p. 23 is the following imprint: “London / Printed for Thomas J. Wise, Hampstead, N.W. / Edition limited to Thirty Copies.” The signatures are A (a half-sheet of four leaves), and B (a full sheet of eight leaves), the one inset within the other.
Issued in bright green paper wrappers, with untrimmed edges, and with the title-page reproduced upon the front. The leaves measure 8½ × 6⅞ inches.
Thirty Copies only were printed.
Contents.
| page | |
| Ermeline. [With lance upraised so haughtily] The paper upon which the Manuscript of Ermeline is written is water-marked with the date 1843. No other MS. is forthcoming. | 5 |
| The Cuckoo’s Song in Merion. [Though it has
been my fate to see]
The fifth stanza of this Song was printed by Borrow in
Wild Wales, 1862, vol. i, p. 153. The two versions
of this stanza offer some interesting variations of text; I give
them both:
1862
Full fair the gleisiad in the flood, Which sparkles ’neath the summer’s sun, And fair the thrush in green abode Spreading his wings in sportive fun, But fairer look if truth be spoke, The maids of County Merion. 1913 O fair the salmon in the flood, That over golden sands doth run; And fair the thrush in his abode, That spreads his wings in gladsome fun; More beauteous look, if truth be spoke, The maids of county Merion. | 21 |
1862
Full fair the gleisiad in the flood,
Which sparkles ’neath the summer’s sun,
And fair the thrush in green abode
Spreading his wings in sportive fun,
But fairer look if truth be spoke,
The maids of County Merion.1913
O fair the salmon in the flood,
That over golden sands doth run;
And fair the thrush in his abode,
That spreads his wings in gladsome fun;
More beauteous look, if truth be spoke,
The maids of county Merion.
There is a copy of Ermeline A Ballad in the Library of the British Museum. The Press-mark is C. 44. d. 38.
