Scottish Songs and Social History: ‘The Gaelic Hotch Potch of Story, Song and Music’

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay
Cover of song book, Gaelic Hotch Potch

An Unusual Anthology

Whilst the rain pours and a breeze gets up outside, I decided that today was definitely a day for indoor pursuits, and – with my mind on a forthcoming lecture – I thought it was time to look at a volume which is quite the most unexpected of all the Scottish song books in my collection. My interest was in the motivation for its compilation. I love working out what the compiler had in mind, and who his intended audience might be.

The whole book was ‘printed for the proprietors’ by McCorquodale & Co., Ltd and Aird & Coghill, (letterpress and music respectively) both in Glasgow. It’s a scruffy old tome – I really haven’t looked at it closely before, largely because it looks so unappealing from the outside. It was clearly compiled for advertising purposes, and I didn’t expect to find much of note inside. Don’t get too excited about the ‘Gaelic’, though. It’s the name of a brand of whisky…

The Gaelic Hotch Potch of Story, Song and Music from Scotland, by J. Murray Mackenzie (4th ed.) Stirling, 1895

Diagonally across the cover, is printed a strip of the compiler’s family tartan. (I’ve written before about the obsession with tartan on this kind of book. It would have appealed to the target audience.) This 4th edition was published in Stirling in January 1895. However, a notice in the Indian Daily News (30 Oct 1895) says that the book is in its fourth year of publication, so I imagine it first came out ca. 1891.

The National Library of Scotland has the only library copy – of the subsequent, 5th edition, which dates from 1911. By this time it was entitled The Gaelic Old Smuggler hotch-potch, which actually tells you all you need to know. It is connected with a whisky company, The Stirling Bonding Company, Ltd. (My heroines, poet Mary Ann and her composer daughter Rose Smith would not have been impressed, being firmly committed the temperance movement!) Anyway, my 1895 copy informs the reader that,

The “Gaelic” Whisky and “Old Smuggler” bottle are both registered, and we warn those infringing the above trademarks in any way, that they will at once be proceeded against.

Mr Mackenzie declares in the ‘Introductory’ preface that ‘many friends’ had requested this fourth edition. He describes it quite accurately, as,

… a short collection of familiar Scotch Songs, Highland Music, and Stories of an anecdotal character associated with the district of Stirling, interspersed with a few facts about Scotch Whisky, and Recipes for Haggis, Scones, Porridge, and Oat-Cakes, in truth, a veritable Hotch-Potch. Many of the anecdotes are old […] To some they may not be “cauld kail”. To the many I trust they may have more than a mere passing interest, and may serve to carry their fancies back to “Bonnie Scotland”, the land of their birth.

For the Overseas Market

Aha! This book is for the ex-pat in the Scottish diaspora. It wasn’t just advertised in India – I found it advertised in New Zealand, too. Even into the 1940s-50s, this “Gaelic Whisky” and “Old Smuggler” went to Australia and America, and plenty of ephemera can be found on eBay accordingly. There’s far less ephemera to be found on home ground, and the book itself appears to be quite rare.

My copy, which was priced at four shillings, is dedicated to the Directors of the Stirling Bonding Company, Limited, as a mark of the compiler’s ‘appreciation of [their] endeavours to maintain the character of true Scotch Whisky abroad, and upright dealings at home.’

The Compiler, J. Murray Mackenzie

Restaurateur?

Despite his ‘Introductory’ being signed ‘Stirling, 1895’, Mr J. Murray Mackenzie is not easy to track down, but I don’t think he published any other books of Scottish songs and tunes. Did he work for Stirling Bonding Company, or maybe have something to do with their advertising? He was not amongst the senior managers who signed an agreement to become part of a larger company in 1896. I’m intrigued! Despite AI having suggested he was an Edinburgh architect, I’m more inclined to think he’s the man who, having previously been an invalid attendant for some years, got a public house licence for wine and beer in Edinburgh in 1910, and was described as a restaurateur from 1912 onwards. This bloke lived from 1859-1928, so he’d have been 32 in 1891.  I haven’t yet linked him to any music making, but this does at least link him to alcohol supply! It’s feasible. *

Piper? Highland Dancer?

