NOTICES

ΤΟ

CORRESPONDENTS

CONSISTING OF

SEVERAL THOUSAND EDITORIAL ANSWERS

Selected from the best Authorities

SUPPLYING A FUND OF INFORMATION WHICH CANNOT

BE OBTAINED FROM ANY OTHER SOURCE.

THE TWELFTH THOUSAND.

LONDON

HOULSTON AND WRIGHT

65, PATERNOSTER ROW

MDCCCLXIX.

PRINTED BY

CHARLES JONES, WEST HARDING STREET.

Reclass. 3-23-3), NDL for D.F

ΤΟ

"NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS."

EVERY person who has noticed the very useful Replies to Correspondents that appear in various weekly Papers, must have felt regret that hitherto no means have been devised for preserving, in a convenient form, the various items of infor mation evidently gathered with so much labour.

The unwieldy size of the newspaper rendered the preservation of " Notices to Correspondents," in their original form, almost an impossibility; and the difficulty of referring to them, without the aid of a copious Index, such as no Newspaper could be expected to give, would have rendered them worthless even if the dimensions of newspaper files could be overlooked.

In this little volume of "NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS," there are gathered together from The Dispatch, The Sunday Times, The Era, The Field, The Gardeners' Chronicle, The Lady's Newspaper, The Justice of the Peace, Lloyd's Newspaper, The Weekly Times, The News of the World, The Family Herald, The London Journal, The Home Companion, The Family Tutor, Notes and Queries, and other excellent papers and magazines, ANSWERS TO SOME TEN THOUSAND QUESTIONS, submitted to Editorial decision and judgment by many thousands of Correspondents, who doubtless had been unable to obtain the information they required elsewhere.

This information is all the more valuable because, speaking of it generally, it cannot be obtained from any other source than the pages of this volume. No Dictionary, no Encyclopædiæ, no work of Reference whatever, will be found to supply information upon the varied and singular points of inquiry that are crowded into this volume.

To the gentlemen whose labours have supplied this fund of useful information I am greatly indebted for their extreme courtesy, for not only permitting

277190

iv.

me to make these numerous

kindness with which several of them lent me mes

which I could not otherwise obtain.

In every case I have quoted the authority from which the information has been derived, and the date, so far as the year is concerned, of the paper in which it appeared. This enhances the value of the information, and gives satisfaction to the inquirer by informing him of the authority upon whose statement or judgment he has to rely.

In some instances, though very few, facts will be found to be repeated. This arises from the similarity with which the Correspondents indited their questions, making them similar to others, though not the same. In such cases the answers of the Editors given to the like questions, will be found to serve in corroboration of each other. Or, should they differ in their opinions, the inquirer will be made aware that there are points of doubt upon the subject, and will form his independent judgment upon the statements adduced.

To the Gentlemen of the Press I beg to return my very sincere thanks for their friendly co-operation in the production of this useful volume.

With regard to the answers to Correspondents given in Bell's Life, Lloyd's News, The News of the World, &c., I have been prevented from making extracts to the extent that otherwise I should have done, from the fact that they do not generally publish the question asked. I would respectfully submit to the Editors of those papers that they would greatly enhance the value of their "Notices to Correspondents," by publishing the questions with the answers. By so doing, they would serve not only the one individuals who may be their correspondents, but many others to whom the same information would be interesting; whilst they would escape the unnecessary trouble of having repeatedly to answer the same inquiries.

66

Questions upon Domestic Matters, such as Hair Dyes, Pomades, Cookery, Medicine, &c., &c., which are already collected in my Enquire Within upon Everything," and its companion volume, "The Interview," are omitted from Notices.to Correspondents." By this arrangement I have been able to give a larger selection of those rarer matters which have not hitherto found their place in the pages of a compact volume. The whole has been most carefully indexed, so that any piece of information which the volume contains can be found in a moment.

London, March 1869.