months in existence, down to Wycliffe's 'Three Treatises on the Church,' recently edited by the Rev. Dr. Todd."
Many suggestions have been made by contributors from time to time with a view to increasing the usefulness of Notes and Queries. Among these was one made by Mr. F. A. Carrington on the 15th of November, 1856, that " 'N. & Q.' would have great additional value if the contributors of Notes (Queries do not signify) would give their names." This elicited from "C." on the 6th of December a reply against the proposal :—
"Those who please may, and many do sign, and others who give no name are as well known as if they did; but as a general rule the absence of the name is, I am satisfied, best. It tends to brevity—it obviates personalities—it allows a freer intercommunication of opinion and criticism."
Then "C." closes with a prediction that must have set the editor all of a tremble: "If we were all to give our names 'N. & Q.' would, in three weeks, be a cock-pit."
Photography: the first specimens.Notes and Queries during the first few years took up a wide range of subjects. It was the first journal to open its pages to a record of photographic discovery and progress, and gave full instructions for the successful practice of photography. Among contributors on the subject was Dr. DiamondDr. Diamond. He was the first to take a negative and print from it a positive copy of an old manuscript. Mr. Thoms would often mention with what delight Sir Frederic Madden examined the first specimens, as he saw every line, letter, and contraction copied with a truthfulness no human hand could approach, and learnt that, the negative once accurately taken, copies of it might be produced in any number. Mr. Thoms always felt that his friend Dr. Diamond's share in photographic discoveries had not been sufficiently recognized; and I can well imagine how he would have put on one of his humorous smiles and styled the jubilee celebration of photography a truly "Diamond" one.
Notes and Queries continued to allow much space to photographers until the science of photography had sufficiently advanced for them to have a journal of their own, so that the early numbers contain a full history of its progress. The advertisements of the various firms who dealt in the chemicals and apparatus required are full of interest. A note is made of the fact that Yarmouth first to use photography for copying Corporation records.Yarmouth was the first town to adopt photography for the purpose of copying Corporation records. It is also recorded that George Shaw Lefevre, being present at the fall of Sebastopol on the 8th of September, 1855, took photographs immediately after the Russian retreat. The views, twelve in number, were published in aid of the Nightingale Fund. A remarkable use of photography in time of war is noted in the number of the 4th of February, 1871: 'How The Times was sent to