But please don’t take my word for it – it’s such a common name! There was also a Glasgow John Mackenzie who won prizes for piping and Highland dancing at Highland games and gatherings, certainly from 1889 onwards. It would be nice if it were the same man, but first we’d have to explain why he was in Glasgow. (And I found a married John Mackenzie, recent Piper to the Caledonian Asylum in London, in spring 1880, but the Edinburgh man that I found first was ‘John M. Mackenzie’, and a bachelor when he married in 1894, so that tends to rule out the earlier London-based Scot.)

Contents

So, what have we got here?

  • Introductory
  • Recipe for Scotch Haggis by Mistress Meg Dods of the Cleikum Inn, St Ronan’s (Vegetarians might turn the page quickly here! It’s detailed. Meg Dods was the proprietor of the Inn as early as 1823 and seemingly published a cookery book in 1827.
  • Recipe for Scones by Mary Fraser. I’d have tried this for you, but I don’t have any sour buttermilk, nor a hot girdle. Shame.
  • Recipe for Oat-Cakes by Kirsty MacDonald. (Same problem – no hot girdle.)
  • Recipe for Porridge, by every Decent Scotch Woman.
  • An “End” at a Curling Match. [Comic Dialogue]
  • The Dangers of Tea-Drinking. Reprinted from a leading article in the “Glasgow Herald”, 31st December, 1894.
  • Scotch Whisky. By a Highland Malt Distiller. The opening sentence tells you all you need to know:- ‘[…] in the East it is the universal medical opinion that throughout the tropics a moderate use of alcohol is most necessary to the maintenance of sound health in a tropical resident.’ [Six sides of text, including an advertising puff for the “Gaelic” Whisky, advice and illustrations as to how to tap and store whisky in casks. Extravagant advertising copy is nothing new, either:-

Made in the lonely highlands of Scotland from pure hill water, far removed from the smoke of large cities, distilled from Scotch barley and bere […] This small species of barley, as grown on the upland soils, is sweeter and makes finer whisky than the heavy barley grown in the lowlands. Foreign barley we never touch – thus assuring the quality of our whisky. […]

  • A full-page cartoon of a kilted Highlander seated on a cask, warming his feet on a candle stuck in a “Gaelic” whisky bottle
  • 18 pages of ‘local anecdotes’ – 45 of them.

Dance Tunes, Marches, Laments & Songs

And then, at last, we reach the Highland Music. There’s a brief introduction advising the reader that the music is arranged ‘in sets for a full Highland Reel’ – a strathspey to be slowly played four times, followed by a reel, quickly ditto, and another strathspey, slowly ditto.

‘And lastly, the Reel of Tulloch or Hullachan is played as often as the spirit of the dancers can keep it up. I have seen it played for thirty minutes, till couple by couple dropped out.’

Now, gentle reader, here’s the surprise. There are twelve sets of dances provided, and the Reel of Tulloch is repeated at the end of every single set. Wow! So, that’s pp.2-27 taken care of. There’s more.

  • pp. 2-27 Reels and strathspeys
  • pp. 28-38 Marches
  • pp.38-43 Pibrochs [sic]. Note that these piobaireachds are in piano settings – they’re not written for bagpipe performance.
  • pp. 44-50 Laments
  • pp. 52-100 Songs

So, is there anything noteworthy about the contents? The first thing that hit me was that there are just the titles of the dance tunes or songs, and no attributions, So, if you wanted something by Robert Burns or James Hogg … you’d have to know that already, because the book won’t tell you. Burns is well represented amongst the songs.

There is no index or contents page.

The accompaniments for the dances are fairly basic, but grace notes are indicated. Meanwhile, the song accompaniments are competent, and generally don’t mirror the vocal line. Some of the dances have dynamics indicated, whilst the songs have both dynamics and Italian tempo markings.

Mackenzie must have had a sense of humour, as the first dance in the book is a strathspey entitled ‘Highland Whisky’. The first lament? ‘The Gaelic bottle’s done’, marked ‘Slow’. And the final song in the book? ‘O, Willie brew’d a peck o’ maut’, sung appropriately enough in an ‘Allegro gioviale’ tempo.

Whilst most of the tunes, including ‘Highland Whisky’, are pre-existent tunes, I rather suspect that ‘The Gaelic bottle’s done’ and ‘Mackenzie’s Lament’ might be newly-written. ‘Mackenzie’s Lament’ is certainly neither of the versions I found online. (There could be a few other tunes hiding, but I’m disinclined to check out every single tune!) And I believe the pibroch ‘Cabar Feidh’ has a connection with the Highland Mackenzie clan

O, Willie Brew’d a Peck o’ Maut

Absent Friends

Unusually, there is no ‘Auld Lang’, and no, ‘Oh, why left I my Hame’.  For a book destined to be sent overseas, it’s surprisingly unsentimental!

