
were under the impression that they were modern reprints. This, however, -was not
the case; they were merely turned adrift from some vast store of unsold copies,
which had remained untouched for sixty or seventy years.
Walker, of Durham, was printing ballads and garlands in I839 and later; and
Harkness, of Church Street, Preston, in Lancashire, about i850-5, issued a large
series of well-printed and interesting ballad-sheets. At this time, too, Richard
Barr (succeeded by Andrews), of Leeds, was working off broadsides and ballads;
so also was Beavnmont, in the same town.
Of Manchester ballad-printing many old examples are found, with the imprint W.
Shelnerdine & Co., Deansgate; these date from about I8I5-20. MIuch later, Man-
chester ballads came from John Bebbington, 31, Oldham Road (and with another
address, 26, Goulden Street), while Jacques, Pearsont and White were also of the
fraternity of ballad-printers in this city.
A York printer of pretty garlands, chap-books and ballads, was 7. Keidre-w, about 1840-50. An earlier York printer was C. Croshaw, of Coppergate, circa I820.
7. Jennings printed at Sheffield in the fifties, and W. Pratt about the same
time in Birmingham. About I7?0-1800, S. Summnerside was printing at 58, White-chapel, Liverpool, sometimes with the imnprint "Mrs. Summerside," and there were also other Liverpool ballad-printers.
The above rambling article must be taken as merely touching the fringe of what the writer thinks an interesting subject.
FRANK KIDSON.
LEEDS,
June, 1905