the Shire' reflects the situation in England at the time when I was
finishing my tale. It does not. It is an essential part of the plot,
foreseen from the outset, though in the event modified by the
character of Saruman as developed in the story without, need I say,
any allegorical significance or contemporary political reference
whatsoever. It has indeed some basis in experience, though slender
(for the economic situation was entirely different), and much further
back. The country in which I lived in childhood was being shabbily
destroyed before I was ten, in days when motor-cars were rare objects
(I had never seen one) and men were still building suburban railways.
Recently I saw in a paper a picture of the last decrepitude of the
once thriving corn- mill beside its pool that long ago seemed to me so
important. I never liked the looks of the Young miller, but his
father, the Old miller, had a black beard, and he was not named
Sandyman.
     The Lord of the Rings is now issued in a new edition, and the
opportunity has been taken of revising it. A number of errors and
inconsistencies that still remained in the text have been corrected,
and an attempt has been made to provide information on a few points
which attentive readers have raised. I have considered all their