Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/7

 12 8. III. JAN. 6, 1917-] NOTES AND QUERIES.

JOHN COLLINS FRANCIS.

WE regret that the first words of ' N. & Q.' for the year 1917 should have to speak of death this time closely touching ourselves. John Collins Francis passed away, after a brief illness, on the afternoon of Wednesday, Dec. 27, in his 79th year. Much of his life, as our readers know, had been connected with ' N. & Q.' His interest was not commercial, but that of the enthusiast. Though death has taken heavy toll of his contemporaries, there are yet many left who can testify to the warmth with which he recognized good service done in the subjects nearest his heart, and, in particular, to his keen enjoyment of noteworthy contributions to our own columns. To him the correspondents of ' N. & Q.' appeared always as a " band of brothers " ; and it was one of his best pleasures to feel himself one of them. His own contri- butions are numerous. Those from 1877 to 1908 he collected in a volume entitled ' Notes by the Way,' which was published in 1909, and includes also biographies of Joseph Knight and Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth. Some twenty years earlier had appeared his ' John Francis, Publisher of The Athenaeum : a Literary Chronicle of Half a Century,' a history of the paper from its foundation to the death of his father in 1882. For a year or two he took a close and direct interest in the editing of ' N. & Q.,' but the chief interest of his later years was his pro- jected Life of Norman MacColl, editor of The Athenceum, and he presently retired from his other occupations in order to devote himself to it. The last piece of his work to appear in our columns was the recent article on The Morning Post (October, 1916), which testifies not only to his continued affection for ' N. & Q.' and his willingness to take much trouble in giving us of his best, but also to his unflagging interest in the history of journalism and kindred matters. In his death there disappears yet another link between the intellectual life and activity of the twentieth century and the stalwart group of publishers, writers, and thinkers who made the great books and the great journalism of the second half of the nineteenth century.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARYS, 1917.

CONTENTS. No. 54. JOHN COLLINS FRANCIS, 1.

NOTES : Richard Edwards's Correspondence, 1669-79, 1 Poem by M. Loyson, 4 'Zoriada' and the Wordbooks, 5 Fielding and Richardson on the Continent, 7 Sappho : a Suggestion Dream Folk-Lore, 8.

QUERIES : General Wolfe, 8-De la Pole : Poole Queen Charlotte North American Indian St. Thomas's Day Nathaniel Kinclerley Calderon Southey Edwin Waugh Illustrations Job Heath's Posset Cup, 9 Bram- dean Hyphenates, 10.

REPLIES : Army List of 1740, 11 Tartar's Bow, 12 Seize-Quartiers " Weep Irish" Fives Court, St. Mar- tin's Lane Mitan, Engraver, 13- Headstones with Portraits "Old British Dollar" Fishing-Rod in the Bible" Faugh-a-Ballagh " : Marat : Henry Kingsley Cyprus Cat, 14 -Plate - Marks Sheridan Lefanu Por- traits in Stained Glass Statue of Queen Victoria Bull- baiting in Spain Constable Family Thackeray and 1 Punch,' 15 Names of the Moon Play " Crookern " Savages' Sight Mews Family, 16 " Swank " " St. Bunyan's Day "Mother and Child, 17 Bible and Salt- Tinsel Pictures, 18.

NOTES ON BOOKS :' Shakespeare's Handwriting' Reviews and Magazines.

Notices to Correspondents.

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF RICHARD EDWARDS, 1669-79.

PREFATORY NOTE.

WHILE editing the Diaries of Streynsham Master (1675-80) for the Indian Records Series, in 1911, I had occasion to draw largely upon the MS. records of the old John Company, pre- served at the India Office. In the course of my researches, I was struck by the enormous number of private letters addressed to one of the Company's subordinate officials, Richard Edwards. He was a factor and merchant in Bengal, and appears to have been on friendly terms with all his contemporaries in the various commercial settlements, as well as with many of the Company's senior servants both in Bengal and Madras. He was a methodical man, and filed the letters he received, and also kept copies of some of his own replies. Had all his correspondence escaped the ravages of time, there would doubtless have been enough matter to fill several bulky volumes. As it is, in spite of many gaps, there yet remain some four hundred documents in a more or less readable condition. These are preserved in the series known as Original Correspondence (O.C.), whence I have transcribed them with the kind permission of the India Office authorities. I have given the spelling and, to modern eyes, eccentric use of capitals, just as they occur in the originals ; but for the convenience of present- day readers I have written out abbreviations, have adhered to the current use of the letters