The Book’s Afterlife?

I think I may have found a newspaper report of a lady in New Zealand actually using this book. I’ll share the news-clip, which made me both smile, and wince slightly for the long-suffering congregation! It’s in the Papers Past database from New Zealand’s National Library (Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume LXX, Issue 4260, 10 December 1912, Page 2). The ‘Lament for the Dead on the Battlefield’ and ‘Mackintosh’s Lament’ are on consecutive pages in the collection I’ve been describing:-

My copy of this book is old and battered. However, I like to think that it has enjoyed an active, possibly rather merry life …

* The AI link to an Eastern European website does name the compilation under the later edition’s title, but their Murray Mackenzie would still have been a schoolboy when he compiled the 1891 first edition!

There’s more about the Stirling Bonding Company on the Bay Bottles website, explicitly emphasising the exporting activity.

And … going off at a complete tangent, I saw a headline in The Herald newspaper today (29 October 2026), saying that tax on whisky is now 74 pence in the pound. I’m certainly no economist, nor a whisky connoisseur, but I was curious to know how this compared with 1895. Oh my goodness! Tax was then 25% or 30%. Mr Mackenzie and the directors of the Stirling Bonding Company would have been most alarmed.

74p in every pound goes to tax as Scot whisky industry sounds alarm
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/26678541.scotch-whisky-tax-rise-industry-warns-jobs-sales-slump/

James S. Kerr, Victorian: the Subsequent History of his Music Business

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay
St Andrews Citizen Saturday 9 August 1980, newsclip about the Glasgow Music Centre.

News item from St Andrews Citizen (9 August 1980)

I’ve recently highlighted a new published article focusing on the business history of Kerr’s music shop and publishing business. Kerr died near the end of the nineteenth century, and his wife Mary died in the early twentieth. These early trading years are the focus of the article’s authors:-

Renzo Cordina, Rosa Michaelson & David Power (08 Jun 2026): ‘Pianos, profit and provinciality: a microhistory of a Victorian entrepreneurial firm‘, Management & Organizational History.

As I’ve mentioned, there is a mass of very useful and informative detail about business history, and piano sales in Scotland in this era.

Corrections

However, I’m perturbed by the final paragraph of section 4, the Case Study, which precedes the next section 5, Discussion.  Is there’s a protocol for raising such concerns? I really don’t know, but I don’t think it can be inappropriate politely to express them here.  It is regrettable if misinformation creeps into the story of this significant Glasgow firm.

The Shop in Berkeley Street

The paragraph begins,

The legacy of the James S Kerr business was both the music shop which continued to operate until the 1970s, and perhaps, more lastingly, music publishing which continued into the 21st century.

  • No mention is made of the purchase of the firm by a group of entrepreneurs including singer Robert Wilson, in the mid-20th century.
  • A Berkeley Street shop continued later than the 1970s, as the Glasgow Music Centre. The article contradicts its own statement above, when it references a 1980 news item in the Aberdeen Press & Journal (7 August 1980). (Kudos to the Aberdeen paper for quoting a woman, Ruby Anderson, who was co-director. Hers is a new name to me!). However, the St Andrews Citizen (9 August 1980) is more informative:-

The new premises will house Mozart Allan, Bayley & Ferguson Ltd, Glasgow Music Centre, James S Kerr and Thistle Records, all under the direction of Gavin D Farquhar. The new set-up […] will operate from 65 Berkley [sic] Street.

Addresses: 79 and 65 Berkeley Street

The subsequent information a couple of sentences on, is technically correct – 79 Berkeley Street is still the registered address, as we can see from the Gov.uk company information. And the shop certainly was at no.79 in the 1930s. This is all accurate.

