The Flowering Thorn

ed from a great variety of sources. Child describes him in his note on “Young Bearswell” (1882–98, 5: 178) as “a respectable voucher.” And while Motherwell’s collector Thomas McQueen is also above suspicion, James Rankin was largely responsible for bringing Peter Buchan’s collection into disrepute. In sum, Peter Buchan was to Child anything but the ideal ballad collector/editor. The only thing that would have decided the case against Peter Buchan one way or the other was a publication of all his manuscripts—Grundtvig was right.