Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/39

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Annual Report of the Council.
29

ment of the extra volume for 1895. This volume (which may be cited as County Folk-Lore, Vol. I.) comprises the Folklore collected from printed sources of four counties, viz. Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, Rutland, and Suffolk. The Northumberland Collection is in the hands of the Publications Committee, and w^ill be printed as soon as the funds of the Society permit. Since the issue of the last Report Mr. Gerish has kindly undertaken to collect the Folklore of Herts ; but there is still a considerable number of counties whose folklore awaits treatment. The Council invite offers of help from members desirous of undertaking the unallotted counties, and point out that the labours of future collectors are made relatively easy by following the method adopted in the volume now in their hands. It is intended to issue an index as soon as the first three volumes of the collection are ready.

The Council do not lose sight of the desirableness of securing permanent rooms for the Society, but this matter must remain in abeyance until there is a considerable increase in the roll of members. A further reason for postponing action lies in the exceptionally heavy drain on the Society's resources in meeting the cost of some of the extra volumes of the last few years, notably Cinderella and Saxo Grammaticus, which cost, however, was fully warranted by the importance of both works. It may possibly be found necessary, as the only way of balancing income and expenditure, to defer the issue of any extra volume until next year. And in this matter the Council think it well to remind the members that few societies give such value in publications for the annual subscription of one guinea. Such advantages would be impossible were it not for the gratuitous services of the authors.

The library, which is for the present located in the Secretary's rooms, 11, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn, continues to increase steadily, and a catalogue is in course of preparation.