Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/463

 10* s. iv. NOV. ii. 1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 381 LONDON, SATC1WAY, NOVEMBER 11. I90S. CONTENTS.-No. 98. NOTB8:—'The Bullish Dialect Dictionary,' 381 — The Jubilee of ' The Saturday Keview,' 382—Consul Smith and hii Will, 383—Bliiabeth Gunning. Duchess of Hamilton, .")*»—Trafalgar—Strand Theatre, 385— "The vouchsafe of your refute^'—Mullwrry and Quince—Wheatstone—Seven fiacranunt Fonts — Fllei ID Coffin, 389 — " Parva Bed apta," 387. QURUIES :—Dover Pier — "Tholieli " — Burns and the " Palace of Traqualr "—" Don't nail his ears to the pump " — Scotch Communion Tokens — Ithamar — Atlas anrt Pleione: the Daisy, 387 — John Lawrence — Amateur Dramatic Clubs—B. John Halle—Printed Catalogues of Public Libraries—Duelling In Oermany, 388—George III. and Sydenham Wells—Tufnel Family—Sir Robert Lytton —Dryden Portraits—Bri: The Planche—Sussex Inscrip- tion—' Jenetta Norweb,' a Lost Book, 389—' The Fortune- Teller,' 390. KKPLIES :—" Fountain-hearts and pathless groves," 390— Miners' Greeting—" Piece-broker "—"Totum eunie. Unit " — Waterloo Veteran. 391—Welsh Poem—Applehy Magna (irammar School—Joliffe Family of Dorset. 893—Authors •of Quotations Wanted—"Concerts of Antlent Music"— Melisande: Bttarre — " The most eloquent of ancient •writers"—Fermor, 393—Prisons in Paris during the French Revolution —Civil War Earthworks. 394—Female Crucifixes—Splitting Fields of Ice, 395-Worple Way— •"Tinterero"—"Nutting "—"Caterplllersof the Common- wealth," 39»—Custom of Thraves—Club Cup-Suicides burled In the Open Fields—Bvans: Symonds : Garden, 397—Du Bartas, 398. NOTKS ON BOOKS :-'Letters to " Ivy'"—'Book-Prices Current'—'The Modern Language Keview'—'The Bur- lington '—Reviews and Magazines. Foreign Booksellers' Catalogues. Notices to Correspondents. •THE ENGLISH DIALECT DICTIONARY.' Now that' The English Dialect Dictionary' has been completed in six quarto volumes, owing to the zeal and genius of its editor, Prof. Joseph Wright, who has contributed to its final volume an English Dialect Grammar, one of the most astonishing and complete works of its kind which the world has ever seen, it would be ungrateful not to acknow- ledge, with heartfelt thanks, the efficient help which was received from ' N. & Q.' at the time of its first inception. It was in 1873 (see 4th S. xi. 385) that I wrote my first letter on this subject, since reprinted in 'A Student's Pastime,' at p. 75. 3kly proposal was that the readers of ' N. & Q.' should contribute notes giving the names of all books concerning English dialects, and send them to me. The editorial remark was : •" We highly approve of our valued corre- spondent's suggestion, and gladly accept his kind offer. All communications on this sub- ject should be addressed to the Rev. W. W. JSkeat, Cintra Terrace, Cambridge." A second letter of mine on the same subject appeared in 4tu S. xi. 406 (17 May, 1873). Owing to the vigorous and ungrudging help of many enthusiastic correspondents, it very soon became possible to establish the English Dialect Society, which began its career in 1873 and ended it in 1896, during which period it published eighty volumes, all of which (so tar as was desirable) have been incorporated in the Dictionary. The Society began with a modest annual subscription of half-a-guinea from each mem- ber. But so much material was forthcoming that the subscription was soon raised to one pound. The money thus contributed was wholly spent in printing the eighty volumes and the regular Annual Ileports. Members were requested to send their con- tributions to the treasurer ; but the first one that was paid was sent, by an oversight, to myself. I remember the slight shock which the sight of the cheque gave me ; I felt that the matter was now indeed serious, and that we should have to go through with the undertaking. The name of the contributor has become famous, and I think it will do no harm to mention it. It was Edward Fitzgerald. In 1879 my dear friend Miss Georgina Jackson published her 'Shropshire Word- book' independently. It is an admirable model of what a county glossary ought to be. In order that the 'Dialect Dictionary' should have full access to the contents of her book, she assigned to me the copyright. And I believe that not much of it has been omitted. In 1876 the headquarters of the Society were removed from Cambridge to Manchester. Mr. J. II. Nodal proved a most valuable and energetic secretary, and, in the words of Prof. Wright, " it is not too much to say that it was mainly through his great interest in the subject that the Society published so many excellent county and other glossaries." In 1886 we began to raise an additional fund for the work of collecting and arranging more material, especially good quotations from standard works for the purpose of illustration. This most important and prac- tically severe work was admirably performed, for two years and a half, by Dr. Smytho Palmer. Then came a crisis. The work had been largely advanced, but no one was equal to the task of completing and editing it as it ought to be done ; and for a short time the situation was simply hopeless. But England, as usual, did its duty by providing the one man who alone could take the supreme con- trol, and the first part of this monumental work appeared in 1898. It was completed in September, 1905. WALTEE W. SKEAT.