Esser jfolk^Songs anb dialect 



As before stated, I am very desirous that an attempt at 

 least should be made to preserve records of our Folk-Songs 

 and peculiarities of dialect and intonation, before they are 

 utterly exterminated by Cockney School-Boards and newspapers, 

 while music-hall and concert ditties and the pronunciation of 

 "Stratforde-atte-Bowe " reign in their stead. In this hope I 

 have purchased the requisite Phonographic apparatus, and 

 have made some progress in the art of recording. 



But at the outset we are confronted by the difficulty of 

 locating the few lingering native minstrels and raconteurs. As 

 in the " Deserted Village ": — 



" No more the farmer's news, the barber's tale, 

 "No more the woodman's ballad shall prevail" 



along our forsaken country-side ; the true Essex patois will ere 

 long be as impossible of recovery as the rhythm of Chaucer. 



I should be be very grateful to any Essex patriot who will 

 discover and enlist a warbler of the ancient folk or cradle-songs, 

 or quaint harvest-home ballads — a clear voiced and sturdy 

 old-time vocalist who will not fear to face the recording-horn of 

 the phonograph. 



This fascinating work of registering for all time native 

 speech and song is being pursued vigorously in America and 

 Austria, and in our own country in the Isle of Man. Essex has 

 heretofore often come to the front in literary and scientific 

 matters ; let us then lead the way in rescuing the sound of 

 the fast fading folk-song from oblivion. 



I shall be glad to correspond with anyone about this. 



WILLIAM COLE, 

 Buckhurst Hill, 

 July, 1906. 



