For the use of copyright poems in this volume I have to thank—and most gratefully I do so—the following authors and publishers:—Mr. Martin Armstrong (and Mr. Martin Seeker); Mr. Lascelles Abercrombie (and Mr. John Lane); Mr. Edmund Blunden (and Mr. Cobden Sanderson); Mr. H. H. Bashford (Messrs. Harrap & Company and Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin, & Company); Mrs. Bunston de Bary; Mr. Laurence Binyon (and Messrs. Elkin Matthews); Mr. Hilaire Belloc (and Messrs. Duckworth & Company); Mr. Robert Bridges (and Mr. John Murray); Mr. Gordon Bottomley; Mr. Padraic Colum (Messrs. Maunsell & Roberts Ltd., and Messrs. the Macmillan Company); Mr. William H. Davies (Mr. Jonathan Cape and Mr. Alfred A. Knopf); the executors of the late Lord de Tabley; Mr. C. M. Doughty; Mr. Edward L. Davison (and Messrs. G. Bell & Sons); Mr. Charles Dalmon (and Messrs. Methuen & Company); Mr. John Drinkwater (Messrs. Sidgwick & Jackson, and Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Company); Mr. Vivian Locke Ellis; Mr. Robert Frost (and Messrs. Harcourt, Brace & Company); Mr. John Freeman; Miss Eleanor Farjeon (Messrs. Selwyn & Blount, Messrs. J. M. Dent & Sons, and Messrs. E. P. Dutton & Company); Mrs. Furse (and Messrs. Constable & Company); Mr. Robert Graves; the Viscountess Grey; Mr. Edmund Gosse; Mr. Wilfrid Gibson (Messrs. Elkin Mathews, and Messrs. Macmillan & Company); Mr. Crosbie Garstin (and Messrs. Sidgwick & Jackson); Mr. Thomas Hardy (and Messrs. Macmillan & Company); Mr. Ralph Hodgson (and Messrs. Macmillan & Company); Miss Gwen John; Mr. Rudyard Kipling (Messrs. Macmillan & Company, and Messrs. Doubleday, Page & Company); Mr. Sidney Royse Lysaght (and Messrs. Macmillan & Company); Mr. Harold Monro; Mr. John Masefield; Mrs. Manning-Sanders (and Messrs. the Hogarth Tress); Mr.T. Sturge Moore (and Mr. Grant Richards); Miss Charlotte Mew (Mr. Harold Monro and Messrs. the Macmillan Company); Miss Viola Meynell; Sir Henry Newbolt; Mr. Alfred Noyes (and Messrs. William Blackwood & Sons); Mr. Seumas O'Sullivan (Messrs. Maunsell & Roberts); Mr. Conal O'Riordan; Mr. F. J. Patmore; Miss Madeleine Caron Rock; Miss Lizette Woodworth Reese (and Mr. Thomas B. Mosher); Mr. James Stephens (Messrs. Maunsell & Roberts and Messrs, the Macmillan Company); Mr. Siegfried Sassoon; Miss Edith Sitwell (and Mr. B. H. Blackwell); Mr. Edward Shanks (and Messrs. Collins, Sons & Company); Mr. J. C. Squire (and Messrs. Hodder & Stoughton); Mrs. Katharine Tynan Hinkson; Mr. Herbert Trench; Mr. Walter J. Turner (and Messrs. Sidgwick & Jackson); Miss Elinor Wylie (and Messrs. Harcourt, Brace & Company); Mr. Francis Brett Young (and Messrs. W. Collins, Sons & Company); Mr. W. B. Yeats (Messrs. T. Fisher Unwin and Messrs. the Macmillan Company).
It is, too, a happy privilege to have been permitted to include poems by Mrs. Webb, Mr. Eric Batterham, Mr. Gilbert Sheldon, Mr. Bernard Sleigh, Miss Elizabeth Ramal, and Mr. Colin Francis which have not hitherto appeared in any other published collection.
My most grateful thanks are due also to Mr. Edward Marsh (Messrs. Sidgwick & Jackson and Messrs. Dodd, Mead & Company) for two poems by Rupert Brooke; to Mr. Clement Shorter for six poems by Emily Bronte, and a poem by Dora Sigerson Shorter; to Sir Henry Newbolt for seven poems by Mary Coleridge; to Mr. Cobden-Sanderson for three poems by John Clare; to Mr. John Murray and to the executors of Canon Dixon for two poems; to Mrs. Flecker (and Mr. Martin Seeker) for two poems by James Elroy Flecker; to Lady Gomme for rhymes from "Traditional Games"; to the Viscountess Grey for poems from "The White Wallet"; to Miss Antonie Meyer (and Messrs. Constable & Company) for six translations by Kuno Meyer; to Mrs. Meynell herself and to Mr. Wilfrid Meynell (and Messrs. Burns & Oates) for three poems; to Mr. William Meredith and to Messrs. Constable & Company for two poems by George Meredith; to Mrs. Sharp for one poem by "Fiona Macleod" (William Sharp); to Miss Morris, Mr. S. C. Cockerill (and Messrs. Longmans, Green &Company) for two poems by William Morris; to Mrs. Owen for a poem by Wilfred Owen; to Mrs. C. Patmore (and Messrs. G. Bell & Sons, Ltd.) for two poems by Coventry Patmore; to Messrs. Macmillan & Company for eight poems by Christina Rossetti; to Mr. Lloyd Osbourne (Messrs. Chatto & Windus and Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons) for four poems by Robert Louis Stevenson; to Mr. William Heinemann for a poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne; to Miss E. Margaret Courtney Boyd for a poem by William Bell Scott; to Mrs. Thomas (and Messrs. Selwyn & Blount) for seven poems by Edward Thomas; to Mr. Wilfrid Meynell (and Messrs. Burns & Oates) for three poems by Francis Thompson; to Messrs. P. J. and A. E. Dobell for quotations from the writings of Thomas Traherne.
For permission to use prose extracts, etc., which for the most part have already been referred to on pages 497-668. I am gratefully indebted to Dr. Blackman for his translation on Page 593; to Mr. Basil Blackwell for first grateful sight of Bunyan's "Book for Boys and Girls"; to Mrs. Child Sargent, Mr. George Lyman Kittredge and Messrs. George G. Harrap & Company for selections from "English and Scottish Popular Ballads"; to Mr. G. G. Coulton; to Dr. Courtenay Dunn and to Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston & Company; to Messrs. J. M. Dent & Sons for a quotation from "A Hind in Richmond Park" by W. H. Hudson; to Mr. Tickner Edwardes (and Messrs. Methuen & Company); to Lady Gomme; to Messrs. Longman for a quotation from "The Diary of Master William Silence"; to Miss Emma Phipson (and Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Company); to Mr. H. M. Tomlinson; to Professor J. Arthur Thompson (and Messrs. George Newnes); to Mrs. Wright; to Mr. W. B. Yeats; and to Mr. Filson Young. Also to the Clarendon Press, and to the Hakluyt Society.
And I would ask forgiveness of any one whose rights I may have inadvertently overlooked.
For generous help, counsel and kindness, in the preparation of this book it is a happiness to express my gratitude to many friends—to Miss Naomi Royde Smith, Mr. Martin Freeman, Mr. J. W. Haines, Mr. Gilbert Sheldon, Mr. Frank Morley, Mr. Forrest Reid, and to Mr. James MacLehose; and, last, to my niece, Miss Lucy Rowley, to whom it owes more than words can say.