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Description: | This song gives a full description of the races that took place on the 3rd May, 1845, at Burgh, a village 6 miles from Carlisle. Races were also held here in 1845, 1873, 1878 and 1884. The song compares interestingly with Robert Anderson's account of some 40 years previous.This song forms part of a small selection of songs written in the mid nineteenth century by John Rayson of Aglionby. The songs were printed as part of 'Anderson's Cumberland's ballads ... [etc.]', a collection of songs by early nineteenth century Cumberland composer, 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 Burgh ; Cumbria | Rights holder: | rights holder : Border History Museum | Subjects: | sport & horseracing entertainment and sport Leisure | Temporal: | start=1801;end=1840; | Source: | Folk Archive Resource North East | Identifier: | farne:H1713004 | Go to resource |
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