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Description: | War broke out between Britain and France in 1793 as a result of Napoleon Bonaparte's desires to extend the French Empire throughout Europe. Despite a brief peace in 1803, the ensuing 'Napoleonic Wars' were fought between France and various Allied coalitions over the next 11 years. The Allies successfully invaded in 1814 and forced Napoleon to abdicate at the Treaty of Fontainbleau. However, Napoleon soon returned to France and the fighting resumed. The Wars finally came to an end in 1815, culminating largely in the Battle of Waterloo. This song could refer to either the peace of 1803, or to the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 - as the author was writing throughout this period it is difficult to date.This song form part of a selection of songs written in the early nineteenth century by Robert Anderson. The book was published in Wigton, by William Robertson in the mid-nineteenth century, sometime after Anderson's death. Keith Gregson, in his introduction to 'Cumbrian songs and ballads', gives a concise account of songs and ballads in Cumberland during the nineteenth century. The period was, he says, 'bounded in terms of songs and ballads in the border counties, by the works of Robert Burns to the north and those of Geordie Ridley, Joe Wilson and Ned Corvan to the east. During the heart of the period itself, the songwriters of Cumbria - Robert Anderson and Susanna Blamire, in particular - had important contributions to make to the British song and ballad world. Composing words and setting them to the popular tunes of the day ... these Cumbrians left many songs of merit which have since been neglected'.Many of the songs in this and other Cumbrian songbooks do of course have strong Scottish influences and most of the tunes to which they were sung were undoubtedly Scottish. However the majority of the songs still reflect the nature of Cumberland life at the time and for this reason alone are valuable in their own right. A particularly isolated county, Cumberland has a strongly preserved dialect and the rural nature of the area is reflected in songs which centre around relationships between market and farm, man and woman, and the surrounding landscape. ; A selection of songs by Cumberland composer Robert Anderson | Publisher: | William Robertson Wigton ; Cumberland | Rights holder: | rights holder : Border History Museum | Subjects: | 1800-1815 & peace war/armed forces war & Napoleonic Wars | Temporal: | start=1801;end=1840; | Source: | Folk Archive Resource North East | Identifier: | farne:H1701002 | Go to resource |
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