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xx JOSEPH KNIGHT. "Contributors to the First Series are still in our midst. They may be more even than we are aware for who shall say under what disguises some who now sign their names at first concealed themselves? Such must, however, be comparatively few. Those who remain and those who are coming on are animated by the same spirit, preserve the same traditions, and hold aloft the same banner. Thoughts of battle are at present in men's minds, and the fact may justify an illustration not likely otherwise to be employed. The ranks of a corps are depleted and are filled again, yet the regiment is the same. Its men are still preux, its colours are unchanged, or when torn to shreds are renewed, the esprit de corps endures, and the very nicknames—heroic, comic, or affectionate—are preserved. Through the changes Mr. Francis so graphically depicts, Notes and Queries remains Notes and Queries, renders the same service, inspires the same devotion. I might almost address my associates and supporters as Henry V. addressed his scanty force at Agincourt :
 * We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.

A band of brothers the writers in Notes and Queries have always constituted, and there is, I venture to think, no other periodical in the world in which exist such bonds of sympathy among its contributors and such cordial support of those in a position of 'brief authority.'"

The affection with which he was regarded by its contributors was worldwide, and friends across the seas wrote to me not long before his death, wishing him to be invited to a banquet in 1909 to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Notes and Queries. His own contributions to the paper were so modestly put that they are difficult to trace, but notable among these was his tribute to our late beloved Queen Victoria, which appeared in 'N. & Q.' on Saturday, the 26th of January, 1901. Knight was desirous that fitting tribute should be rendered, but was nervous about writing one to appear the same week, the time being so short. I telegraphed to him how anxious I was that it should appear, and in a couple of hours he brought me the following, which was printed on the first page of the number. I mention these details to show how truly Knight had the pen of a ready writer:

VICTORIA REGINA ET IMPERATRIX.

"The saddest task that has yet fallen to Notes and Queries is the record of the national loss.

"Born 24 May, 1819 ; died 22 January, 1901. These are the simple outlines of fact which an empire's love and an unparalleled historic record have filled in until a picture is constituted the noblest, the grandest, the most splendid upon which the world has