The Oxford Book Of Local Verses

This delightful anthology celebrates the largely anonymous but often inventive and gifted authors of local verse. An inmate at Millbank who scratched a few lines about English prisons on the bottom of his dinner-can, or a Kent gunner who petitioned for his discharge in verse. There are verses found on village crosses, fountains, sundials, bells, and caves. The book includes epitaphs and also verses inscribed on moveable objects such as clocks and pottery, silverware and books. Country charms and weather rhymes, children's games and farming songs add to the variety of tone and style.