Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/39

 Report of the Brand Conwiittee. 1 1

lore incidentally. Dr. T. E. Lones, working at the British Museum, has again given valuable help by preliminary examination of these for the guidance of readers. Con- siderable progress has been made towards covering the ground. The PUBLICATIONS OF THE Chktpiam Sociktv, of which Miss Faraday some years since made a preliminary examination, are in the competent hands of Miss Dona Torr. It was found necessary to employ paid labour on the Varia series of " Peter Lombard " (the late Canon Benham), which could only be consulted in the files of the Clnuxh Times, and which, as had been foreseen, has yielded a rich harvest. Among the principal local serials \'et remaining to be read the Transactions of the Woolhopc Clnb and Fenland Notes atid Queries may be mentioned. The Committee will be glad to hear from any readers who will undertake them.

The Committee will also be grateful to any country members who will forward extracts from small Parochial Histories of places in their own neighbourhood. These usually give better results than the large County Histories ; they are difficult to meet with in London, and so few of them have yet been dealt with that the senders need not fear their labour will be thrown away.

Notwithstanding the exertions of Miss Hull, Miss Moutray Read, and Sir Bertram Windle, Ireland still remains the weak spot in the collections. Doubtless public events have added to the difficulties already experienced there.

An interesting branch of the enquiry relates to old drawings and engravings illustrating popular customs. This has not been overlooked, and the Committee have under consideration the collection of information as to such contemporary representations. They already possess notes of some examples, and they hope to find much information in the collections made by the distinguished antiquary Francis Douce, now in the Bodleian Library. These