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 "gletx "35. Barnes, 



RECTOR OF WINTERBORNE CAME. 



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THE poems printed in the pages which follow were written, 

 most of them, in 1867. This year was the last year 

 in which W. Barnes wrote in the Dialect, with the 

 exception of his last poem, " The Geate a-vallen to" 

 which was written on October \^th, 1885, a * ^ IS 

 dictation, for he was then too weak to write himself. 

 Between 1868 and 1877 he wrote a large number of 

 poems in ordinary English ; many of these have bten printed, but not 

 all. I do not find any direct evidence of his having written any poem 

 between 1877 and 1885, though there is indirect evidence that he 

 wrote a few in ordinary English at some time in the course of those 

 years, for nine such are printed in the "Dorset County Chronicle" 

 0/1886. 



There has been some difficulty in making up this collection ; 

 W. arnes left no list of his poems, and rarely talked of them ; 

 so far as I can now remember, they were never the subject of table 

 talk, unless, perhaps, occasionally after a public reading of them an I 

 when there was any incident to relate in connection with it, so we 

 never knew when he wrote ; he seems to have written when the inspira- 

 tion was upon him, and, having written, he was satisfied. He rarely 



