In issuing the first number of the NEW SERIFS, the Editor wishes to apologise to the reader for the unavoidable delay which has taken place in its publication.

It will be observed that several improvements and modifications have been adopted, notably in the use of new type and the introduction of illustrations. Many of the changes now made were contemplated by Mr. Blacker, and discussed by him with the present Editor, who ventures to hope that past supporters of the magazine will approve of them, and that new ones will thereby be induced to add their names to the list of Subscribers.

The next part of Gloucestershire Notes and Queries will be ready in May. SUBSCRIPTIONS for 1891 are now due, and the amount, 5s. 6d., should be at once remitted to the Editor, 124, Chancery Lane, London, by means of a postal order payable at Chancery Lane.

Notices to Correspondents and Subscribers.

CONTRIBUTIONS relating to the district, whether literary or artistic, are invited from all who are interested in Gloucestershire. The Editor will welcome any notes, queries, or replies, and any photographs and sketches relating to the district. Contributions should, as far as possible, consist of original matter only.

All communications should be accompanied by the name and address of the writer. The signatures of contributors are appended, unless a wish to the contrary may have been expressed.

Correspondents are requested not to make use of any contractions in their transcripts except when such occur in the originals, and to write only on one side of the paper. Names of persons and places should be very distinctly written.

REVIEWS.-Books, pamphlets, etc., bearing on the district, or subjects connected therewith, sent for review, will receive due attention.

LOCAL SOCIETIES.-Secretaries of local literary and scientific societies will oblige by sending notices of their doings during the quarter. Such notices should reach the Editor at least a fortnight before the end of each quarter.

BINDING. The binder is requested, in arranging the illustrations of Vol. I., to attend to the directions given for his guidance, p. xvi. Bishop John Talbot's Monument" will be found in Part VI., and the "Map of the County of Gloucester" and "Over Bridge" in Part XI.

Special covers for the volumes have not been provided, the matter of binding being left to the taste of each subscriber.

BACK PARTS.-Vol. I. being out of print, copies can be supplied only as they may turn up for sale from time to time, and then only to purchasers of the second volume. Some odd parts, however, are still on hand. Vol. II., comprising Parts XIII.XXIV., can be procured from the Editor until further notice, price 18s., or by post, 18s. 6d. Vol. III., comprising Parts XXV-XXXVI., price 158., or by post, 15s. 6d. Three shillings offered for copies of Parts II., VII., and IX., and full price for Parts XIV-XVII. and XXII., if fit for binding. A liberal price will be paid for copies of Vol. I.

NEW SUBSCRIBERS.

W. M. Harvey, Esq., Goldington Hall, Bedford.

John Mullings, Esq., Cirencester.

J. C. Gwynn, Esq., Thornbury.

Rev. W. Bagnall-Oakeley, Newland.

E. Dening, Esq., Stow-on-Wold.

Rev. W. J. Blathwayt, Dyrham Rectory.

Major-General Vizard, Enderby House, Dursley.
Mrs. Dent, Sudeley Castle, Winchcombe.

Miss Rolt, Rockstowes, Uley.

Rev. L. P. Williams, Bourton-on-the-Water.

E. W. Kendall, Esq., Bourton-on-the-Water.

E. G. Hamilton, Esq., Mickleton Manor, Campden.

R. V. Vassar-Smith, Esq., Cheltenham.

R. Denison Jones, Esq., The Grange, Leonard Stanley.

G. H. A. Beard, Stonehouse, Glos.

T. Winterbotham, Esq., Bagshott, Cheltenham.

AUG 6 1891

LIBRARY.

Gloucestershire
Notes and Queries.

In Memoriam.

IX weeks after the issue of the last part of the
Gloucestershire Notes and Queries, a severe loss, in

relation to that periodical, was sustained through the death of the Rev. BEAVER HENRY BLACKER, M.A., its originator, editor, and proprietor, which occurred at 26, Meridian Place, Clifton, Bristol, where he had resided for ten years. His kindly disposition, and genial and unaffected manner caused him to be esteemed by all who had the privilege of his acquaintance. He was a zealous, cautious, and painstaking antiquary, and one who felt as much pleasure in communicating as in gathering information.

Mr. Blacker was born in Dublin, May 31, 1821. He was the eldest son of Mr. Latham Blacker, and a grandson of the Rev. George Miller, D. D., author of "Modern History Philosophically Illustrated" (4 vols. 8vo, 1832). He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he thrice gained the ViceChancellor's prize for English Prose, and took his B.A. degree in 1843, and M.A. in 1846. He was curate-in-charge of Donnybrook, co. Dublin, from 1845 to 1856. In 1857 he was appointed to the vicarage of Booterstown, co. Dublin, and to the rural deanery of South Dublin in 1862, both of which he resigned in 1874, when he retired to England. During his incumbency, extensive additions were made to Booterstown Church, including a transept, chancel, robing room, and porch. Several theological pamphlets by Mr. Blacker, were published

VOL. V.

B

between 1847 and 1854, but his first topographical work was "Brief Sketches of Booterstown and Donnybrook, in the County of Dublin, with Notes and Annals," Dublin, 1874. It is a thick small 8vo, and was issued in four parts; the first in 1860, and the last in 1874. The Annals of the Parishes, appended to the descriptions of their four churches, extend from A.D. 1173 to 1873, and fill 186 pages, with exact references to his authorities, which he was always scrupulous in giving.

"Your work," John Gough Nichols wrote in 1873 to the author, "I find wonderfully stored with a vast amount of interesting biographical and genealogical information, within a small compass." And the Rev. Dr. Urwick pronounced the book to be "a manual of research and industry;" adding, "Ireland would be rich in annals, etc., were similar records of all her parishes forthcoming."-(Biographic Sketches of James Digges La Touche, p. 221.)

Mr. Blacker was curate-in-charge of Charlton Kings, Gloucestershire, in 1875-76, and senior curate of Cheltenham, in 1876-78. From Stroud, where he resided three years, he, in 1881, removed tc Clifton, and devoted his time to gleaning for and editing Gloucestershire Notes and Queries, collecting materials for a bibliography of Gloucestershire, copying monumental inscriptions in the churches in his neighbourhood, and, more recently, in contributing to the "Dictionary of National Biography," for which he wrote more than sixty articles.

Gloucestershire Notes and Queries originally appeared in the columns of the Stroud Journal. So much interest did they evoke, that Mr. Blacker was induced to reprint them, and Part I. was published in April, 1879, and Part XLVIII. in October, 1890.

In the preface issued with Part XLVIII., which completed the fourth volume, save the index, the Editor asks for further support to enable him to carry on what had long been, not a "profitable speculation," but a "labour of love" in the wide field of archæology; adding, that in editing the publication he was "ready, for his part, as he had heretofore been, to give his time and labour." This was written on October 1st; but before the end of that month his health began to fail, and for the first time in his life he had to consult a physician, who attended him till his much regretted death, which happened rather suddenly on the 11th of November, 1890. His remains were interred in Dean's Grange Cemetery, co. Dublin, on the 19th of the same month. His age was sixty-nine.