1900.] on Pictorial Historic Records. 327 



who inspect them. So by comparison does an ordinary pictorial 

 illustration without a name, title or description, suffer in interest in 

 the minds of those who look upon it for the first time and who do 

 not possess a clue to its history or associations. Or, to give another 

 illustration, how easy it is to create an interest in a most uninviting 

 subject if an appeal is made to the imagination to clothe it with 

 historical interest, such for instance as views of the dungeons of the 

 Tower of London, which cannot have picturesqueness or beauty, but 

 whose inscriptions on the walls, connected as they are with tragic 

 episodes of English history, at once give to them a pathetic and 

 engrossing interest. 



It is true that only a very small number of such pictorial records, 

 in comparison with the vast numbers of suitable subjects available, 

 has yet been contributed to the collection, but it is satisfactory 

 to know that a good beginning has been made, and that the work is 

 extending in a marked manner. When one considers the possibili- 

 ties of extension, it is almost bewildering to speculate upon what 

 might be accomplished. To begin with, there are possible workers 

 everywhere ; few middle class houses or families are now-a-days 

 without a camera, and the smallest contributions may possibly rank 

 among the most valuable gifts. Opportunities and subjects abound 

 in all directions ; it often happens that familiar objects near at hand 

 are despised by the photographic worker, imagining that scenes novel 

 to him are better and more desirable subjects for selection. 



To those who live in towns, street scenes and the domestic life of 

 the inhabitants offer abundant opportunities, for they disclose the 

 social conditions of the people of to-day. How invaluable would a 

 comparison be, if similar pictures were available of similar scenes in 

 former days ! 



We are proud of our progress and the well-to-do habitations of 

 our middle classes ; would that we could compare them with the 

 picturesque streets, the overhanging houses, the half-timbered dwell- 

 ings, to say nothing of the quaint costumes and artistic surroundings 

 of Tudor times ; for, with all our pride of modern self-importance, I 

 think we might possibly learn something from the days when Shake- 

 speare, Lord Bacon, old John Stowe, and others, were living actors 

 on the scene. 



To dwellers in the country there are limitless possibilities. 

 There is country life in all its phases, the old manor house, the 

 way-side inn, perhaps a ruined castle, or the crumbling remains of an 

 abbey or monastery. The parish church alone may serve to engross 

 the best efforts : Norman work in the tower, mediaeval additions, the 

 decay and restoration, all mark events in ecclesiastical or political 

 history. 



Then there are village costumes, many of them relics of the 

 remote past, in which again possibly the parish church plays a part ; 

 and lastly the very tombstcnes in the churchyard offer fleeting 

 records worth noting, and which are irrecoverably perishing before 

 our eyes. The evolution of such monuments is a delightful study in 

 itself, from the early monolith and cromlech of pre-historic days to 



