INTRODUCTION
Jean Ingelow may be said to have begun her study of the art of writing child-rhymes and the tales that are akin to them under Jane and Ann Taylor. A friendship had sprung up between the families at Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex, where the Ingelow youngsters used to stay; and “Greedy Dick” and “Mrs. Duck, the notorious glutton,” were among their favourite characters. In her first book, however, Jean Ingelow showed that she had a note and a child-fantasy of her own. They are seen in her fairy-ballad of Mimie and of the forest where the child-fairy lived:
“When the clouded sun goes in—Waiting for the thunder,We can hear their revel dinThe moss’d greensward under.“And I tell you, all the birdsOn the branches singingUtter to us human wordsLike a silver ringing.”
“When the clouded sun goes in—Waiting for the thunder,We can hear their revel dinThe moss’d greensward under.“And I tell you, all the birdsOn the branches singingUtter to us human wordsLike a silver ringing.”
“When the clouded sun goes in—Waiting for the thunder,We can hear their revel dinThe moss’d greensward under.
“When the clouded sun goes in—
Waiting for the thunder,
We can hear their revel din
The moss’d greensward under.
“And I tell you, all the birdsOn the branches singingUtter to us human wordsLike a silver ringing.”
“And I tell you, all the birds
On the branches singing
Utter to us human words
Like a silver ringing.”
Her earliest impressions are reflected in some lines found inMopsa, which tell of a ship coming up the river with a jolly gang of towing men. She was born at Boston, Lincolnshire, on the 17th of March 1820; the daughter of a banker who had married a Scottish wife, Jean Kilgour. Her grandfather owned some of the ships that came up the Boston water; and the scenery of that fen country entered into her inner mind. Her fine ballad, “High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire,” was one outcome of those early days. In middle life she came to live in London, and she wrote of the city and its shifting and unending throng; but her best pages are those, whether verse or prose, that reflect the things of the seashore and waterside, the “empty sky,”the “world of heather,” which she knew as a child in Lincolnshire and Essex. Ipswich, Filey Brig in Yorkshire, and other places are to be counted in her own history; and some of the memories that are a picture of her early days may be found in her long storyOff the Skelligs, where she sketches her birthplace, and the house by the wharves, with a room in the rooftree overlooking the ships and a long reach of the river.
Jean Ingelow died in Kensington in 1897; and a memorial brass is to be seen bearing her name in the church of St. Barnabas there.
Her works include the following stories and volumes of poems:—
Works: A Rhyming Chronicle of Incidents and Feelings, 1850; Allerton and Dreux, 1851; Tales of Orris, 1860; Poems, with 4th edition in same year, 1863; illustrated by Pinwell, Poynter, and others, 1866; Studies for Stories, 1864; 5th edition, 1868; Stories Told to a Child, 1865; another edition, 1892; Home Thoughts and Home Scenes, 1865; Little Rie and the Rosebuds, 1867; The Suspicious Jackdaw, and the Life of John Smith, 1867; The Grandmother’s Shoe, 1867; The Golden Opportunity, 1867; Deborah’s Book, and The Lonely Rock, 1867; A Story of Doom, and other Poems, 1867; The Moorish Gold and The One-Eyed Servant, 1867; The Minnows with Silver Tails, and Two Ways of Telling a Story, 1867; The Wild-Duck Shooter, and I Have a Right, 1867; A Sister’s Bye-Hours, 1868; Mopsa the Fairy, 1869; another edition, 1871; The Little Wonder-Horn, 1872; another edition, 1877; Off the Skelligs, 1872; 2nd edition, 1879; Fated to be Free, 1873; 2nd edition, 1875; other editions, 1876, 1879; Poems, 2nd series, 1876; Poems, new edition in 2 vols., Vol. I. from 23rd edition, Vol. II. from 6th edition, 1879; Sarah de Berenger, 1879; other editions, 1880, 1886; Don John: a story, 1881; another edition, 1881; High-Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire 1571, 1883; Poems of the Old Days and the New, 1885; John Jerome, 1886; Lyrical and other Poems selected from the Writings of J. I., 1886; The Little Wonder-Box, 1887; Very Young, and Quite Another Story, 1890; Selections, edited by Mackenzie Bell (Poets and Poetry of the Century), 1892; The Old Man’s Prayer, 1895; Poetical Works of J. I., 1898; Laura Richmond, 1901; The Black Polyanthus, and Widow Maclean, 1903; Poems (Muses’ Library), 1906; Poems, with an Introduction by Alice Meynell (Red Letter Library), 1908; Poems, selected and arranged by Andrew Lang (Longman’s Pocket Library), 1908.Life: Short biography in Poets and Poetry of the Century edition of Poems, by Mackenzie Bell, 1892; some Recollections of Jean Ingelow and her Early Friends, 1901.
Works: A Rhyming Chronicle of Incidents and Feelings, 1850; Allerton and Dreux, 1851; Tales of Orris, 1860; Poems, with 4th edition in same year, 1863; illustrated by Pinwell, Poynter, and others, 1866; Studies for Stories, 1864; 5th edition, 1868; Stories Told to a Child, 1865; another edition, 1892; Home Thoughts and Home Scenes, 1865; Little Rie and the Rosebuds, 1867; The Suspicious Jackdaw, and the Life of John Smith, 1867; The Grandmother’s Shoe, 1867; The Golden Opportunity, 1867; Deborah’s Book, and The Lonely Rock, 1867; A Story of Doom, and other Poems, 1867; The Moorish Gold and The One-Eyed Servant, 1867; The Minnows with Silver Tails, and Two Ways of Telling a Story, 1867; The Wild-Duck Shooter, and I Have a Right, 1867; A Sister’s Bye-Hours, 1868; Mopsa the Fairy, 1869; another edition, 1871; The Little Wonder-Horn, 1872; another edition, 1877; Off the Skelligs, 1872; 2nd edition, 1879; Fated to be Free, 1873; 2nd edition, 1875; other editions, 1876, 1879; Poems, 2nd series, 1876; Poems, new edition in 2 vols., Vol. I. from 23rd edition, Vol. II. from 6th edition, 1879; Sarah de Berenger, 1879; other editions, 1880, 1886; Don John: a story, 1881; another edition, 1881; High-Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire 1571, 1883; Poems of the Old Days and the New, 1885; John Jerome, 1886; Lyrical and other Poems selected from the Writings of J. I., 1886; The Little Wonder-Box, 1887; Very Young, and Quite Another Story, 1890; Selections, edited by Mackenzie Bell (Poets and Poetry of the Century), 1892; The Old Man’s Prayer, 1895; Poetical Works of J. I., 1898; Laura Richmond, 1901; The Black Polyanthus, and Widow Maclean, 1903; Poems (Muses’ Library), 1906; Poems, with an Introduction by Alice Meynell (Red Letter Library), 1908; Poems, selected and arranged by Andrew Lang (Longman’s Pocket Library), 1908.
Life: Short biography in Poets and Poetry of the Century edition of Poems, by Mackenzie Bell, 1892; some Recollections of Jean Ingelow and her Early Friends, 1901.
DedicatedTOMY DEAR LITTLE COUSINJANET HOLLWAY