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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. x. AUG. 2, 1*02.

of the same year by M. Alfred Potiquet, Paris (43 pp.; second edition in March, 1862).

3. 'Manuel du Collectionneur de Timbres Poste et Nomenclature generale de tous les Timbres adoptes dans les divers Pays de 1'Univers,' published in January, 1862, by M. J. B. Moens, Brussels (72 pp.; second edition in same year). A sketch and portrait of M. Moens will be found in the Philatelic Record for December, 1893.

In 1862 English philatelic literature made a fair start. In April there appeared ' Aids to Stamp Collectors : being a List of English and Foreign Stamps in Circulation since 1840,' by a Stamp Collector. Brighton, H. & C. Treacher. This volume was little more than a translation from the works of Potiquet and Moens. Second and third editions of the ' Aids ' rapidly followed within the same year, the title-page bearing the name of the author, Frederick Booty. Mr. Booty also brought out a ' Stamp Collector's Guide ' (same publishers and year), the earliest illustrated catalogue. The lithographs of stamps, some 200 in number, are said to be the result of Mr. Booty's own artistic skill, and are at least recognizable.

In May, 1862, appeared a book which, though not more systematic than Booty's, gained a much wider popularity, ' Catalogue of British, Colonial, and Foreign Postage Stamps,' by Mount Brown. London, Pass- more (second edition in June; third, De- cember ; fourth, May, 1863 ; fifth, March, 1864). Mr. Brown originally based his list on the collection of the Rev. F. J. Stainforth, Perpetual Curate of Allhallows, Staining, one of our earliest collectors, who died in 1866. The number of varieties described rises from 1,200 in the first edition to 2,400 in the fifth. Of the latter fifty copies were printed on large paper, forming decidedly the handsomest specimens of early English philatelic literature. An American piracy of the first edition was published in 1862 at Philadelphia by A. C. Kline, under the title of The Stamp Collector's Manual : being a Complete Guide to the Collectors of American and Foreign Postage and Despatch Stamps.' This seems to be the earliest American phila- telic publication. A more remarkable prooi of the popularity of Mr. Brown's work was afforded by the appearance of a ' Catalogue of nearly Two Thousand Varieties of British, Colonial, and Foreign Postage Stamps/ by a Collector. Gloucester, 1863 This was simply an almost verbatim reprint of Mr. Brown's third edition. It was suppressed at his instance, and is consequently very scarce. A sketch and portrait of Mr. Mount Brown wil

be found in the Philatelic Record for De- cember, 1894.

In the number for June, 1862, of Young England (London, Tweedie) the late Dr. John Edward Gray, of the British Museum, oegan a series of articles entitled ' The Postage Stamps of the World.'

'The collecting of postage stamps," writes Dr. Uray, " having lately become a fashion, especially among the young persons at schools, it certainly will be interesting to the readers of Young England jO have as complete a list of them as I have been

able to form I may state that I began to collect

ihem shortly after the system was established, and many years before it had become the fashion, simply because I believe that 1 was the first that proposed the system of a small uniform rate of postage, to be prepaid by stamps, having satisfied myself that the great cost of the Post-office was not the recep- tion, carriage, and delivery of the letters, but the complicated system of accounts that the old system required, and that the collection of money by stamps was the most certain and most economical. But 1 found there was little chance of getting any attention to the plan without I could devote the whole of my time and energy to the development and the agitation of it. Fortunately Mr. (now Sir) Rowland Hill, who had leisure at his command, undertook the question, and with the assistance of Mr. G. MofFatt, Mr. Henry Cole, and sundry mer- chants and members of Parliament, whom they induced to interest themselves in the question, they carried the measure after great exertion."

Further instalments of Dr. Gray's con- tribution appeared in Young England for July, August, and September, 1862, and the substance of these articles was reprinted in book form as ' A Hand Catalogue of Postage Stamps for the Use of Collectors,' Londo:., Hardwicke (second edition, 1863; subse- quent editions, having the title altered to ' The Illustrated Catalogue,' &c., in 1865, 1866, 1870, 1875). The claim of priority of sug- gestion set forth by Dr. Gray was not allowed to pass unchallenged. An interesting corre- spondence on the subject, embracing letters from Sir Rowland Hill and Mr. Charles Knight, will be found in the Athenaeum for 13, 20, 27 December, 1862 ; 3 and 10 January, 1863.

In All the Year Round for 19 July, 1862, is given a short sketch, ' My Nephew's Col- lection,' descriptive of " the last new mania."

In the number for 26 July, 1862, of Cassell's Illustrated Family Paper (series ii. vol. x. p. 140) appeared the first of an extended series of copiously illustrated articles under the heading ' Postage Stamps.' The articles are anonymous, and the present editor of Cassell's Magazine tells me that it is now impossible to trace the authorship. The articles are continued in vpls. x. xi. xii. xiii. xiv., and in series iii. vols. iii. and iv. Unlike Dr. Gray, the writer does not seek to give a complete