Welcome to two anonymous subscribers: "Deafbuteman" and "Dreams" who have joined this week. If you haven't already contributed, we hope to hear from you soon. ****** ****** ****** I'm running a little late this week on account of trying to catalogue my mother's set of "Girl's Own Annuals" (published by the Religious Tract Society 1880 onwards) - trouble is I keep on getting sidetracked on the content , so its taking far longer than necessary !?! For example, this wordy, if dated, piece from Issue #2 January 10 1880 ... 'THE MAN OF YOUR CHOICE - That young girls should look forward to love and marriage seems to us both natural and honourable, for a woman's crowning glory must always be wifehood and motherhood; but better than a marriage without love, or love without esteem, is the "single life." Women must not be taught that in wedlock lies their only or chiefest source of happiness; nor should they be allowed to suppose that it is all light and no darkness, all roses and no thorns. The truth is, that a maiden in marrying sacrifices much; she gives up her independence; to a great extent her preferences; she consents to great changes in her pursuits, her habits, and, frequently, her friendships; she abandons almost all her past. She may well question her betrothed, in the words of Mrs. Browning:-- "If I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchange And be all to me? Shall I never miss Home-talk and blessing, and the common bliss That comes to each in turn, nor count it strange, When I look up, to drop on a new range Of walls and floors, another home than this ?" For seldom do we fear does the bride, half smiling, half weeping beneath her crown of orange blossoms, appreciate the character of the sacrifice she has made. Too often does she wake up with a sudden surprise to the awful breadth and depth of the chasm that lies between her wifehood and her maidenhood, the now and the then. She misses the mother, the sister, the tender felicities of home, the cherished places, the favourite pursuits,the old singleness of heart, the old serenity of mind, the delightful yet sober freedom of her blissful girlish days. She looks around, and unless she loves - loves long and deeply and worthily - she sees a blank and a dreary void, and her heart aches with a dumb, dull pain that is never wholly conquered. Unless, we say, unless she loves; and unless her love has lighted upon a man wholly meriting it, and fully capable of compensating her for the losses she has sustained, of making her even richer than before. - W. Davenport Adams.' So, in those pre Radio and TV days what was there for girls and young women to read - the boys had had their "Boys Own Paper" for some time, indeed it was the volume of letters to that publication from those girls and young women who acquired copies or read their brother's copies that led to the launching of their "Own" paper. There are reported examples of Scottish families who were victims of the clearances saving, not the furniture from their about to be demolished homes, but the books. Unfortunately there is no documentation that I know of that gives what those books were - it is fair to assume at least one would have been a Bible, but as to the others ? ****** ****** ****** Feel free to join in and present your own items. Peter Cook cookfmly@bigpond.com List maintainer and Co-host with Barbara < babrown12@optonline.net > of the ButeshireGenWeb mailing list.