Mopsa the Fairy

Synopsis

Jean Ingelow may be said to have begun her study of the art of writing child-rhymes and the tales that are akin to them under Jane and Ann Taylor. A friendship had sprung up between the families at Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex, where the Ingelow youngsters used to stay; and “Greedy Dick” and “Mrs. Duck, the notorious glutton,” were among their favourite characters. In her first book, however, Jean Ingelow showed that she had a note and a child-fantasy of her own.

Her earliest impressions are reflected in some lines found in Mopsa, which tell of a ship coming up the river with a jolly gang of towing men. She was born at Boston, Lincolnshire, on the 17th of March 1820; the daughter of a banker who had married a Scottish wife, Jean Kilgour. Her grandfather owned some of the ships that came up the Boston water; and the scenery of that fen country entered into her inner mind. 

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