Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/132

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118
Correspondence.

sent in, from seven localities; and Christmas customs and superstitions from four. Members have been making enquiries among past and present scholars and comparing notes with relations and friends whose local knowledge goes back farther than their own. One member reports an Easter Play, in which the actors are St. George, the Black Prince of Paradise, a Knight, a Doctor, and a "tosspot," and promises to obtain the present version and another of twenty years ago.

In fact, if it is not too soon to judge of it, the West Riding Society seems to show a real and hopeful movement although on so small a scale. There can be little doubt that a tincture of anthropology is a desirable element in the teacher's education, and, conversely, that the teacher can make very valuable contributions to our knowledge of local tradition and folklore generally. The Society aims at promoting this exchange of benefits. It should be added that the Education Committee of the County Council gives every encouragement to the Scheme; for instance, it is intended that the 1910 Vacation Course shall include a short course of lectures on some branch of anthropology, probably in its relation to geographical teaching. This ought to result in an increase in the number of members.

In conclusion, may I ask the members of the Folk-Lore Society to help this young Association through some of the troubles of infancy? Firstly, I should be very grateful for reprints of published papers, especially on English and European folklore. Secondly, I shall be out of England from July, 1910, to February, 1911, and I am extremely anxious not to discontinue the Monthly Letter; I am bold enough to hope that some folklorist, who has the extension and popularisation of the science at heart, may be willing to undertake the editorial work and correspondence (both very inconsiderable) for those months.

Potter's Croft, Horsell, Woking.