ON Boxing Day 1899, at Headington, Cecil Sharp saw the Morris for the first time. Later, he invariably spoke of this occasion as the turning-point of his life. It was the beginning of his work of discovering and recording the Morris all over the Cotswolds, and although it was a few years before he was able to embark on teaching the Morris to others (the first part of The Morris Book was not published until 1907), Boxing Day 1899, now nearly fifty years ago, is the day from which we must date the origin of all the Morris dancing, including our own, which has resulted from his work.
What he accomplished was indeed stupendous. Apart from the innumerable songs and the other kinds of dances, he not only undertook the difficult task of collecting the Morris dances and devising a notation by which to record them, but he also persuaded people to learn to dance them and to go on dancing them; and the present vigorous state of the Morris is a living witness to his devotion and determination. For it is no exaggeration to say that but for Cecil Sharp there would be, scarcely more than a handful of Morris men in England to-day. Cecil Sharp drew into himself from the last generation of traditional dancers the almost extinct life of the English Morris, and transmitted it, reinvigorated, to new generations of dancers. We are the first in the succession of his heirs.
We therefore honour him with our gratitude, for his insight, his courage, and his achievement, and it is appropriate that in this year, which also marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death, we should place on record some account of the Morris Men's Clubs by whose members the dances which he saved are prized and practised, and of the Morris Ring in which those Clubs are united. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to obtain information about all of the Clubs, as some of them have been disbanded; but there is sufficient in the accounts printed here to show how remarkable is the development which has taken place out of what Cecil Sharp himself began.
I think, therefore, that we may fairly claim that the existence of so many flourishing Morris Men's Clubs would be a great source of happiness to our Founder. But if there is one thing that stands out from a reading of his biography, it is his passion for having things done right and done well, disregarding frills and ornaments and concentrating on the essential and permanent elements of whatever he had in hand. There will never be any justification for complacency on our part until we have satisfied ourselves that so far as the Morris is concerned our own standards in these two respects are as exacting as his were, and that we are doing all we can to put them into practice. He was never the man to aim at easy popularity, and if his work, which is now entrusted to us, is to endure we must never allow ourselves to forget those conditions which are essential for its permanence. Only that which is practical is permanent, and only in this way can we offer a valid tribute to a great practical artist.
There is another very practical way in which we can promote Cecil Sharp's work. For many years it has been my hope to produce in a handy and compact form a series of Morris handbooks, so as to make available for Morris men the whole repertoire of dances of each tradition so far as they are known. The Morris Book was a pioneer work; no such book had ever been published before, and to some extent this conditioned its method of presentation. Furthermore, at that time there were controversies and prejudices to be reckoned with, which are now forgotten, and the time is overdue for a more practical and complete presentation of the material which we have. The production of such a series of books would be a fitting tribute from Morris men to the memory of Cecil Sharp.