Dedication
TO MY DAUGHTERS
MARGARET AND BARBARA,
AND TO MY NEPHEWS
CHARLES AND STEPHEN JOHNSON,
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
Introductory Poem
“The stories that the fairies told
I learnt in English lanes of old,
Where honeysuckle, wreathing high,
Twined with the wild rose towards the sky,
Or where pink-tinged anemones
Grew thousand starred beneath the trees.
I saw them, too, in London town,
But sly and cautious, glancing down,
Where in the grass the crocus grow
And ladies ride in Rotten Row,
St James’s Park’s a garden meet
For tiny babes and fairy feet.
But since I came to Germany,
The good folk oftener talk to me;
I find them in their native home
When through the forest depths I roam,
When through the trees blue mountains shine,
The heart of fairyland is mine.”