Lord Buchan and Stormy Times

The Old Book by William Merritt Chase

I take it to be a great advantage, that one can amuse one’s self with an old idle story in these stormy times.--Lord Buchan

Lord Buchan was an early folklorist, who gathered tales in Scotland primarily around the 1830s. Some of the tales he collected, as well as this quote, can be found in his Ancient Scottish Tales, available for reading online. You can read more about his contributions at Peter Buchan, and other papers on Scottish and English ballads and songs (1915).

Anyway, I enjoyed reading that Buchan found joy in folklore as a balm to his own modern times almost 200 years ago. Another reminder, as folklore is itself, that the human condition has always been a challenge.