Front Matter

Preface

The present volume, with its companion, "More English Fairy Tales," represents the nearest approach to an English Grimm that we can hope to obtain in these latter days. Modern methods of communication and education have reduced the traditional store of the English peasantry to a mini mum which is as fully represented in these volumes as it is ever likely to be. Yet few though they be, compared with continental collections, they contain several that may claim rank among the best of folk-tales, and their continued popularity among English children since their first publication proves that there is something redolent of the soil which gives them a special appeal.

For the methods adopted in collecting them, which have formed the subject of some controversy with my brother folklorists, I must refer to the preface and notes of the larger edition, which also contain discussions, as full and as interesting as I could make them, on the points of archeological or folk-lore importance which any of the tales present. I have likewise given there the sources from which I drew, and have only to add here that I have since discovered that two of the best tales, "Tom Tit Tom,'" and "Cap o' Rushes," were originally due to the memory of Mrs. Canon Thomas (née Fison), who has kindly allowed their continued use in the present volume. I should add that the Rev. S. Baring-Gould, to whom some of the stories in the volume were due—having been contributed by him to the first edition of Henderson—is about to add to the scanty story-store of England from further collections he has made, while Mr. Addy has recently published with Mr. Nutt a number of tales collected by him in Derbyshire.

JOSEPH JACOBS.

July 1, 1895.