"This is a very charming and winning volume. Everything about the book is an incentive to make a prompt acquaintance with its literary merits. Mr. Parkes is a consummate artist in verse, and through all runs the same vein of drollery, of pungency, of real humour difficult to resist, and which makes us wish for more, and much more from so entertaining a pen."--_The Carlow Sentinel._ "A collection of humorous verses quaintly and cleverly illustrated by his own pencil. The author has a broad vein of humour."--_Evening News_ (_London_). "When parties perusing this volume have completed its 250 pages they will only regret that it is not double its size."--_The Irish Times._ "The naivete of the wit is most irresistible, and the humour most amusing. 'The Ghost of Hampton Court' and 'The spirit that held him down' are both decidedly clever, but it is to 'The Girl of Castlebar,' 'The Fairy Queen' and 'Why did ye die?" we turn for all that is most original and sparkling. The volume itself is as tastefully finished outside as it is wittily furnished and illustrated inside."--_King's County Chronicle._ "THE SPOOK BALLADS will greatly amuse the class of readers who prefer a good hearty laugh to the emotions produced by 'Paradise lost' or 'Hamlet.' The book is crammed with fun of the funniest sort, though it contains many passages which possess a value above mere jollity."--_Glasgow Herald._ "There is no lack of rollicking fun in THE SPOOK BALLADS. The pieces are always amusing in idea, and the free sweep of the verse has a certain buoyancy which carries a reader pleasantly along."--_The Scotsman._ "The humourous drawings are charming, and the figure subjects and decorative designs show great versatility and skill. Mr. Parkes has a wonderful way of introducing odd expressions, quaint conceits, and grotesque imagery. Many a hearty laugh will be got out of the SPOOK BALLADS."--_The Aberdeen Journal._ "The illustrations by the Author copiously strewn throughout the work are exceedingly clever, and are in themselves enough to commend the book, and will appeal to readers endowed with a particle of humour. Altogether the book is the kind to cheer the winter fireside or make the summer holiday slide joyously into autumn."--_Kirkudbrightshire Advertiser._ "The pages abound in illustrations and marginal etchings, and these display rare artistic skill and a genuine spirit of comicality."--_The Derry Journal._ "John M'Kune is racy of the soil, and rests on something stranger than fiction."--_The Tyrone Constitution._ THE SPOOK BALLADS. THE SPOOK BALLADS [Illustration] BY WM. THEODORE PARKES _Author of "THE BARNEY BRADEY BROCHURES"_ ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & Co., LIMITED. 1895 CONTENTS. THE SPOOK BALLADS PAGE THE GHOSTS OF HAMPTON COURT 1 YE FILIAL SACRIFICE 13