Eighty years ago England possessed only one tattered copy of 'Child
Waters' and 'Sir Cauline,' and Spain only one tattered copy of the noble
poem of the 'Cid.' The snuff of a candle, or a mischievous dog, might in
a moment have deprived the world forever of any of those fine
compositions. Sir Walter Scott, who united to the fire of a great poet
the minute curiosity and patient diligence of a great antiquary, was but
just in time to save the precious reliques of the Minstrelsy of the
Border."

But Percy not only rescued, himself, a number of ballads from
forgetfulness; what was equally important, his book prompted others to
hunt out and publish similar relics before it was too late. It was the
occasion of collections like Herd's (1769), Scott's (1802-03), and
Motherwell's (1827), and many more, resting on purer texts and edited on
more scrupulous principles than his own. Futhermore, his ballads helped
to bring about a reform in literary taste and to inspire men of original
genius. Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey, Scott, all acknowledged the
greatest obligations to them. Wordsworth said that English poetry had
been "absolutely redeemed" by them. "I do not think there is a writer in
verse of the present day who would not be proud to acknowledge his
obligations to the 'Reliques.' I know that it is so with my friends;
and, for myself, I am happy that it is so with my friends; and, for
myself, I am happy in this occasion to make a public avowal of my
own."[48] Without the "Reliques," "The Ancient Mariner," "The Lady of
the Lake," "La Belle Dame sans Merci," "Stratton Water," and "The
Haystack in the Floods" might never have been. Perhaps even the "Lyrical
Ballads" might never have been, or might have been something quite unlike
what they are. Wordsworth, to be sure, scarcely ranks among romantics,
and he expressly renounces the romantic machinery: