ABSTRACT
The supreme example of the two-handed achievement, however, is the Revd John Brand’s Observations on Popular Antiquities , which is still, in spite of its deficiencies, the folklorists’ and journalists’ first resource. Brand certainly intended to publish a new and much augmented Popular Antiquities in 1795, for the preface given in the 1813 edition is subscribed ‘Somerset Place, London, August 4th, 1795.’ Brand’s manuscript was brought for £600 by the consortium of fourteen publishers who eventually published the book in 1813. As soon as they examined their purchase more closely they must have realised that it was far from being ready to go to press. In the inspiration of folklore works the ‘grand plan’ has its place, though the outcome may be only a small part of the original scheme. Sir George Laurence Gomme’s plan for a Dictionary of British Folk-Lore produced only, but indispensably, Lady Gomme’s Traditional Games.
