Transcribed from the 1911 Duckworth and Co. edition by DavidPrice,
The Grey Brethren
And Other Fragments in Prose
and Verse
By
Michael Fairless
Authorof
‘The Roadmender’
London
Duckworth and Co.
3 Henrietta Street, W.C.
1911
ThirdImpression
Allrights reserved
p.vPrefatory Note
There is need to ask indulgence forthis little book, because at first sight it seems to possess noother unity than that of type and cover. The root of itsunity lies deeper, deeper even than any of subject or of method;it lies in the personal gift, the communication of heart toheart, which is the secret of charm in all the author’swork. For this reason its publication is justified.
The papers, poems, and stories it contains have, with twoexceptions, appeared elsewhere, most of them in p. vi‘ThePilot,’ where the Roadmender found his first welcome andhis literary home.
The fairy-tales were told by word of mouth to one child andanother of widely differing ages; and three of them wereafterwards published in ‘The Parents’Review.’ ‘The Grey Brethren’ is from‘The Commonwealth.’ The Christmas papers andpoems were brought out as a booklet by Messrs Mowbray &Son.
The author’s characteristic quality is best displayed inthese last, and in ‘The Grey Brethren,’ but therewill be interest for many readers in the rest of the book aswell. That which afterwards became a firm artistic touch isseen in its uncertain beginning in ‘By Rivers andStreams’; p.viiand the delightful headlong humour of ‘TheDreadful Griffin’ (invented for the “boy named CeccoHewlett,” of whom Mr Barrie speaks in his ‘LittleWhite Bird’) will shew Michael Fairless in a new light tothose who have known her only in her books.
Some of the many readers who have found her there willunderstand me when I say that the story of her life and death,and of her life too (as I believe) after death, is written downin the little tale of ‘The Tinkle-Tinkle,’ first toldto her best beloved in the wild garden at Kew, among bluehyacinths and shining grasses of the spring that spoke to her ofParadise.
M. E. D.
Contents
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Prefatory Note |