Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/378

 374

NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vn. MAY 10, 1913.

OLD -TIME CHILDREN'S BOOKS AND STORIES (11 S. vii. 310, 356). For a general survey of the whole subject see Mrs. E. M. Field's

of the History and Progress of Children's Literature in England,' London, 1891 (a later edition 1895). This work covers the entire period of children's literature, and is packed with information. Next in order of importance I would name Charles Welsh's
 * The Child and his Book : some Account

1885, which is the Life of John Newbery, the publisher of children's books in St. Paul's Churchyard a thoroughly good book, having at the end lists of all the books issued by Newbery and his successors. Supplement- ary to this are two smaller books by Charles Welsh, issued by the Sette of Odd Volumes, and forming numbers 11 and 13 of the
 * A Bookseller of the Last Century,' London,

Erivately printed " Opuscula " of that sarned body. The first is ' On some of the Books for Children of the Last Century, with a few words on the Philanthropic Publisher of St. Paul's Churchyard,' 1880. The second is ' On Coloured Books for Children, with a Catalogue of Books Exhibited ' (before the Sette of Odd Volumes), 1887. Mr. Welsh wrote historical introductions to new editions of ' The History of Little Goody Two Shoes ' and ' The Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast.' He wrote as well an article on ' Old Children's Books ' for The Newbery House Magazine, vol. iii. (extinct).

The early history of this subject is dealt with in Mrs. Field's book, but additional notes can be found in the Preface, by the late Dr. Furnivall, to ' The Babees Book ' (E.E. Text Society), and in R. H. Quick's ' Essays on Educational Reformers ' and T. Spencer Baynes's ' What Shakespeare Learnt at School ' (in his ' Shakespeare and other Studies ').

Besides the books named in the Editorial foot-note to this query ' Pages and Pictures from Forgotten Children's Books,' 1898, and ' Stories from Old - fashioned Children's Books,' 1899 Mr. A. W. Tuer wrote an exhaustive work upon ' Horn Books.' Mr. W, E. A. Axon has also written a pamphlet ' Horn Books and A B C's,' and M. Leopold Delisle of the Bibliotheque Rationale has issued another pamphlet on the same subject. Mr. Axon contributed a paper to The Library, January, 1901, upon ' The Juvenile Library, 1880.' Miss Agnes Repplier has written one or more essays upon the subject of old children's books for The Atlantic Monthly. In Longman's Magazine, October, 1901, there is an article

by Mrs. L. A. Harker, ' Some Eighteenth- Century Children's Books.' The subject was a favourite one with Miss Charlotte M. Yonge, and she contributed an article entitled ' Children's Books of the Last Cen- tury ' (eighteenth) to Macmillan's Magazine, vol. xx.

Mr. Anstey has written one or two essays on the same, and one of these appears in The New Review, vol. xiv. (extinct). There was another upon ' The Fairchild Family ' in The Nineteenth Century a few years ago. Canon Ainger has an amusing paper on the subject reprinted in his ' Lectures.' The Studio has a special number dealing his- torically with children's books. Mr. Spiel- mann's Life of Kate Greenaway should not be forgotten, nor Ruskin's remarks upon her art in ' The Art of England.' Ruskin, it will be remembered, said many favourable things of ' Dame Wiggins of Lee,' and of Bewick as an illustrator of children's books. There is a sketch of the history of children's books by C. M. Hewins in The Atlantic Monthly, vol. Ixi., 1888. The Quarterly Review, vol. Ixxvii. (1844), had a 26-page article on ' Children's Books,' and The Dublin University Mag., vol. xliii., 1854, had an essay on ' Children's Pleasure Books.' Thackeray wrote in Fraser's Maga- zine, vol. xxxiii. (1846), ' On some Illus- trated Children's Books.'

A few months ago there was an exhibition at Olympia in connexion with the interests of children, and a large space was devoted to showing old children's books. The chief exhibitor w ? as Mr. Harvey Darton, the descendant of, and successor to, a pioneer in children's books, and the head of the firm of Wells Gardner & Co.

A. L. HUMPHREYS.

187, Piccadilly, W.

AN EARLY SHORTHAND SOCIETY (11 S. vii. 308). Much information concerning the society formed to extend the knowledge and use of the "Universal English Short - Hand " of John Byrom, M.A., F.R.S., will be found in ' The Private Journal and Literary Remains of John Byrom,' edited by Mr. Parkinson, and published by the Chetham Society in 1854-6. Mr. Matthias Levy, writing with the above work before him, says :

" The reiterated ' challenges ' of Western in- duced Byrom and some of his more famous pupils to form themselves into a society for the encouragement of shorthand The Society, estab- lished by Byrom and his pupils, was addressed by the members in turn. We have Byrom himself lecturing on the antiquity of his art. Dr. Hartley