Francis Paget

Paget, Francis (1806–82), English clergyman and author of The Hope of the Katzekopfs (1844), the first published fantasy for children. Written under the name ‘William Churne of Staffordshire’, it contains the poem ‘Farewell, rewards and fairies’ by Bishop Richard Corbet (1582–1635). It is a lively burlesque which concludes on a moral note, telling the story of the spoilt Prince Eigenwillig (Self‐willed), who is wrenched away from his doting parents by the fairy Abracadabra. She rolls him into a rubber ball and bounces him to Fairyland where he has to submit to the grave old man, Discipline, before he can return home.

— Gillian Avery