[i]

A CENTURY
OF CHILDREN’S BOOKS

[ii]

[iii]

A CENTURY
OF CHILDREN’S BOOKS

BY
FLORENCE V. BARRY
B. LITT.

METHUEN & CO. LTD.
36 ESSEX STREET W. C.
LONDON

[iv]

First Published in 1922

This book was begun at Oxford before the War,when I had the great privilege of being a studentin Sir Walter Raleigh’s class. Through his generousencouragement, it was continued at intervals and undermany difficulties; and if he had not found some thingsto like in it, I should hardly venture to put it forth in itspresent shape.

It is true that the interest of great men in little books(a token of romance since the eighteenth century) is nogauge of public favour; but the history of children’s booksis in some sort a record of childhood. Lovers of childrenmay be willing to look through the shelves of old nurseries,if only for the portraits.

The farther one goes upon such small business, the moreintricate it seems; and although I began with some knowledgeof the treasures that Mrs. Field had unearthed in herstudy of The Child and His Book, I had no idea there wereso many of these books, or that I should find it so difficultto choose. In this I was helped by the older reprints, bythe collections of Mr. E. V. Lucas, and later by Mr. HarveyDarton’s chapter in the Cambridge History of EnglishLiterature.

The book itself is a poor acknowledgment of my gratitudeto Oxford: to Sir Charles Firth and Mr. Nichol Smithfor their advice and criticism; to the late Mr. R. J. E.Tiddy and Mr. Percy Simpson for help in the early stages;to Miss Helen Darbishire, Miss Janet Spens, and not leastto my fellow students at Somerville who, in the midst ofserious things, found time to be amused.

F. V. B.

[vi]