Hay Wells : their Legends and Traditions. By Robert Charles
Hope. (Elliot Stock.)—This is a volume full of curious lore, gathered together, it is evident, with much labour and care. The arrangement is by counties. Cornwall occupies a considerable space, being about equalled by Yorkshire. (One story, however, in the latter is told at a disproportionate length.) The two together have more than a third of the whole. Shropshire fills not a few pages, thanks, in a large measure, to the industry with which Miss C. Burne has collected the folk-lore of that county. The only shire that does not appear in the list is Huntingdon ; but several—as, e.g., Wiltshire—contribute very little to this collection. Two of the three entries under " Wiltshire" have, indeed, nothing to do with folk-lore. The book generally might be sifted, with a view to the distinction between folk-lore and observations of natural phenomena.
Previous page
