Sir Neil and Glengyle, the Highland Chieftains; a tragical ballad. And the Drunken Exciseman.

The Drunken Exciseman.

Glasgow: Printed for the Booksellers

1840-1850 per National Library of Scotland

8 pages

16 cm

'5' is printed at the foot of the title page

The majority of this chapbook describes the tragic love story of Ann, the sister of a Squire who is woo’d by two men, Sir Neil and Glengyle. When her brother finds out that Sir Neil has been spreading rumours that he has received sexual favours from the young woman, he calls out Sir Neil for a duel. Sir Neil does not want to fight his friend and tries not to injure him, but in fighting for his life, slays his friend. Glengyle shows up and attacks Sir Neil to avenge the fallen Squire and his sister. Again, Sir Neil does not wish to fight, and in the act of declaiming this, is slain by Glengyle. When Ann discovers the deaths of her brother and beau, she vows to not marry Glengyle but to live the rest of her life as a maid. The rest of the chapbook is filled by a humorous song of a corrupt Exciseman who gets drunk after sampling the liquors of smugglers and passes out by a coal pit. When the coal-workers discover the insensible man, they decide to teach him a lesson by hauling him down into the coal pit. Upon waking, the Exciseman is convinced that the coal pit is hell and the coal-man is the Devil, whereupon he swears he will change his ways if only they will let him back up out of hell.

Argyle, Scotland

Ballads and songs

Courtship and Marriage

Crime

Highlands

Chapbooks - Scotland - Glasgow

Archival & Special Collections, University of Guelph Library, Guelph, Ontario

National Library of Scotland http://www.nls.uk/catalogues/main-catalogue-overview/

JPEGs and PDF derived from master file, which was scanned from the original book in 24-bit color at 600 dpi in TIFF format using an Epson Expression 10000XL scanner.

In the public domain; For high quality reproductions, contact Archival & Special Collections, University of Guelph. libaspc@uoguelph.ca, 519-824-4120, Ext. 53413

English

Archival and Special Collections, University of Guelph Library, Guelph, Ontario, Canada