518 BEPORT— 1895. 



make haste, therefore, if we desire to add to the scanty information on 

 record concerning English folklore. 



As a starting-point for the collection of Gloucestershire folklore I put 

 together, a year or two ago, the folklore in Atkyns, Rudder, and the first 

 four volumes of Gloucestershire Notes and Queries ; and it was printed by 

 the Folklore Society and issued as a pamphlet. • Other works remain to 

 be searched ; and it is probable that a good deal more may be found already 

 in print, if some who are interested in the antiquities of the country will 

 undertake the not very arduous, but very necessary, labour of collection. 

 When all is gathered, however, it will only be a small part of what must 

 have existed at no distant date — if not of what still exists, awaiting dili- 

 gent inquiiy among living men and women. How to set about the in- 

 quiry is a question that must be left very much to the individual inquirer 

 to answer. Valuable practical hints are given in the Handbook of Folklore, 

 a small volume that may be bought for half-a-crown and carried in the 

 pocket. Confidence between the collector and those from whom he is 

 seeking information is the prime necessity. Keep your notebook far in 

 the background, and beware of letting the peasant know the object 

 of your curiosity, or even of allowing him to see that you are curious. 

 Above all, avoid leading questions. If you are looking for tales, tell 

 a tale yourself. Do anything to establish a feeling of friendly sym- 

 pathy. Never laugh at your friend's superstitions — not even if he laugh 

 at them himself ; for he will not open his heart to you if he suspect you of 

 despising them. 



There is one other division of the schedule to which I have not yet 

 referred. The Dialect is perishing as rapidly as the folklore ; it is being 

 overwhelmed by the same foes. Peculiarities of dialect are due partly to 

 physical, partly to mental, causes. From either point of view they are of 

 interest to the investigator of antiquities. Hence their inclusion among 

 the subjects of the Ethnographical Survey. Nobody who has once under- 

 stood how much of history is often wrapped up in a single word can fail 

 to perceive the importance of a study of dialect, or how largely it may 

 contribute to the determination of the origin of a given population. The 

 reduction of dialect into writing requires accuracy to distinguish the nice- 

 ties of pronunciation, and some practice to set them down ; but a little 

 experience will overcome most difficulties, which, after all, are not great. 

 It is believed that most of the words — as distinguished from their pronun- 

 ciation — in use have been recorded in the publications of the English 

 Dialect Society or elsewhere. But it is better to record them again than 

 to leave them unrecorded. Nor should it be forgotten in this connection 

 that a word often bears a different shade of meaning in one place from what 

 it bears in another. In recording any words, care should therefore be taken 

 to seize not only the exact sound, but the exact signification, if it be desired 

 to make a real contribution towards the history of the country, or the 

 history of the language. Of the method of collection and transcription it 

 is needless to add to the directions in the schedule. 



' County Folklore. Printed Extracts — Xo. 1, Gloucestenhire. London : D. Nutt, 

 1892. Is. 