The current company also has its address at 79 Berkeley Street, the same address as the music shop of the mid-1930s and it is still possible to buy copies …

However, this is also just a little misleading, as I can demonstrate, because there were actually two Berkeley Street addresses:-

  • 79 Berkeley Street was the address purchased by the individual who acquired the firm after the Kerr family. To this day it remains the registered address. It did appear at the foot of early publications after Kerr’s had moved from 314 Paisley Road. However, the shop was operating from 65 Berkeley Street, certainly by 1980. See the image at the top of this post.
  • The shop operated into the 21st century, not the 1970s, although latterly the retail side had no connection with Kerr’s Corporation.
  • I did visit the shop in the 1990s, long before I started my research. And to this day, a small Thistle Records sign is still there, a ghostly legacy from the past (just above the railing):-

Publishing History

  • Their music publishing did not really continue into the 21st century. It dwindled away within a few years of Wilson’s untimely death. Whilst copies of Merry Melodies can indeed be purchased, they’re merely reprints. There has been no publishing of new music for many decades.  (Any questions of still copyright works are another matter entirely. There has been no new music.)
  • Sheet Music Plus has a couple of reprinted titles in stock, one being Kerr’s Second Collection of Merry Melodies. The cover art is unchanged, apart from the new sans serif font of ‘Kerr’s Second’ at the head of the cover, and sans serif again for ‘James S. Kerr, 65 Berkeley Street Glasgow C.3’ at the foot. (The Third Collection reprint uses a different font for the same address.) But note that although the postcode actually changed from ‘C.3’ to G3 7DX in the late 1960s, it still appears on the reprints.

Evidence for my Assertions

What’s my evidence for my assertions? Quite apart from a lot of research, I’m very proud to know the last owner of the music shop; have spoken at length with a member of Wilson’s family, and I’ve also corresponded with the last surviving board member of Kerr’s Corporation:-

‘In terms of publishing it is a zombie company in that no additions to the catalogue have been made for many years.’

I’ve written quite a lot about the later history of the firm, in three publications: my monograph; my History Scotland article, and the RMA Research Chronicle article about the Scottish women musicians.

  • A Social History of Amateur Music-Making and Scottish National Identity: Scotland’s Printed Music, 1880-1951 (Routledge, 2025)
  • ‘The ‘Scottish Soprano’ and the ‘Voice of Scotland’: the Importance of Nationality to Flora Woodman and Robert Wilson’, History Scotland Vol.25 no.1 (Spring 2025), 74-81 (accessible online via public library e-magazine apps, or you may be able to order a paper copy online.)
  • Article, ‘Women Pursuing Musical Careers: Finding Opportunities in Late 19th- and Early 20th-Century Scottish Music Publishing Circles‘, Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle , Volume 56, April 2025, pp. 97 – 118

One Step Forward: One Woman’s Publishing

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

This week, I turned the internet inside out trying to find a copy of a piano piece by Rose Smith,  which seems only to be available in one or two libraries.  Clearly, I need to update Zotero, because when I eventually found this very run-of-the-mill piece of salon music ….

It was in my own collection. Oops!

I only needed it to see which address it had been published from. Setting it alongside another similar piece by Smith, with a later Mozart Allan address, it serves as a reminder that you can’t assume something was first published from the address on a particular copy. Other music listed on a later-printed copy may give you a  clue that it is from an earlier era. Indeed, the apparently ‘later’ piece has an illustration which simply didn’t look the right era for the publication address.

Now, as for the other music listed, which really does appear no longer to survive … anywhere at all … !

More interestingly, the stylistic difference between these piano pieces and Smith’s later self-published songs is quite significant.  But more about that another day.

Holiday Reading: Old Boys in Top Hats

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay
Busy Lizzie plant on garden table, with cup of coffee

I’m still managing not to reply to work emails – I merely glance at my inbox and delete anything irrelevant – and I haven’t touched my interview transcriptions this month. From that point of view, I’m succeeding at this ‘having a holiday’ July. However, my eBay purchases arrived earlier this week, and I could hardly not look at those, could I?

Holiday Purchases!

Prospectus, 1913-14

The school prospectus for 1913-14 contained no mention of James Easson in its examination results. He’d have been 17 or 18 by then.  He was also absent from the ‘List of Distinctions gained by Former Pupils’ – but he wouldn’t have had time to get any before the Great War began. I already knew that he served in the war, was invalided out in 1917, and got his Royal Academy of Music certificates in 1918 and 1921.

Oh well, you win some, you lose some. I discovered that the school provided instrumental and vocal instruction – but the teachers’ names weren’t those of the men with whom Easson studied; maybe he had private tuition.

