172
NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. VIL MAR. i, 1913.
mind when I wrote of my experiments
with broken brick, I had no such occasion
for complaint, for the vicar, the Rev. T. F.
Boultbee, had caused a number of unclaimed
and half -buried slabs to be raised, and re-
erected in a row by the vestry path ; while
in the case of a stone to an ancestor of a
then resident family, set amidst their more
modern graves, he readily accepted the
responsibility, and granted his permission
for the removal of grass and earth from the
face of the sunken slab, which proved to go
down for another 2 ft., and to contain dates
and other interesting particulars. In another
churchyard not far distant a similar con-
cession was made.
I may add that cases are known to me, as doubtless to many other readers of ' N. & Q.,' where the preservation of ancestral records and inscriptions has brought sub- stantial benefits to the English parish from interested and grateful American and Colonial pilgrims. ETHEL LEGA-WEEKES.
"EDITION" AND " IMPBESSION " (11 S. vii. 90). The editorial note will have con- vinced the REV. J. B. McGovERN that the distinction between these two words is not a mere case of literary pedantry, but that it has a real meaning which is well understood among bibliographers. It is clear that the leaflet relating to Henley's poems is not drawn up correctly.
The term " impression " on the title- pages of books is of comparatively modern introduction, while the term " edition " is frequently misapplied. It often happens that a publisher finds that he has a larger number of copies of a book than he can con- veniently sell. In former days it was a common practice to cancel the original title- page, print a new one, and add the words " Second Edition " to it. This induced the public to think that the first edition was entirely exhausted, and that the popularity of the work was so great as to justify the publisher in reprinting it. In more modern times the publisher would send the surplus sheets to some " remainder " bookseller, who would dispose of them to the public at a cheaper rate. I am not quite sure, however, that, even in these days of stereo- type plates, the old practice does not sometimes obtain. For instance, in 1879 the first edition of R. L. Stevenson's 'Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes ' was published. Later in the year there was another issue which bore the words " Second Edition " on the title-page, and in which some changes were made in the binding.
Yet the body of the book was exactly the
same as in the first edition, and not the most
meticulous examination could show that
the type had been reset. It is impossible
to say if it is a real second edition or the
original one with a new title-page.
The Report of the Committee of the Pub- lishers' Association of Great Britain and. Ire- land, 1898, defines the terms " impression," " edition," and " reissue," but omits the equally important bibliographical term " issue." A first edition of a book may consist of several issues, each marked by some slight alteration in arrangement, which is not of such importance as to justify a re- setting of the text. In the days of hand- printing, when the contents of a book were kept in type for a considerable period, correc- tions of the text were of frequent occurrence, and copies containing these corrections were issued to the public at intervals. Sometimes a new title-page was added, or a new preface, or some other subsidiary matter. But the text itself was always reprinted from the old types. Every one knows that there are several issues of the first edition of ' Paradise Lost.' There are also two or more issues of the first editions of Daniel's * Delia,* Herrick's ' Hesperides,' Addison's ' Cam- paign,' Pope's ' Essay on Criticism,' Defoe's ' Robinson Crusoe,' Swift's ' Gulliver's Travels,' and many other important books. Amongst modern books, Tennyson's ' Poems ' of 1830 and ' In Memoriam ' may be men- tioned. It is to be regretted that auctioneers and booksellers do not pay more regard to " issues." In the auction catalogue of the late Andrew Lang's library, sold by Messrs. Sotheby on 5-6 Dec., 1912, I noticed a copy of that writer's ' XXII. Ballades in Blue China,' first edition. No indication of the " issue " was given. But at least three issues of this edition were published, each with important variations, and each, of course, of varying value. These minutiae, which are matters of insignificance to most people, but of considerable interest to collectors, should invariably be specified in catalogues.
W. F. PRIDEATJX. Villa Paradis, Hyeres (Var).
"CURZO" (11 S. vi. 428; vii. 54). If this is a variant for cursus, surely the mean- ing " pastio seu glandatio porcorum in silvis, quas pascendo percurrunt, unde nomen " (which I find in Ducange), would make better sense than " avenue " or " road." The nearest form to " curzo " furnished by Ducange is cusso, a measure of land, occurring in a French charter of 1303 :
