ted me, and found that I knew rather
more about portraits of Queen Mary than he did.

In truth I never did write any fairy books in my life, except 'Prince
Prigio,' 'Prince Ricardo,' and 'Tales from a Fairy Court'--that of the
aforesaid Prigio. I take this opportunity of recommending these fairy
books--poor things, but my own--to parents and guardians who may never
have heard of them. They are rich in romantic adventure, and the Princes
always marry the right Princesses and live happy ever afterwards;
while the wicked witches, stepmothers, tutors and governesses are never
cruelly punished, but retire to the country on ample pensions. I hate
cruelty: I never put a wicked stepmother in a barrel and send her
tobogganing down a hill. It is true that Prince Ricardo did kill the
Yellow Dwarf; but that was in fair fight, sword in hand, and the dwarf,
peace to his ashes! died in harness.

The object of these confessions is not only that of advertising my own
fairy books (which are not 'out of print'; if your bookseller says so,
the truth is not in him), but of giving credit where credit is due.
The fairy books have been almost wholly the work of Mrs. Lang, who
has translated and adapted them from the French, German, Portuguese,
Italian, Spanish, Catalan, and other languages.

My part has been that of Adam, according to Mark Twain, in the Garden
of Eden. Eve worked, Adam superintended. I also superintend. I find out
where the stories are, and advise, and, in short, superintend. I do not
write the stories out of my own head. The reputation of having written
all the fairy books (an European reputation in nurseries and the United
States of America) is 'the burden of an honour unto which I was not
born.' It weighs upon and is killing me, as the general fash of being
the wife of the Lord of Burleigh, Burleigh House by Stamford Town, was
too much for the village maiden espoused by that peer.

Nobody really wrote most of the stories. People told them in all parts
of the world long before Egyptian hieroglyphics or Cretan signs or
Cyprian syllabaries, or alphabets were invented. They are older than
reading and writing, and arose like wild flowers before men had any
education to quarrel over. The grannies told them to the grandchildren,
and when the grandchildren became grannies they repeated the same old
tales to the new generation. Homer knew the stories and made up the
'Odyssey' out of half a dozen of them. All the history of Greece