Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/559

 Con'espondence. 5 5 1

are at hand to preserve a record of that which is doomed to pass away.

The service that may be rendered to folk-lore by photo- graphy is really considerable ; it is easy, and it is effective. I would therefore beg any member of the Folk-lore Society, or reader of FOLK-LORE, who may be able to assist in this matter, to secure a photograph of any rural troupe of actors he knows of, and forward it to the Secretary.

These remarks are directed especially to the mumming plays which we may expect with the coming Christmas ; but folk-plays are not confined to this season. The Horn Dance, for instance, is celebrated apparently in the summer. I am writing to the vicar of the parish, and hope to include some particulars of the dance in a forthcoming paper. I should not be at all surprised to hear that this dance, like the Morris, is performed at other seasons, including Christmas. And although Christmas is perhaps not the time of year which the amateur photographer would choose, for considerations of light and atmosphere, yet it may serve to give an object to the country visits of some amateurs this coming season, if they will kindly bear the interests of folk-lore in mind, and take their cameras with them.

T. F. Ordish.

FOLK-SONGS AND MUSIC. To the Editor of FOLK-LORE.

Sir, — May I draw the attention of members of the Folk-lore Society to the branch of work in which I am especially interested, namely, the collecting of all kinds of traditional tunes and songs, chiefly of Great Britain?

There have from time to time been published a few small books giving rustic ballads with their tunes ; the Rev. S. Baring -Gould, in his Songs of the West, has rescued a great deal of old music lingering in Cornwall and Devonshire ; Mr. Heywood Sumner's Besom-Maker is