£be IRecorbmg anb preservation 



of eyamples of tbe 3folfc*5ongs ant) Dialect 



of j£aet Hnglia anb j£6$ey. 



The statement on the wrapper of the July part of the Essex 

 Naturalist has aroused considerable attention, and I have 

 received promises of help. Some experienced musicians and 

 experimenters have also given valuable advice. Local societies 

 have been induced to take up the subject, and I am hopeful 

 that an important East Anglian organisation will actively co- 

 operate in our own district. 



A few experiments carried on during last autumn fully 

 demonstrated the practicability of recording accurately local 

 songs and dialect "pieces" by the phonograph, and we anti- 

 cipate making substantial progress during the ensuing summer 

 and autumn. 



As an exemplification of the danger of delay, I regret to 

 mention that an old Essex yeoman in a village on the Colne, 

 from whom we took " records " of two or three " Ballets " and 

 " Horkeys " in the autumn, has just died, and with him expires, 

 probably, our chance of obtaining material, in his parish. If the 

 work is not done during the present generation of old folk it will 

 be too late. It will daily become more difficult to save from 

 oblivion the old carols, hunting songs, rent-dinner songs, fair- 

 day songs, sheep-shearing songs, horkey songs and country 

 dances, which delighted our forefathers. They are dying out 

 with our peasantry, and with them the wealth of music trans- 

 mitted to us from our Norse and Danish ancestors, as well as 

 from Flemish, Dutch, and French sources, will perish — a great 

 loss to students of folk-lore and dialect, and a reproach to East 

 Anglians for ever. 



I hope to be in a position to announce details of the proposed 

 Committee and its work in the near future. 



William Cole, 



Member of the 

 Folk- Song Society. 



The Essex Museum of Nat. Hist., 

 Romford Road, 



Stratford, Essex. 

 May, 1907. 



