There are many more nursery rhymes than are included in this book, though I think most of the best known are here. I have chosen those I knew and liked best in my own nursery days, and I have kept to the versions that I was famihar with. I think one may do so, as nursery rhymes have until recently been handed on only by oral tradition with its inevitable variations. At home we had no complete book of them: most we knew came direct from our elders. The children of the present day often have several different printed versions of the same rhyme,but they do not seem to be confused by them. They make their own choice, and go on inventing variations.And however much they alter and add to our old friend Mother Goose's original collection, they still make use of her name.

Traditional rhymes and stories have been collected under the wing of Mother Goose for centuries, and this collection of favourite nursery rhymes has been put together by the masterly illustrator Arthur Rackham. It is a wonderful collection of old favourites, from Jack and Jill, Baa, Baa, Black Sheep and Who Killed Cock Robin? to comic alphabets and the fearful fate of Anthony Rowley.

It is illustrated with Rackham's beautiful pen and ink drawings, and is one of his finest books.