It was in no boastful or puffing spirit that, when thanking a
correspondent in our last number for "his endeavour to enlarge our
circulation," and requesting all our friends and correspondents "to
follow PHILO'S example by bringing 'NOTES AND QUERIES' under the notice
of such of their friends as take an interest in literary pursuits," we
added "for it is obvious that they will extend the usefulness of our
paper in proportion as they increase its circulation." We wished merely
to state a plain obvious fact. Such must necessarily be the case, and
our experience proves it to be so; for the number of Queries which have
been solved in our columns, has gone on increasing in proportion to the
gradual increase of our circulation;--a result which fully justifies
that passage of our opening address which stated, "that we did not
anticipate any holding back by those whose Notes were most worth
having."
No sooner is information asked for through our medium, than a host of
friendly pens are busied to supply it. From north, south, east, and
west,--from quarters the most unlooked for, do we receive Notes and
Illustrations of every subject which is mooted in our pages. Many of
these replies, too, though subscribed only with an initial or a
pseudonyme, _we_ know to be furnished by scholars who have won the
foremost rank in their respective branches of study. Such men manifest,
by their willingness to afford information to those who need it, and
their readiness to receive it from those who have it to bestow, the
truthfulness of old Chaucer's portrait of the Scholar:--
"Ful gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche."
Nor do our columns exhibit the total result of our labours. Besides the
information communicated to ourselves, some of our friends who inserted
Queries under their own names, have received answers to them without our
intervention.
In addition to those friends who promised us their assistance, we
receive communications from quarters altogether unexpected. Our present
number furnishes a striking instance of this, in the answer to Mr.
Bruce's inquiry respecting the "Monmouth Ash," kindly communicated by
the Earl of Shaftesbury, its distinguished owner.
We trust that each successive paper shows improvement in our
arrangements, and proves also that our means of procuring answers to the
Queries addressed to us are likewise increasing. In the belief that such
is the case, we feel justified in repeating, even at the risk of being
accused of putting in _two_ words for ourselves under the semblance of
_one_ of our readers, "that it is obvious that our friends will extend
the usefulness of our paper in proportion as they increase its
circulation."
* * * * * {82}