Notes by the Way, with Memoirs of Joseph Knight and
the Rev. Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth. By John Collins Francis. (T. Fisher Unwin. 10s. 6d. net.)—Joseph; Knight was editor of Notes and Queries from 1883 till his death in 1907, and a frequent contributor to the "Dictionary of National Biography," writing about four hundred articles. J. W. Ebswortles principal service to literature was in connexion with; ballads. To the collection and illustration of these he devoted himself with an untiring industry, which received, as might be supposed, no remuneration. He seems to have been not a little diffieile. A friend who adversely criticised a favourite author ceased to bo a friend. He died in 1908. In addition to these two memoirs the volume contains a selection of interesting items from Notes and Queries. Here we find many curiosities. Among them a journalist not unnaturally selects some noteworthy details about his own occupation. In 1846 there were twelve daily papers in England, and two in Ireland. Then the burden of the compulsory stamp was repealed, and, later on, the Paper-duty. Now there are a hundred and fifty-four in England, eighteen in Ireland, and thirty in the rest of the United Itingdom. Of London daily papers the oldest is the Morning Post (1772) ; next comes the Times (1785), and then the Morning Advertiser (1794). Of weekly papers the Weekly Dispatch is the oldest (1807), a solitary centenarian. Those that have passed the limit of the eightieth year are the Lancet (1823), the .eithenicum (1828), the Record (1828), and the Spectator (1828). An annus mirabitis this same 1828 ! There are many other noteworthy things in the book, as might be supposed, when so rich a mine as Notes and Queries has been searched.
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