Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 1 1883.djvu/238

 county collection. Shropshire is certainly rich in folk-lore. Its proximity to Wales lends additional interest to its possessions in this field of study. The book when complete will contain sections devoted to legends and traditions concerning giants and devils, popular heroes, Wild Edric, Will Edric, Will o' the Wisp, the white cow of Mitchell's Fold, bogies, fairies, meres and pools, hidden treasures, names and places, concerning ghosts, witchcraft, charming and divination, superstitions, cures, superstitions concerning animals, birds, insects, plants, the moon, days of the week, luck and unluck in daily life, birth, marriage, and death, customs and superstitions connected with days and seasons, the New Year, Shrovetide, Mid-Lent, Passiontide, and Easter, Rogationtide and Ascension Day, Whitsuntide, the month of May, Midsummer, harvest. All Saints Day, Christmastide, well worship, wakes, fairs, and feasts, games, morris dances, play-ballads, songs, rhymes, proverbs, notes on church bells, epitaphs. It will thus be seen that considerable interest attaches to Miss Burne's labours. She has occasionally used the publications of this Society for reference or for guidance, but the main portion of the work consists entirely of local collections obtained from the people themselves. The comparisons occasionally instituted with the folk-lore of other districts or of the continent are all to the point, but we must confess that we rather grudge the space devoted to this portion of the work in favour of the much more important work of printing what is fresh gathered. The comparisons are too few to be exhaustive, nor do they intend to be; and hence in their incompleteness they do not aid the study very much. Still it seems almost ungracious to say even this much in the way of objection to a most welcome and most valuable addition to a folk-lore collection. We trust our readers will aid Miss Burne in bringing out the succeeding parts—aid her in material as well as in subscriptions.

All who know Prof. Stephens's work will hear with delight of anything fresh from his pen. The vigour, the go, the sturdy manly