ABSTRACT
The Popular Rhymes did not need to be hammered out by William, and Robert at twenty-five had two publishers, Constable and the Tait brothers, interested in his work. Still with his thoughts in Scott country, he began a history of the ‘45 rebellion, with the idea of selling it to Constable’s Miscellany, a new publishing venture which the ever-adventurous Archibald had launched with a view to producing large quantities of cheap but serious literature for a burgeoning literati. So the Miscellany opened with Napoleon, and to be asked to follow in the footsteps of such a prestigious author was a great compliment to Robert. Robert included several Fireside Nursery Stories in the collection, three of them supplied by Sharpe, as he remembered them being told by his nurse Jenny in 1784.
