A thorough genealogist of Hogg's airs and texts, and a skilful unraveller of their secrets, Pittock has contributed substantially to our understanding of how the nineteenth century constructed its eighteenth-century past, and mediated its folk-cultural present. This is a major contribution to Hogg studies, but it is even more important than that. The Relics - which Murray Pittock stamps with unquestioned editorial quality - and the Stirling/South Carolina Research Edition's commitment to presenting new scholarly editions of all Hogg's song collections, with the literary and musical components, is certainly to be celebrated. Hogg can then stand alongside Burns and Scott. This strikes me as an exemplary edition in the sense that it amply fulfills the need for a text in an area where textual exploration/ discovery is/ has moved rapidly of late. Pittock is the expert in the field! I recommend it without hesitation.
Professor Jeremy Black, University of Exeter Professor Pittock's edition of Hogg's Jacobite Relics promises to be an important volume - not only in terms of the larger Stirling/ South Carolina Edition of the Works of James Hogg, but also in the field of Scottish song. His careful annotation, which draws on many years of research into the traditions of Jacobite song, will make this the authoritative edition of a hitherto neglected, but extremely significant collection by a major Scottish writer.
Fiona Stafford, Somerville College, Oxford A thorough genealogist of Hogg's airs and texts, and a skilful unraveller of their secrets, Pittock has contributed substantially to our understanding of how the nineteenth century constructed its eighteenth-century past, and mediated its folk-cultural present. This is a major contribution to Hogg studies, but it is even more important than that. The Relics - which Murray Pittock stamps with unquestioned editorial quality - and the Stirling/South Carolina Research Edition's commitment to presenting new scholarly editions of all Hogg's song collections, with the literary and musical components, is certainly to be celebrated. Hogg can then stand alongside Burns and Scott. This strikes me as an exemplary edition in the sense that it amply fulfills the need for a text in an area where textual exploration/ discovery is/ has moved rapidly of late. Pittock is the expert in the field! I recommend it without hesitation. Professor Pittock's edition of Hogg's Jacobite Relics promises to be an important volume - not only in terms of the larger Stirling/ South Carolina Edition of the Works of James Hogg, but also in the field of Scottish song. His careful annotation, which draws on many years of research into the traditions of Jacobite song, will make this the authoritative edition of a hitherto neglected, but extremely significant collection by a major Scottish writer.