Songs of the West is a landmark collection of English folk songs gathered by the clergyman and antiquarian S. Baring-Gould directly from the singers of Devon and Cornwall. One of the earliest serious efforts to preserve the oral song tradition of the West Country, it rescued many melodies from oblivion.
Baring-Gould transcribed both words and tunes, often noting the singers from whom he learned them, and provided notes on their origins and variants. The collection played an important part in the English folk-song revival that followed. As a pioneering record of a vanishing rural musical culture, it remains a treasured source for folklorists and lovers of traditional song.