Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/51

Rh Mrs. M. C. Balfour's Northumberland collection is available for publication.

Of the other County Folklore collections in course of completion, the Council are advised that that of the Orkneys and Shetlands is nearly completed, and they are pleased to be able to report that a new collector has come forward in the person of Miss A. B. Henderson, who is at work on the Folklore of Caithness.

It is now twenty years since the Folk-Lore Society was founded. Members can look back with pride upon the work of the past, but if that work is to be continued on the same lines, and especially if it is to be developed in a manner adequate to the growing importance of the study and to the imperial position of Britain, strenuous and unremitting efforts are required. It is desirable that the Society should signalise the twentieth year of its existence by increasing its membership to at least 500, a result easily to be achieved if all Members would actively exert themselves on its behalf among their friends. Ignorance concerning the aim and work of the Society, and even its existence, far more than lack of interest, is the foe that has to be contended against—ignorance that can only be dissipated by individual action on the part of Members. An earnest appeal is addressed to all who have the welfare of the Society at heart, and who desire to see its sphere of work enlarged. The Secretary will place prospectuses and application-forms at the disposal of Members, and will render all other assistance in his power. It is especially desirable that the number of public libraries subscribing to the Society's publications should be increased, in order to diffuse as widely as possible accurate knowledge of our study. The Council are preparing a special appeal to libraries, but in the meantime they urge all Members serving upon library committees to represent the claim which the Society has upon all who study the popular antiquities of the very various races under the dominion of the Queen.