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 Report of Brand Co)/n//i/fee. i i ,:;

lacuna.' in the former become apparent during the progress of the work.

6. That in due course a specimen chapter be printed and circulated for the guidance and instruction of workers, and that the cost of circulating instructions and queries be borne by the Society.

7. That the compilation of the Bibliographical list be put in hand at once, and that two copies each of Ellis's " Brand " and of Hone's works be procured and pasted down for general use and collation.

8. That endeavours be made to get the staff of workers together in time to begin with the New Year (1911).

The Council further appointed Mr. Henry B. Wheatley as Editor-in-Chief, and a little later Mrs. M. M. Banks, F.R.Hist.S., became a member of the Committee, in addition to those previously mentioned.

The Committee had to consider in the first place what was the character of the published material known as the work of the Rev. John Brand, and how this was to be amalgamated with the newer material available in Folk- lore literature. The literary history of Brand's Popular Antiquities is so truly remarkable that it will be convenient to refer to it here.

Ill 1725 the Rev. Henry Bourne (1696-1733) published a small but useful volume, compiled with the definite object of drawing attention to the evils of the superstitious beliefs held by the peasants. This was entitled " Antiquitates Vulgares : or the Antiquities of the Common People, by Henry Bourne, M.A., Newcastle-on-Tyne," a small octavo volume of less than 250 pages. This publication was evidently intended more for instruction than as an anti- quarian essay.

Fifty-two years after this book appeared, the Rev. John Brand (1744-1806) brought out a new edition with additions. This, although more valuable for what it contains than the previous book, is very clumsily edited, and therefore not a