The other alumnus in whom I was mildly interested – the one at the Scottish publishers whom Easson and Wiseman had initially considered, before signing a contract with Nelsons – did appear in the prospectus. He had attained Second Class Honours in Rhetoric, English Language and Literature at Edinburgh University during 1912-13 and graduated with an M.A.

APER: Fifty Years of Progress 1898-1948

This guy also appeared in my other purchase – a jubilee publication celebrating the Association of Publishers’ Educational Representatives.

It was pleasing to spot a contribution from one of the older editors at Thomas Nelson’s, too. By 1948, he had retired to Cornwall – he’d been living there most of the time before retiral, anyway.

Unfortunately, although I read this book from cover to cover – and it was interesting, showing the important role that the educational representatives held, liaising between publisher and schools – it soon became evident that a lot of people, some of them reps, and others with different roles in education, had been commissioned to write a few pages to celebrate the organisation’s 50-year jubilee. By the end of it, I was in no doubt as to the nature of their role. I’d also noted that there were lists of members and important officials – but the book had no direct bearing on my own research. There were some amusing anecdotes, and I was reminded that Thomas Nelson’s educational representatives always wore top hats when they were out visiting schools. It distinguished them from ordinary travelling salesmen. 

Top hats in the 1890s (and still in 1948!)

As that retired editor joked, school staff were unlikely to refuse admission to a smartly-dressed gent in a top hat!

I’m No Good at Holidays

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Unfortunately, semi-retirement and working-from-home mean that when I’m on holiday, nothing much changes except that I have even more time to spend not-working at home. And Scotland hasn’t even offered sunshine for me to tidy up the garden!

A week into my ‘holiday’, I’ve baked. I’ve knitted socks. I’ve booked a couple of days away. But eventually, bored with my own company – and an excess of companionable but essentially unsatisfying daytime TV – I crept back to my laptop. What could I do? Aha, there had been an interesting comment from one Nelson’s Scots Song Book compiler to his editor, that has been intriguing me for a while. It looks as though Nelson’s weren’t the compilers’ first choice. Clearly, a good vacation activity would be to find out more about the firm that they had initially considered.

So I did. Of course, I’ll never know if the other firm wasn’t interested, or if the compilers decided that for some reason, it wasn’t going to work out. But I now know who the managing director was, who the chief editor was, and what else they published that was remotely music- or Scottish-culture-related. Apart from a commissioned Burns song collection and a couple of dance books, I recognised two modern, contemporary names published by this other firm – but neither were Scottish, nor had anything to do with Scottish culture.

What use this is to me, I cannot fathom, because – as I’ve just said – Easson and Wiseman contracted to produce their series with Nelson!

My fingers twitched to acquire eBay copies of the somewhat unrelated titles that had piqued my interest, but truly, I can’t really justify it. I might just see if I can see copies in Glasgow’s Mitchell Library, although that begins to feel like a work-related wild goose chase, not a holiday treat. (I did order a contemporary book-trade commemorative volume that I thought might contain useful background material …)

‘Old School Tie’?

Back I returned to the managing director and chief editor. There was just one interesting lead left to follow. And … I  discovered that, believe it or not, James Easson and the chief editor had attended the same secondary school – a highly-esteemed, fee-paying Academy. (Much later, it became state-funded.)

With five years between them, I suspect they wouldn’t have known each other. Their families lived in completely opposite directions, so it’s hard to imagine their paths could have crossed much until adulthood.  All it tells me is that they both benefited from a thoroughly good education. One went on to attain music diplomas; the other, academic degrees.

I didn’t trace any musical threads in the chief editor’s timeline. I couldn’t find any interaction with Herbert Wiseman, either. Of course, just because I didn’t find anything, doesn’t mean there wasn’t some connection that I didn’t manage to turn up. But even I know when to concede that I’ve found nothing of interest!

Now what else can I do to amuse myself?

NEWSFLASH! Print and Tourism (Peter Lang, 2026)

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay
book cover - Print and Tourism

Yes, I’m on holiday! So I’ll keep this brief, but I have to share this: the postie has just delivered my author’s copy of Print and Tourism: Travel-Related Publications from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century / ed. Catherine Armstrong and Elaine Jackson.

My contribution is Chapter 8, The Glories of Scotland in Picture and Song: Jumping on the Festival of Britain Bandwagon (pp.187 – 205). It enabled me to write more about this Mozart Allan publication than I was able to justify in last year’s monograph about Scottish music publishers. I’m very happy indeed to have this chapter in Vol.7 of the Printing History and Culture series.

