nised. With this view selections periods and of individuals; the ai interest as well as inform, and tribution to the literary history sterling poetic merits may claim local considerations would give. The Work will be handsom issued at 3s. 6d., neatly bound in Subscribers Names received

Street, Plymouth.

FORM O

Be good enough to send

"THE WEST COUNTRY GARLA

Name

Address

To W. BRENDON & SON,

26, George Street, Plymout

THE

West Country Garland:

SELECTED FROM THE WRITINGS OF THE POETS

OF DEVON AND CORNWALL,

FROM THE FIFTEENTH TO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY,

WITH

Folk Songs and Traditional Verses.

BY

R. N. WORTH, F.G.S.,

Author of "The History of Plymouth," "The History of Devonport,"
"The Three Towns' Bibliotheca," "Historical Notes concerning
the Progress of Mining Skill in Cornwall and Devon,"
&c. &c.

"The inventory

Of your best graces."-Shakspere, Henry VIII.

LONDON:

HOULSTON & SONS, 7, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS.
PLYMOUTH: W. BRENDON & SON.

INTRODUCTION.

HE West Country Garland contains examples of the writings of nearly a hundred poets of varying merit connected with the Two Counties of Devon and Cornwall. At least twice that number of local poetic writers might have been quoted without descending below the level of mediocrity; but the object of the Garland is to illustrate, not to exhaust; to indicate the high value of Western poetic writers, not to give a complete list either of names or of examples. And I venture to think that the selection now offered to the public will sustain the claims of the district whence it springs to a leading place in the poetic literature of the country. Indeed, when two or three great names are excepted, it may fairly be asserted that no county in England has greater reason to be proud of its poets than Devon.

The arrangement of the Garland is in the main, so far as the authors are concerned, chronological.