It is difficult to recall a writer who, faced with doubts whether to publish or no –

came down on the side of ‘No’, but then it is in the nature of the evidence to reveal only those who acceded when asked to publish, not those who forbore. When the material, here reprinted in the form of a monograph, first appeared in Notes and Queries ccix (1964) and ccx (1965) as a series of articles I had no doubt that it was right to print it and even some hopes that it might do good. But republishing is quite another matter, and my excuse must be that the suggestion to do so did not come from me, and that I have had many requests for offprints of the articles which I have not been able to satisfy. Perhaps it was arrogant not to feel the doubts Bunyan felt, but, asked to turn the series into a monograph, I wondered if it should not be extended especially by further examples and the discussion of later work. A series of articles can be selective; a book, large or small enough to be called a monograph, should be systematic and comprehensive, though not necessarily exhaustive.