Finding from my own personal experience how troublesome it is to hunt through piles of dusty old volumes, I have decided to make a small selection of these papers which I consider are not only rare and v interesting, but which also give an insight into the varied activities and achievements of Burton’s crowded life.

Even if local libraries fail to yield an old volume of some magazine long since withdrawn from circulation, one is almost certain of finding it at the British Museum. But then the British Museum is accessible only to a comparative few, and even those few will find that back numbers of journals, etc., are stored away'in a distant building and several days’ notice has to be given before a required volume can be procured. Finally, some of the Burton pamphlets are so rare that the chance of finding them is little less than an impossibility. It will, I think, be realized that such a volume as this will not be superfluous, for, apart from saving people an enormous amount of' trouble, it will give them further insight into the life-work of one of the greatest men of the Victorian era.

Richard Burton