Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/38

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REPORT OF THE BRAND COMMITTEE TO
THE COUNCIL OF THE SOCIETY,
JANUARY, 1916.

Adopted and ordered to be printed, 1st Feb., 1916.

The collection of Notes for the Revised Edition of Brand's Popular Antiquities has been steadily pursued during the year, though by a greatly diminished number of workers. It has now so far advanced as to make a survey of the material gathered possible and desirable. Such a survey is greatly assisted by Miss Burne's Classified Catalogue, now appearing in instalments in Folk-Lore.

It becomes apparent that the new matter in the hands of the Committee mainly represents the living tradition of the nineteenth century, still partially in existence; while Brand's work consists almost entirely of historical records and literary allusions to such traditional customs. In collating the two, it will be necessary to discard the somewhat miscellaneous arrangement of Sir Henry Ellis's edition, and to adopt one which may better conform to modern standards.

Such an arrangement must be on the one hand chronological. It must show the growth or decay of custom from age to age, from chronicler to chronicler: from Fitzstephen to Stow, to John Aubrey, to Henry Bourne, William Hone, and W. J. Thorns successively. On the other hand it must be topographical. It must carefully avoid confusion between the varying customs of different localities and must bring out the varieties of local colour developed by similar customs in different regions.

Although the work of classification has thus been begun,