Fourth Impression, July, 1931.
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
WELLS GARDNER, DARTON AND CO., LTD.
In the present volume will be found twenty stories from early writersfor children, the period being roughly 1790 to 1830, with three laterand more sophisticated efforts added. Having so recently made remarks onthe character of these old books—in the preface last year toOld-Fashioned Tales, a companion volume to this—I have very little tosay now, except that I hope the selection will be found to beinteresting. If it is not, it is less my fault than that of the authors,who preferred teaching to entertaining, moral improvement to drama. Thependulum has now perhaps swung almost too far the other way; but suchthings come right.
My first story, 'Dicky Random,' is from a little book published in 1805,entitled The Satchel; or, Amusing Tales for Correcting Rising Errors inEarly Youth, addressed to all who wish to grow in Grace and Favour. Onthe title-page is this motto:
And wiser grow by wearing it.'
There is no author's name. I do not consider the story of Dicky a verybrilliant piece of work, but it has some pleasing incidents, not the[Pg vi]least of which is the irreproachable behaviour of the gentlemen atdinner. Dicky's father comes out as hardly less foolish than his son,which is not common in these books. To call a doctor Hardheart seems tome to have been a courageous thing. The sentence, 'The boy's father,though a labouring man, had a generous mind,' would help us to date thestory, even without the evidence of the title-page. It is astonishingfor how long the poor had to play a degraded part in minor Englishliterature.
In another story in the book, called 'Good Manners their own Reward,' Ifind this sentence, which contains an idea for a children's manual thatcertainly ought to be written, under the same title too: 'Master Goodlynot long after this had the pleasure of seeing a small book printed andcirculated among his juvenile acquaintance, called "The Way to beInvited a Second Time."'
We pass next to a little work of pretty fancy, 'The Months,' which byits ingenuity I hope makes up for want of drama. I have included it onthat ground, and also because if the descriptions were read aloud inirregular order to small children, it might be an agreeable means ofencouraging thought and observation if the listeners were asked to put aname to each month. 'The Months' comes from a book published in 1814entitled Tales from the Mountains, the mountains being those dividingEngland from Wales.