for the task. Only gradually does the right path unfold itself Now, after the unorganized labour of a whole generation, the time for concentration of energies has come, for concentration on the methodical study of the folklore of our own country,
I do not appeal to the dilettante, nor even to the local antiquary. I appeal to the serious anthropologist, the sociologist, the philosopher, the historian of culture. The French, led by Monsieur Sébillot, have already gathered and synthetized the folklore of France; most of the principal countries of Europe have formed schemes and societies for dealing with theirs; what has been done in thirty years for the folklore of Great Britain? Henderson's Northern Counties, two volumes of reprints of Denham's Tracts, six of collected passages from other works, relating to as many English counties, one dealing with the Orkney and Shetland Islands, Dr. Maclagan's and Dr. Gregor's collections in the Highlands, ten or twelve articles in the Journal on English county folklore, a few on Scottish, and five or six on Irish, and a few studies of single customs. Independently of the Society, Wales is now fairly well represented, projects are mooted for further work in Ireland, and Mrs. Leather's Herefordshire collection will soon be ready. But eleven out of the forty English counties have practically never been dealt with at all, either by ourselves or anyone else, including such famous and individual ones as Kent, Hampshire, Somerset, Warwick, Derby, Cheshire, Norfolk, and the greater part of the Fen country; and the rest, as I have shown, have been very imperfectly examined.[1]
Let no one say there is nothing now to be found. Ten years ago, no one knew that there was any folk-music in England. The Folk-Song Society was founded. Not long ago I found the Secretary of the Society surrounded by the MSS. of a thousand airs from Dorset alone, which
- ↑ See Note III., infra.
