Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 4 1886.djvu/374

366 When we pass from the items collected to the method in which they are placed before the student in the volume, it is plain that Miss Burne thoroughly grasps the position which folk-lore occupies among the sciences. If she compares, she does so with some definite object. If she classifies, she does so upon a rational plan, having for its basis the originals from which the various items of folk-lore have descended. This is exceedingly valuable, and marks a distinct advance in the treatment of folk-lore. But the proof of this is contained in the last chapter of the book. Taking note of the suggestion made in these columns in reviewing the second part, at least we trust we may so conclude. Miss Burne has applied herself to the question, Does the folk-lore of Shropshire present any features peculiar to that county? and in order to properly answer this, she very rightly says, "Before anyone can form a proper estimate of the collected folk-lore of a given district or can deduce correct conclusions from it, he must, it appears to me, make himself acquainted with the history of that district, and learn by what races it has been peopled, to what external influences it has been subjected, and under what conditions its people have lived and died, married and been given in marriage, bought and sold and got gain, from generation to generation. It is equally important that he should know something of the physical configuration of the county, that he may judge what influence that has had on the minds and habits of the inhabitants." And, accordingly, Miss Burne has traced out, shortly but succinctly, the main features of Shropshire history; and when we come to thoroughly understand that, as a border-land between Welsh and EngishEnglish [sic], Shropshire contains marked racial features, we can truly estimate the significance of Miss Burne's contention. No one up to now has drawn a folk-lore map; but Miss Burne's brave attempt in this direction, so far as Shropshire is concerned, gives us a sample of what may be done. Rightly supposing that the old boundaries of the ecclesiastical dioceses mark yet older boundaries of race or primitive political conditions, Miss Burne shows on her map these divisions: and then from a study of the prevalence of yearly customs, as compared with the non-existence of them, she is enabled to draw a line right across the map marking out the boundary where yearly engagements extend, they being entered into