Published Peter Lang, 2026

  • ISBN 9781-80374-2441 (print)
  • ISBN 9781-80374-246-6 (ePub)
  • DOI 10.3726/b20937

Now in Paperback! A Social History of Amateur Music-Making and Scottish National Identity: Scotland’s Printed Music, 1880-1951

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay
A copy of A Social History of Amateur Music- Making and National Identity, on a piano music stand.

Forgive me for boasting, but this is exciting! I’ve just discovered that my second monograph came out in paperback on 21 May 2026, just over 18 months after the hardback and digital versions. This is really good news, because it makes it much, much more affordable for individual scholars.

Book Description

Late Victorian Scotland had a flourishing music publishing trade, evidenced by the survival of a plethora of vocal scores and dance tune books; and whether informing us what people actually sang and played at home, danced to, or enjoyed in choirs, or reminding us of the impact of emigration from Britain for both emigrants and their families left behind, examining this neglected repertoire provides an insight into Scottish musical culture and is a valuable addition to the broader social history of Scotland.

The decline of the music trade by the mid-twentieth century is attributable to various factors, some external, but others due to the conservative and perhaps somewhat parochial nature of the publishers’ output. What survives bears witness to the importance of domestic and amateur music-making in ordinary lives between 1880 and 1950. Much of the music is now little more than a historical artefact. Nonetheless, Karen E. McAulay shows that the nature of the music, the song and fiddle tune books’ contents, the paratext around the collections, its packaging, marketing and dissemination all document the social history of an era whose everyday music has often been dismissed as not significant or, indeed, properly ‘old’ enough to merit consideration.

The book will be valuable for academics as well as folk musicians and those interested in the social and musical history of Scotland and the British Isles.

ISBN

Paperback 9781032389219

Hardback 9781032389202

eBook 9781003347460

Know Your Audience (Mass Media) Part 2

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Why This Matters

It’s interesting to see how newspaper publishers diversified, producing books and booklets – and even music – for their readership. They advertised other publications within the pages of these booklets. The same practice is of course observed inside and on the back covers of sheet music. Indeed, James S. Kerr sometimes advertised along the bottom of a page of printed music.

In the case of John Leng, it gives a glimpse into the kind of readers they were aiming their publications at, and underlines the importance of music in their lives – specifically Robert Burns’s songs, national songs and dance tunes.

Our Wi-fi was down for 14 hours, and the household was plunged into the depths of despair. (I only slightly exaggerate.) But more to the point, all the detailed text of today’s blog post was trapped on my laptop and couldn’t be transferred to the blog.

(Three adverts in four pages – and not the last you’ll encounter, for this most popular of magazines!)

‘Life is made lightsome with a song’

In my earlier post, I promised I’d share details of John Leng & Co.’s advertising strategy, as observed in their booklet, The Songs of Burns – so here we are.

The Songs of Burns is a booklet that I bought purely out of curiosity; I was interested in their support of Scots Song singing through the Dundee Leng Medal prizes, and I wondered if books like this showed another aspect of that interest. I  think the only link is probably that Scottish songs in general, and Burns’ songs in particular, were just  popular all ways up, so this pamphlet wouldn’t have struggled to find purchasers. As the advert on the back cover says, ‘life is made lightsome with a song’.

Tucked in amongst the Burns songs, are the little column adverts and bigger full-page ones, which clearly indicate which publications they were pushing, around January 1905. Many of the adverts are distinctly aimed at women, which is interesting, considering Burns’s songs are of universal appeal.

As I mentioned in Part 1 of this post, much use was made of ‘Aunt Kate’ for good, sensible advice from a trustworthy auntie!

Moreover, I find it interesting that there’s more marketing for the People’s Friend than the People’s Journal. The magazine is still running, whilst the journal ceased in January 1986 – so even the journal had a good long life.

The People’s Penny Burns

Inside cover: Full page advertisement for its earlier companion, The People’s Penny Burns

p.48    Another full page advertisement for The People’s Penny Burns.

The People’s Penny Stories

p.3      Do you like a good novelette? You do. Well, don’t miss The People’s Penny Stories. Every month. One Penny. None so good. 

The question is followed by a firm affirmative answer.  Since my own People’s Friend serial ended up as no.393 in the ‘People’s Friend Story Collection’  back in the 1990s, I am naturally disposed to agree, stressing that this is light fiction, not literature!

p.29    A second advertisement for the People’s Penny Stories series.

