country pastimes, and local customs. Not the least suggestive
feature in this department are the political songs it contains,
which have long outlived the occasions that gave them birth, and
which still retain their popularity, although their allusions are
no longer understood. Amongst this class of songs may be specially
indicated JACK AND TOM, JOAN'S ALE WAS NEW, GEORGE RIDLER'S OVEN,
and THE CARRION CROW. The songs of a strictly rural character,
having reference to the occupations and intercourse of the people,
possess an interest which cannot be adequately measured by their
poetical pretensions. The very defects of art with which they are
chargeable, constitute their highest claim to consideration as
authentic specimens of country lore. The songs in praise of the
dairy, or the plough; or in celebration of the harvest-home, or the
churn-supper; or descriptive of the pleasures of the milk-maid, or
the courtship in the farm-house; or those that give us glimpses of
the ways of life of the waggoner, the poacher, the horse-dealer,
and the boon companion of the road-side hostelrie, are no less
curious for their idiomatic and primitive forms of expression, than
for their pictures of rustic modes and manners. Of special
interest, too, are the songs which relate to festival and customs;
such as the SWORD DANCER'S SONG AND INTERLUDE, the SWEARING-IN
SONG, OR RHYME, AT HIGHGATE, the CORNISH MIDSUMMER BONFIRE SONG,
and the FAIRLOP FAIR SONG.

In the arrangement of so multifarious an anthology, gathered from
nearly all parts of the kingdom, the observance of chronological
order, for obvious reasons, has not been attempted; but pieces
which possess any kind of affinity to each other have been kept
together as nearly as other considerations would permit.