although they are apt to be prosy, they are
pretty sure to introduce some quaint bits which compensate
for a considerable amount of dulness. These books help us to
form a correct idea of the beliefs of our forefathers, and
to disabuse our minds of many mistaken views which we have
learnt from more popular but less accurate sources.

_The Ballad Society_ grew out of the publication, by special
subscription, of Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript, edited by
F.J. Furnivall and J.W. Hales. This was issued in connection
with the Early English Text Society (but not as one of its
Texts), through the energy of Mr. Furnivall, who had many
difficulties to overcome before he was able to get
permission to print the manuscript, which had been very
faithfully guarded from the eyes of critics. He had to pay
for the privilege, and in the end the old volume was sold to
the nation, and it now reposes among the treasures of the
British Museum. When this useful work was completed, Mr.
Furnivall was anxious to follow it by a reprint of all the
known collections of Ballads, such as the Roxburghe,
Bagford, Rawlinson, Douce, etc., and for this purpose he
started the Ballad Society in 1868. He himself edited some
particularly interesting "Ballads from Manuscripts," and an
elaborate account of Captain Cox's Ballads and Books in a
new edition of Robert Laneham's Letter on the Entertainment
at Kenilworth in 1575. The veteran Ballad illustrator, Mr.
William Chappell, undertook to edit the "Roxburghe Ballads,"
and produced nine parts, when the Rev. J.W. Ebsworth took
the work off his hands. Mr. Ebsworth had previously
reproduced the "Bagford Ballads," and he is now the
editor-in-chief of the Society. The following is a short
list of the publications of the Society: Nos. 1, 2, 3, 10,
"Ballads from Manuscripts"; Nos. 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 18,
19. "The Roxburghe Ballads," edited by Wm. Chappell; No. 7,
"Captain Cox, his Ballads and Books"; No. 11, "Love Poems
and Humourous Ones"; Nos. 14, 15, 16, 17, "The Bagford
Ballads." No. 20, "The Amanda Group of Bagford Ballads;"
Nos. 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, "The Roxburghe Ballads," edited
by the Rev. J.W. Ebsworth. No. 26 completes the fifth volume
of the "Roxburghe Ballads." There are two more volumes to
come, and then