PREFACE.
THE manuscript (Lansdowne MSS. 231), which is now for the first time printed in its entirety for the members of the Folk-Lore Society, has long been known to lovers of folklore; and more or less copious extracts from it have been published in at least three different works. Attention seems to have been first directed to it by Mr. (afterwards Sir) Henry Ellis, who made extracts from it in his edition of Brand's Popular Antiquities (1813). More copious selections from it will be found in Time's Telescope for 1826, where, in the "Advertisement," it is referred to as follows: "To Henry Ellis, Esq., Keeper of the MSS. in the British Museum, our especial acknowledgments are due for many kind hints and communications, particularly as it regards some MSS. in the Lansdowne Collection that have escaped the researches of our literary ferrets, and the extracts from which cannot fail of proving an agreeable novelty to our readers." These extracts will be found at pp. 38, 40, 71, 74, 91, 98, 117, 123, 132, 158, 227, 231, 233, 251, 293-7, 302. In 1839 Mr. W. J. Thoms made numerous extracts for a volume entitled Anecdotes and Traditions, published by the Camden Society; to these extracts he appended notes which greatly
