MISCELLANEOUS:—
Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c., [ 29]
Books and Odd Volumes wanted, [ 30]
Notices to Correspondents, [30]
Advertisements, [31]
[List of Notes & Queries volumes and pages]
Notes.
PRIVATELY PRINTED BOOKS AND PRIVATELY ENGRAVED PORTRAITS.
If the "NOTES AND QUERIES," in the course of its career, had only called the attention of antiquaries to the necessities of collecting epitaphs and inscriptions to the dead found in churches, and thus brought into active exertion a large number of zealous and intelligent recorders of monuments, its usefulness would have been fully established; but the multitude of suggestive hints and recommendations constantly appearing in its pages, added to the great amount of precise and unquestionable knowledge given to the public through its means, have established the publication as of the greatest importance to archæologists, and literary men generally.
A noble and highly regarded author (Lord Braybrooke) has recently shown the necessity for recording the existence of painted historical portraits, scattered, as we know they are, throughout residences of the nobility and gentry, and from thence too often descending to the humble dwelling or broker's warehouse, through the effluxion of time, the ill appreciation, in some instances, of those who possess them, or the urgencies of individuals: but there are other memorials of eminent persons extant, frequently the only ones, which, falling into the possession of but few persons, are to the seeker after biographical or topographical knowledge, for the most part, as though they had never existed. I allude to Privately Printed Books and Privately Engraved Portraits. Surely these might be made available to literary persons if their depository were generally known.