Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/396

366 sad. Hilarity at a funeral I take to be a well-meant "send off" of good omen from the point of view of the man in the street.

STAFFORDSHIRE FOLK AND THEIR LORE.

BY C. S. BURNE.

this title to the one announced for me, as I have always maintained that if you would study the folklore of any district properly, you must first of all study the district itself, and learn what manner of folk they are who dwell there; and as I know by melancholy experience that English geography, at any rate where my own county is concerned, ranks among the "things not generally known," I shall make no apology for beginning with the guide-book information that Staffordshire is an inland county, lying somewhat north-west of the centre of England, and surrounded by the counties of Derby, Warwick, Worcester, Shropshire, and Cheshire. The River Trent rises among the hills of the north-western corner, and runs a diagonal course through the county to the south-east, where it bends abruptly northwards, and, passing Burton and Tutbury, forms part of the boundary between Staffordshire and Derbyshire. I would ask you particularly to notice this diagonal course of the river (north-west to south-east), as it will give you a rough general idea of the physical conformation of the county, viz. a broad band of green valley and meadow land in the midst, with hills to the north-east and south-west of it. Members of the Folklore Society, travelling to Liverpool in September by the London and North Western Railway, will enter Staffordshire at Tamworth and quit it again just