In making this little collection, my aim has been to bring together rhymes old and new, which for the greater part are not included in other books for the nursery or schoolroom.

Some of the old friends appear with local variations, many of the others have been repeated to me by people who do not know whence they come, and, indeed, in many cases it has been impossible to discover the authors.

I have done my best to avoid infringing copyrights, but should I have inadvertently done so, I hope my humble apologies will be accepted.

The complete version of “The Ram of Derby,” is taken from Jewitt’s “Reliquary”; “A Dutch Lullaby,” from “A Little Book of Western Verse,” is included by kind permission of Messrs Harper; and I acknowledge with gratitude that I have been allowed to select from “Notes and Queries” from “Popular Rhymes,” published by Messrs Chambers, from “Northall’s Folk Rhymes,” published by Messrs Kegan Paul Trench & Co., and “Halliwell’s Nursery Rhymes of England,” published by Messrs Warne.

Some rhymes have been taken from those never-failing sources of delight, J. and A. Taylor, C. and M. Lamb, E. Turner, and M. Howitt, some from “Poor Robin’s Almanac,” “The Poetical Aviary,” Ross’s Juvenile Library, 1813-1816, etc., etc.

That others besides “Gladys, Helen, and Jack,” including “children of a larger growth,” may find pleasure in my little collection is the sincere wish of

M. E. S. WRIGHT.