Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/305

 9th 8. IV. Nov. 4, '99.] 363 NOTES AND QUERIES. U. HISTORICAL. THIS last year but one of the nineteenth century has been remarkable for the number of its centenary and jubilee celebrations. On the 16th of January three hundred years had passed since the death, at his lodgings in King Street, Westminster, of Edmund Spenser. On the 5th of June the centenary of the Royal Institution was cele- brated. On the 13th of the same month was the jubilee of the first municipal public free library in the United Kingdom, that in the Peel Park, Salford. The 28th of August was the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the birth of Goethe. Festivities commemo- rating the event were commenced on the 19th of August, and not concluded until the 6th of September, when the Goethe Platz wasdecorated and lighted in "hervorragender Weise" ; but amid all the rejoicings it is beautiful to record that the graves of Goethe's parents in the old churchyard of St. Peter were not forgotten, lovely wreaths of flowers and laurels being placed upon them. Other events include the centenary of the Church Missionary Society, founded on the 14th of April, 1799 (to commemorate the event Mr. Eugene Stock, the editorial secretary, has written a full history of the Society, pub- lished in three volumes) ; the centenary of the Religious Tract Society, founded by the Rev. George Burder, of Coventry, on the 9th of May, 1799 (the Rev. Samuel G. Green, D.D., the secretary, has sketched ' The Story of the Religious Tract Society for One Hundred Years.' This contains a fac- simile of Tract No. 6, ' The Repentance and Happy Death of the Celebrated Earl of Rochester." It is curious to note that the name of the printer of this tract is Rousseau); the jubilee of " that dream of Father Newman and Father Faber of bringing Rome to London," the founding of the London Oratory, this being opened in King William Street, Strand, on the 31st of May, 1849. Among anniversaries of inventions must be mentioned the diamond jubilee of photography and the centenary of the yet more important discoveries by Volta as to the properties of electricity. It is in this eventful year we celebrate the jubilee of, to speak of it in the terms of its founder, "dear old Notes and Queries" the first number of which was published on the 3rd of November, 1849. In the summer of 1846 Mr. William John Thorns, the founder and first editor of Notes and Queries, wrote to The Athenaeum, suggest- ing that it would be both useful anrf in- teresting if it would open its columns to correspondence on the manners, customs, observances, superstitions, ballads, proverbs, &c., of the olden time. Mr. Dilke was so much struck with the idea that he invited Mr. Thorns to call upon him at the office in Wellington Street, when, with certain limita- tions, the plan was agreed to, and on the 22nd of August the first article appeared, Mr. Thorns writing under the pseudonym of " Ambrose Morton, and giving to his investi- gations the title of "Folk-Lore." In the number published on the 4th of September, 1847, Mr. Thorns revealed himself to be "Ambrose Merton," and at the same time claimed the honour of introducing the expression " Folk-Lore," "as Isaac Disraeli does of introducing 'Fatherland' into the literature of the country." The Athenceuni of the same date states " that in less than twelve months the word ' Folk-Lore' has almost attained to the dignity of a household word." Mr. Thorns at this time commenced a series of nine articles on the Folk-Lore of Shakespeare, little realizing that this special subject was to assume such dimen- sions. In 1849 it was found that the Folk-Lore articles and correspondence had become so extensive that it was impossible, having re- gard to the increasing demands that litera- ture, the fine arts, and the other subjects treated in The Athenceuni made on its space, that they should be continued. Mr. Thorns, therefore, felt that the time had come when a journal entirely devoted to the sub- jects in question might be started with a fair chance of success. The title of Notes and Queries, "after much cudgelling of brains," was hit upon, and with a hearty greeting from The Athenceuni the new paper started on its way. Mr. Thorns, in his interesting reminiscences of the founding of the journal, gives a record of the first six numbers, ana renders, with true old-world courtesy, full tribute to those whose contributions nad been so largely helpful to its success (5th S. vi. 1, 41, 101, 221; vii. 1, 222, 303). He also says that the title of Notes and Queries was not considered by many of his friends to be a good one, but tnat he himself, being so well pleased with it, determined to stand fast by it. Mr. Peter Cunningham suggested for its motto the words of Cowper :— By thee I might correct, erroneous oft, The clock of History—facts and events Timing more punctual, unrecorded facts Recovering, and mis-stated setting right. But it was due to the happy suggestion of a lady that Captain Cuttle's favourite