cherished in remote villages, resisting everywhere the invasion of
modern namby-pamby verse and jaunty melody, and possessing, in an
historical point of view, especial value as a faithful record of
the feeling, usages, and modes of life of the rural population, -
had been almost wholly passed over amongst the antiquarian revivals
which constitute one of the distinguishing features of the present
age. While attention was successfully drawn to other forms of our
early poetry, this peasant minstrelsy was scarcely touched, and
might be considered unexplored ground. There was great difficulty
in collecting materials which lay scattered so widely, and which
could be procured in their genuine simplicity only from the people
amongst whom they originated, and with whom they are as 'familiar
as household words.' It was even still more difficult to find an
editor who combined genial literary taste with the local knowledge
of character, customs, and dialect, indispensable to the collation
of such reliques; and thus, although their national interest was
universally recognised, they were silently permitted to fall into
comparative oblivion. To supply this manifest DESIDERATUM, Mr.
Dixon compiled his volume for the Percy Society; and its pages,
embracing only a selection from the rich stores he had gathered,
abundantly exemplified that gentleman's remarkable qualifications
for the labour he had undertaken. After stating in his preface
that contributions from various quarters had accumulated so largely
on his hands as to compel him to omit many pieces he was desirous
of preserving, he thus describes generally the contents of the
work:-


In what we have retained will be found every variety,