Before this time it had been jealously guarded by the Percy family, and
access to it had been denied to scholars. "Since Percy and his nephew
printed their fourth edition of the 'Reliques' from the manuscript in
1794," writes Mr. Furnivall in his "Forewords," "no one has printed any
piece from it except Robert Jamieson--to whom Percy supplied a copy of
'Child Maurice' and 'Robin Hood and the Old Man' for his 'Popular Ballads
and Songs' (1806)--and Sir Frederic Madden, who was allowed--by one of
Percy's daughters--to print 'The Grene Knight,' 'The Carle of Carlisle'
and 'The Turk and Gawin' in his 'Syr Gawaine' for the Bannatyne Club,
1839." Percy was furiously assailed by Joseph Ritson for manipulating
his texts; and in the 1794 edition he made some concessions to the
latter's demand for a literal rescript, by taking off a few of the
ornaments in which he had tricked them. Ritson was a thoroughly
critical, conscientious student of poetic antiquities and held the right
theory of an editor's functions. In his own collection of early English
poetry he rendered a valuable service to all later inquiries. These
included "Pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry," 1791; "Ancient Songs," 1792;
"Scottish Songs," 1794; "Robin Hood," 1795; besides editions of Laurence
Minot's poems, and of "Gammer Gurton's Needle," as well as other titles.
He was an ill-tempered and eccentric man: a vegetarian, a free-thinker, a
spelling reformer,[41] and latterly a Jacobin. He attacked Warton as
well as Percy, and used to describe any clerical antagonist as a
"stinking priest." He died insane in 1803. Ritson took issue with the
theory maintained in Percy's introductory "Essay on the Ancient
Minstrels," viz.: that the minstrels were not only the singers, but
likewise the authors of the ballads. But Ritson went so far in his rage
against Percy as to deny the existence of the sacred Folio Manuscript,
until convinced by abundant testimony that there was such a thing. It
was an age of forgeries, and Ritson was not altogether without
justification in supposing that the author of "The Hermit of Warkworth"
belonged in the same category with Chatterton, Ireland, and MacPherson.

Percy, like Warton, took an apologetic tone toward his public. "In a
polished age, like the present," he wrote, "I am sensible that many of
these reliques of antiquity will require great allowances to be made for
them. Yet have they, for the most part, a pleasing simplicity and