Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/89

 9 th S. X. AUG. 2, 1902.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

81

LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 3, 1905.

CONTENTS. -No. 240.

NOTES : -Stamp Collecting Forty Years Ago, 81 Notes on Skeat's 'Concise Dictionary,' 83 Italian Jingoism in 1591, 84 Book -titles in Books " Quick "=Italian- iron "Raising the wind " Coronation Postponement, 85 Cries of Animals Female Stenographers in Old Times- Dickens and Tibullus, 86.

QUERIES: Bolton Abbey Compotus, 86 General E. Mathew Black for Mourning Race of the Gybbins Mrs. Barker, Novelist Anderton Flint : Ferrey " None- soprett ies " : " Spinnel," 87 Holme of Holme Hall Dun- lop Coincidence " Pristinensis Episcopus " Baker St. Ernulphus Waterloo Ballroom, 88 Haselock Family Danes in Pembroke Borough of Bishop's Stortford Forster Russian Story, 89.

REPLIES : 'Aylwin,' 89 Albino Animals, 91 Castle Carewe, 92" Wild-Cat" Company C< ndace "Endorse- ment " Kennett's Wharf " Mallet" or "Mullet," 93 " Met "National Flag-Orange Blossoms, 94 " Beatific vision " " Astonish the natives "' Waldby Family Arms Stoning the Wren Marks on Table Linen" Sixes and sevens," 95 American Edition of Dickens Locomotive and Gas Fleetwood Pedigree, 96 Lady Nottingham Ainsworth Byron's Grandfather Halley Family Heuskarian Rarity, 97 Slang of the Past Book-mar kes Phaer Grace before Meat "Box Harry " Hobbins Family Tib's Eve, 98.

NOTES ON BOOKS: -Hills" Antonio Stradivari ' York- shire Archaeological Journal,' Parts 63 and 64 'English Historical Review.'

Notices to Correspondents.

STAMP COLLECTING AND ITS LITERA- TURE FORTY YEARS AGO.

(See 2 nd S. iv. 329, 421, 500 ; v. 308 ; ix. 482 ; 3 rd S. i. 149, 195, 277, 357, 393, 474 ; v. 418 ; 4 th S. xi. 214 ; xii. 384 ; 5 th S. viii. 266, 506 ; xii. 88, 172, 238, 256, 389, 474, 515 ; 6 th S. ix. 508 ; x. 98, 234, 373, 468, 478, 496 ; xi. 33, 74, 117, 217, 406, 517 ; xii. 428, 505 ; 7 th S. iii. 30, 152 ; iv. 396 ; x. 385 ; 8 th S. v. 509 ; vi. 9, 93, 117, 368 ; vii. 192 ; x. 415, 499 ; xii. 469 ; 9 th S. i. 115 ; v. 404, 501 ; ix. 438.)

THE mania for amassing vast numbers of used stamps dates from a much earlier period than anything of the nature of philately proper. So far back as 1841 I find this ad- vertisement in the Times :

"A young lady, being desirous of covering her dressing-room with cancelled postage stamps, has been so far encouraged in her wish by private friends as to have succeeded in collecting 16,000. These, however, being insufficient, she will be greatly obliged if any good-natured person who may have these (otherwise useless) little articles at their disposal would assist her in her whimsical project. Address to E. D., Mr. Butt's, Glover, Leadenhall Street; or Mr Marshall's, Jeweller, Hackney."

In 1842 Punch had a skit on the same subject :

"A new mania has bitten the industriously idle ladies of England. To enable a large wager to be

gained they have been indefatigable in their en- deavours to collect old penny stamps ; in fact, they betray more anxiety to treasure up Queen's heads than Harry the Eighth did to get rid of them. Colonel Sibthorpe, whose matchless genius we have so often admired, sends us the following poem upon the prevailing epidemic : When was a folly so pestilent hit upon As folks running mad to collect every spit-upon Post-office stamp, that 's been soiled and been writ

upon? Oh, for Swift ! such a subject his spleen to emit

upon. 'Tis said that some fool in mustachios has split upon

The rock of a bet,

And therefore must get,

To avoid loss and debt, Half the town as collectors to waste time and wit

upon Bothering and forcing their friends to submit, upon

Pain of displeasure,

To fill a peck measure

With the coveted treasure

Of as many old stamps as perforce can be hit upon, To paper a room, or stuff cushions to sit upon. Do, dearest Punch, let fly a sharp skit upon This new pursuit, and an ass's head fit upon The crest of the Order of Knights of the Spit-upon." ,

It yet remains for 'N. & Q.' to fix with something like accuracy the date when stamp collecting in the true sense (i.e., the collecting of different varieties of stamps) first began to attract general attention in Britain. Judge Suppantschitsch, of, Vienna, claims to have unearthed a reference to collecting - in the Family Herald for 22 March, 1851. The Philatelic Journal of America for March, 1885, asserts that advertisements from English dealers appeared as far back as 1857. I have been unable to obtain confirmation of this assertion, but probably the advertisement pages of the early volumes of the first series of Beeton's Boys Oivn Magazine, 1855-62, if anywhere accessible, might yield some result.

In the Museum (Edinburgh.. James Gordon) for July, 1861, appeared an article on ' Edu- cation through trie Senses,' by the author of ' Rab and his Friends.' Dr. Brown urges the propriety of interesting children in occupations requiring the use of their own hands and eyes, and remarks incidentally :

"Even the immense activity in the Post-office- stamp line of business among our youngsters has been of immense use in many ways, besides being a diversion and an interest. I myself came to the knowledge of Queensland, and a great deal more, through its blue twopenny."

The earliest printed matter devoted ex- clusively to collecting appears to have been :

1. A list of stamps (12 pp., no title) issued privately in September, 1861, by M. Oscar Berger-Levrault, Strassburg (second edition in December).

2. ' Catalogue des Timbres Poste cre'es dans lea divers Etats du Globe,' issued in December