were already on the point of perishing from the memories of the
people. Meanwhile Ritson's shrill cry for the publication of the
original Percy manuscript was taken up in varying keys again and
again, until in our own generation the echoes on our own side of the
water grew so persistent that with no small difficulty the
much-desired end was actually attained. The owners of the folio having
been brought to yield their slow consent, our richest treasure of Old
English song, for so perilously long a period exposed to all the
hazards that beset a single manuscript, is safe in print at last and
open to the inspection of us all. The late Professor Child of Harvard,
our first American authority on ballad-lore, and Dr. Furnivall of
London, would each yield the other the honor of this achievement for
which no ballad-lover can speak too many thanks.

A list of our principal ballad collections may be found of practical
convenience, as well as of literary interest. Passing by the
_Miscellanies,_ Percy, as becomes one of the gallant lineage to which
he set up a somewhat doubtful claim, leads the van.

Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. 1765.

Herd's Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, Heroic Ballads, etc. 1769.

Ritson's Ancient Popular Poetry. 1791.

Ritson's Ancient Songs and Ballads. 1792.

Ritson's Robin Hood. 1795.

Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. 1802-1803.