can be no doubt that it was in Mr. Bryce's mind all along; and that he talked the matter over with Mr. York Powell. It was, I feel sure, through Powell that the existing Review, of which we are keeping the feast, was in fact established. Early in 1885 there were several gatherings of a few friends here in Oxford—they were too informal to be called meetings—in which the subject was discussed. The names which I recall in connexion with them are those of Powell, Round, Tout, Firth, and Archer. … We drew up a general scheme, and we agreed to invite Mr. Bryce to undertake the duties of editor. We had nothing to offer except a promise that we would endeavour to raise a sustentation fund and a list of subscribers to keep the Review going. In the Easter vacation Powell had a long talk with Mr. Bryce. As we had feared at the outset, Mr. Bryce's public engagements precluded him from accepting our invitation; he recommended us to ask in his stead Mr. Creighton, who had then lately come back from Northumberland to occupy the chair of ecclesiastical history at Cambridge. Mr. Bryce also made a point of our asking an American historian to act as Corresponding Editor in the United States. As I shall not have occasion to refer to this again I may mention that the late Dr. Justin Winsor, librarian of Harvard, most kindly undertook this duty, and gave us his valuable services for a number of years. When he died, it was not considered necessary to continue the office. The appearance of the American Historical Review, with which we have always been on the most friendly terms, in fact, rendered it needless.
But to resume: at Mr. Bryce's advice, we turned to Mr. Creighton. Powell wrote him a letter in which he expressed his hope that he might be persuaded to become our editor. I well remember the letter, because it was written in my house. Partly in order to show Mr. Creighton that the duties which we asked of him would not be too burdensome, and partly, too, in order that the Review might have a definite connexion with Oxford, Powell laid stress on our wish that he should have an assistant here to do the rough work of the Review, and he mentioned my name as a suitable person for the job. Why I was chosen I do not really know. Certainly no one believed that I was specially qualified on historical grounds. But it was supposed that I was fairly business-like, and I had at least the merit of writing a legible hand. This was the proposal which was made to Mr. Creighton. He accepted it without demur. But he made one important change in the practical carrying out of the scheme. He rejected the idea of subscribers, and went straight to Mr. Longman and asked him to persuade his firm to take up the enterprise. Some of us may have regretted that