Caring

Baby drawing by Mary Mapes Dodge, Wikimedia
Drawing by Mary Mapes Dodge, Wikimedia

p.1      A LOVING MOTHER’S NEGLECT to rear healthy babies is unpardonable. Aunt Kate’s Mother’s Guide contains much useful information, and anyone who follows its advice will have healthy families. Sold by all Newsagents; Price ONE PENNY. 

Taking an indisputably moral tone, the assurance that ‘anyone who follows its advice’ will flourish would probably flout advertising standards today, since some problems simply cannot be put right merely by following sound advice!

p.15    Have you a home pet? If so, and you would like to make the most of it, for its own sake and your own, invest a penny in Aunt Kate’s Canaries and Home Pets. Also uniform in size, style, and price, The People’s Dog Book.

Clothing the Family

p.5      Aunt Kate’s Knitting and Crochet Book contains over 170 Patterns. Price One Penny.  (Believe me, this was an absolute bargain!)

p.30    Young Mothers will find the People’s Friend Paper Patterns invaluable.  Complete Layette Sets at low prices.  Baby’s First Garments, Shortening Clothes, Outdoor Things, Christening Robes, Sleeping and Day Gowns, Newest Bonnets, Hats and Bibs for Young Children of all ages. For styles for spring, summer, autumn and winter, see People’s Friend Fashion Pages. 

(Get the paper patterns, or look in – where else, but the People’s Friend?  It has to be said that nowadays, the Friend is unashamedly aimed at grandmothers rather than young mums.)

p.41    Make your own Clothes.  Full directions how to cut dresses and other garments in AUNT KATE’S DRESS-MAKING BOOK. Price one penny; sold everywhere.

Feeding the Family

p.9      Aunt Kate’s Cookery Book is the best pennyworth in the world. If you have not a copy get one.

Entertainment

p.11    ‘AUNT KATE’S SCOTTISH SONGS’ Nos.1 and 2, and the ‘PEOPLE’S ENGLISH SONGS’ Contain the Cream of our National Minstrelsy. Each comprises nearly half a hundred Songs – Words and Music. The Price of Each is One Penny.

And they soon appeared, together with Welsh songs, in two hardbacked collections. These song books are advertised again on the back cover, see below.

This was, of course, the age of Tonic Sol-Fa, and many schools taught it, so there was a good chance that at least some of the readers of these books could work out a tune from Sol-Fa.  The piano accompaniment, however, required someone who could read music.  These accompaniments are simple and functional, rather than artistic, but they’re certainly usable. The arranger was a local Dundee music teacher who also wrote for John Leng & Co. Ltd.

Back cover: Life is made Lightsome with a Song: an unparalleled Quartet … ‘Music in each case in staff and sol-fa. One penny each. Sold by all newsagents.’

This is a whole page advert for the books in the smaller  column advert on p.11.

  • Aunt Kate’s Scottish Songs No.1: 46 ‘gems of Scottish Song’
  • The People’s English Songs: 46 ‘popular English ballads’
  • Aunt Kate’s Scottish Songs No.2: 46 Scottish and Gaelic ‘lyric gems’
  • The People’s Welsh Songs: Words in English and Welsh

Inside back cover – advertisement for ‘Simply Indispensible! Four Valuable Books [one penny each]:-

  • Conjuring and Parlour Magic Book: Aunt Kate’s Parlour Magic Book
  • Parlour Games for Everybody: a Companion to Aunt Kate’s Conjuring and Parlour Magic
  • The People’s Fortune Teller
  • Aunt Kate’s Dance Music ‘contains music for no fewer than twenty-six popular dances’ (there’s a little more about this book in another blog, Unsung Histories, Sept 2021, by Katie Howson.)

The People’s Friend

p.14    WHY NOT JOIN A CLUB? The Helper’s Club, conducted by Janette in the “People’s Friend”, is a National Bureau for the exchange of opinions, advice, and experiences among women of all classes.

p.16    Everyone praises the wholesome tone that characterizes every page of THE PEOPLE’S FRIEND.

p.17    A FRIEND INDEED is just what the People’s Friend has all along proved itself to be. No one who has ever known this “Friend” has turned his or her back upon it.  It contains something for everybody.  Ask your Newsagent to introduce you to the “Friend”; it will cost you a Penny, but you’ll find it worth the money over and over again.

p.25    Tribute to the PEOPLE’S FRIEND […] A miscellany which finds its way into many homes where good reading is courted. It has been a real influence in Scottish life, brightening it, and that must be a chief joy to Sir John Leng. – Daily Chronicle, London. 

p.35    Quoting Mr T. P. Connor speaking highly of the People’s Friend and People’s Journal, we find another mention of the Friend and a second of the Journal.

p.47    Space at the bottom of the Table of Contents – filled with a larger advertisement for The People’s Friend, quoting press opinions.

