EVERYMAN’S LIBRARY
EDITED BY ERNEST RHYS
FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
MOPSA THE FAIRY
BY JEAN INGELOW
THIS IS NO. 619 OF EVERYMAN’S
LIBRARY. THE PUBLISHERS WILL
BE PLEASED TO SEND FREELY TO ALL
APPLICANTS A LIST OF THE PUBLISHED
AND PROJECTED VOLUMES, ARRANGED
UNDER THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS:
TRAVEL ❦ SCIENCE ❦ FICTION
THEOLOGY & PHILOSOPHY
HISTORY ❦ CLASSICAL
FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
ESSAYS ❦ ORATORY
POETRY & DRAMA
BIOGRAPHY
REFERENCE
ROMANCE
IN FOUR STYLES OF BINDING: CLOTH,
FLAT BACK, COLOURED TOP; LEATHER,
ROUND CORNERS, GILT TOP; LIBRARY
BINDING IN CLOTH, & QUARTER PIGSKIN
London: J. M. DENT & SONS, Ltd.
New York: E. P. DUTTON & CO.
THIS ISFAIRYGOLD,BOY; AND’TWILLPROVE SO
SHAKESPEARE
MOPSA The
FAIRY
BY JEAN
INGELOW
EVERYMANI WILLGOWITHTHEE &BE THYGVIDE
IN THYMOSTNEEDTOGOBY THYSIDE
LONDON & TORONTO
PUBLISHED BY J·M·DENT
& SONS Ltd & IN NEW YORK
BY E·P·DUTTON & CO
First Issue of this Edition 1912
Reprinted 1919
THE
Temple Press Letchworth
ENGLAND
[Pg vii]
INTRODUCTION
Jean Ingelow may be said to have begun her study ofthe art of writing child-rhymes and the tales that areakin to them under Jane and Ann Taylor. A friendshiphad sprung up between the families at Walton-on-the-Nazein Essex, where the Ingelow youngsters used tostay; and “Greedy Dick” and “Mrs. Duck, thenotorious glutton,” were among their favourite characters.In her first book, however, Jean Ingelow showedthat she had a note and a child-fantasy of her own.They are seen in her fairy-ballad of Mimie and of theforest where the child-fairy lived:
Her earliest impressions are reflected in some linesfound in Mopsa, which tell of a ship coming up theriver with a jolly gang of towing men. She was born atBoston, Lincolnshire, on the 17th of March 1820; thedaughter of a banker who had married a Scottish wife,Jean Kilgour. Her grandfather owned some of th