H.E. Strickland.
BOHN'S EDITION OF MILTON.
Mr. Editor,—I have just seen an article in your "Notes and Queries" referring to my edition of Milton's prose works. It is stated that, in my latest catalogue, the book is announced as complete in 3 vols., although the contrary appears to be the case, judging by the way in which the third volume ends, the absence of an index, &c.
In reply, I beg to say that the insertion of the word "complete," in some of my catalogues, has taken place without my privity, and is now expunged. The fourth volume has long been in preparation, but the time of its appearance depends on the health and leisure of a prelate, whose name I have no right to announce. Those gentlemen who have taken the trouble to make direct inquiries on the subject, have always, I believe, received an explicit answer.
Henry George Bohn.
May 30. 1850.
UMBRELLAS.
Although Dr. Rimbault's Query (Vol. i., p. 415.) as to the first introduction of umbrellas into England, is to a certain extent answered in the following number (p. 436.) by a quotation from Mr. Cunningham's Handbook, a few additional remarks may, perhaps, be deemed admissible. Hanway is there stated to have been "the first man who ventured to walk the streets of London with one over his head," and that after continuing its use nearly thirty years, he saw them come into general use. As Hanway died in 1786, we may thus infer that the introduction of umbrellas may be placed at about 1750. But it is, I think, probable that their use must have been at least partially known in London long before that period, judging from the following extract from Gay's Trivia, or Art of Walking the Streets of London, published 1712:—