Men’s Stuff?

p.21    If your husband, son or brother wants the best book on a good subject, he should buy – HOW TO READ, WRITE, AND DEBATE. It costs One Penny, and is full of valuable hints to all who desire to become good writers and debaters, and who wish to make the best of their reading.

The People’s Journal

p.23    POINTS about the PEOPLE’S JOURNAL. 10,000 Newsagents sell it.  1,250,000 People read it.  A week’s issue weighs 20 tons.  It is the People’s Family Newspaper. Sold everywhere, price one penny. 

Know Your Audience (Mass Media) Part 1

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

Why This Matters

The advertisements in this little poetry booklet would be called ‘paratext’ by book historians. Paratext is anything around the text that forms the main body of a book. So the title page, index, contents pages, a preface or introduction – or advertisements for other publications – all count as paratext. It tells us more about the motivation of a publisher, what else they were publishing around the same time, and what they thought their readers would be interested in.

This was how John Leng & Co., of Dundee and Fleet Street, London, advertised their new booklet in  The Forfar Herald on Friday 20 January 1905:-

“THE SONGS OF Burns.—Messrs John Leng & Co., Ltd., have in their latest penny booklet, entitled The Songs of Burns, published what should be specially attractive to many at this time of the year, in view of the approaching anniversary of Burns’ birthday. Most of the well-known songs are included, and an alphabetical table of contents is also printed. It is a good pennyworth.”

That one penny (one-twelfth of today’s modern 5p and equating to about 55p using the Bank of England’s Inflation Calculator), was certainly affordable!  The Songs of Burns was sensibly and conveniently published just before Burns’ Day – 48 pages including an index and a full page advertisement for another of their publications. 

It’s just a book of verses – no music.  It was intended to be a companion to an earlier collection, The People’s Penny Burns (‘a splendid selection from the poems of Scotland’s national bard’), the same size and price.

No surprises as to the contents, then, but what caught my eye was actually the column advertisements. The publishers wasted no opportunity to advertise other publications that the reader might find interesting! Skimming through them enables us to profile the readership very clearly: largely women, concerned with feeding, clothing and amusing their families, and looking after the household pets.  ‘Aunt Kate’ was the branding John Leng used for many such publications – a homely and mature voice that readers could trust.

Meanwhile, women are advised that their menfolk should buy a booklet on effective reading, writing and debating. Of all the advertisements in this particular booklet, that’s the only ad for a title specifically aimed at men:-

How to read, write, and debate …

We have no wi-fi today, so I’m going to stop here for now.  When I  return,  we’ll have a paratextual wander through the 48 pages of John Leng’s The Songs of Burns, and I’ll show you how Leng did their advertising!

(Contextual note: If you’re not well up on newspaper publishing history, I should explain that D C Thomson later acquired John Leng & Co. Ltd, so there’s a direct lineage to today’s The People’s Friend, Sunday Post and Scots Magazine. The People’sFriend goes back a very long way.) 

Print and Tourism (Peter Lang, 2026), with a Chapter on Mozart Allan’s ‘The Glories of Scotland’

Posted on by Dr Karen E McAulay

An exciting email from the Print Networks Council popped into my inbox this week, announcing a new publication. It contains a chapter that evolved from a paper I submitted back in the pandemic. Yes, I mentioned Mozart Allan’s Glories of Scotland in my book, A Social History of Amateur Music-Making and National Identity, but I have treated it more extensively in this new chapter. It’s not every day that a musicologist gets to think about the Festival of Britain, book exhibitions, and post-war tourism. I thoroughly enjoyed both the researching and the writing of it – and I’m really looking forward to seeing an actual copy!

The latest volume in the Print Networks series has now been published; copies may be ordered via this link: https://www.peterlang.com/series/phc – where previous volumes in the series are also available.

Print and Tourism (the latest in the series)