400 Short Notices.
that the practice is no longer universal of chalking patterns round the edge of the doorstep, carefully avoiding any gap between doorpost and doorpost lest the Devil should get in. The authoress loves and knows the district. Will she not collect its folklore fully before it is too late ?
Bye-Gones relating to Wales and the Border Cotmties. 1909-10.
(Vol. xi. New Series). Elliot Stock. Sq. 8vo, pp. 300. This substantial volume contains two years' gleanings from the weekly column " Bye-Gones " in the Border Counties Advertizer, and almost two columns of the index are filled by items classified under "Folk-Lore, Customs, etc." The index has been carefully made, and many of the items are noteworthy. If the excellent example of the Advertizer wtxt generally followed, the completeness and early completion of County Folklore would be greatly advanced.
All about the Merry Tales of Gotham. By Alfred Stapleton.
(2nd edit.). Nottingham: 39, Burford Road, 1910. Sm. 8vo.
pp. viii + i68 + vi + 48. 111. This volume is another example of assistance given to our s.tudy by a well-disposed local press, from whose columns have been reprinted both the original and the present entirely rearranged and revised edition. Although Clouston and W. C. Hazlitt have discussed tales of noodles pretty fully, and the latter and others have reprinted "The Merry Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham," there is ample justification for the present work, which contains, besides a reprint of the earhest chapbook and bibliography, additional tales, discussions of authorship and origin, literary allusions, etc. Mr. Stapleton has also restored the tales to popular life in No. 127 of " Books for the Bairns."
Books for Review should be addressed to
The Editor of Folk-Lore,
c/o David Nutt,
57-59 Long Acre, London, W.C.
