Page:Bishop Percy’s Folio Manuscript. Ballads and Romances.djvu/6

 the Ballad Society. A proposal has been made to them either to act in union with the Society, or no longer to delay the publication of their Ballads, which men of letters have desired any time these hundred years without getting them, either by themselves or by the Society. It is hoped that the result of this proposal will be the speedy appearance of the Pepys collection. Pending the settlement of this question, a hand-list of all the other printed collections accessible to the public will be made, and issued to Subscribers to the Ballad Society, to show what work lies before it and them. Unless any of the provincial sets prove more valuable than they have appeared on a hasty glance to be, the British Museum Collections the Roxburghe and Bagford will be taken in hand, and produced as quickly as funds and editors' leisure will allow. Dr RIMBAULT and Mr William CHAPPELL, whose long study of Ballads and Ballad Literature is so well known, and whose knowledge has been so often tried and proved to be sound, have already kindly undertaken to act as Editors of the Ballads, and the Rev. Alexander DYCE has promised general help. Other aid will be forthcoming when called for, and the Manuscript Ballads will be produced when Mr FURNIVALL, or whoever their Editor may be, has had time to collect them. The books will be printed in demy 8vo, like those of the Early English Text Society, and the Percy Folio, and also in large medium 8vo, on Whatman's 70-shilling ribbed paper. The subscription for the demy 8vos will be One Guinea a year ; that for the medium ribbed-papers Three Guineas. The subscriptions will date from 1 Jan., 1869, but immediate payment of them is asked, as, in order to get the books ready early next year, copiers and artist must be set to work at once. The Society's books will not be on sale separately to the public. The Society's printers will be Messrs Childs and Son of Bungay. Subscriptions should be paid either to the account of The Ballad Society at the Chancery-Lane branch of the Union Bank, or to F. J. FURNIVALL, 3, Old Square, Chancery-Lane, W.C.