Choice Notes from Notes and Queries (1858)

Ross MacFarlane's essay for The Public Domain Review examines a mid-Victorian "best of" anthology drawn from the periodical Notes & Queries, founded in 1849 by William Thoms as a venue for amateur antiquarians to share discoveries and pose questions.

The 1858 volume focused on history and was meant to launch a series, but only one more appeared — on "Folk-Lore," a term Thoms himself coined. MacFarlane frames it as a window into the popular historical sensibility of the era: a mix of genuine curiosity, uncritical source use, and an abiding fascination with British royalty and their macabre ends. Oliver Cromwell receives the most attention of any figure, with correspondents debating his burial place, the whereabouts of his skull, and his rumored dealings with the devil.

MacFarlane notes that Notes & Queries was later dismissed as unscientific by turn-of-the-century professional historians, yet it pioneered a collaborative, crowd-sourced model that anticipated the OED and Wikipedia. The essay closes by suggesting the journal's spirit lives on in the anonymous, fact-obsessed editors of today's online communities.