How to Make an Index

"Travelling by night not proper to take a view of the adjacent countries, p. 223."

This is a version of the following:

"The heat of the weather made travelling in the night most desirable and we chose it between Sienna and Florence.... By this means I could see little of the country."

"The Duchess dowager of Savoy who was grandmother to the present Duke was mother to his father, p. 243."

This is a perversion of the following perfectly natural observation:

"This was designed by the Dutchess Christina grandmother of this Duke in the minority of her son (his father) in 1660."

The entry, "Jews at Legorn not obliged to wear red hats, p. 223," contains nothing absurd, but rather is an interesting piece of information, because the Jews were obliged to wear these hats in other parts of Italy, and it was the knowledge of this fact that induced Macklin to wear a red hat when acting Shylock, a personation which induced an admirer to exclaim:

"This is the Jew

That Shakespeare drew."

Such perversions as these could have done Bromley, one would think, little harm; but the real harm done consisted in bringing to light and insisting upon the author's political attitude when he referred to King William and Queen Mary as "the Prince and Princess of Orange." The passage is as follows:

"A gallery, where among the pictures of Christian Princes are those of King Charles the Second and his Queen, King James the Second and his Queen and the Prince and Princess of Orange."

It would indeed seem strange that one who had thus referred to his King and Queen should occupy so important a public office as Speaker of the House of Commons. Another ground of offence was that when in Rome he kissed the Pope's slipper.

Although Bromley was disappointed in 1705, his time came; and after the Tory reaction consequent on the trial of Sacheverell he was in 1710 chosen Speaker without opposition. There is a portrait of Bromley in the University Picture Gallery in the Bodleian at Oxford.

CHAPTER III.

The Bad Indexer

"At the laundress's at the Hole in the Wall in Cursitor's Alley up three pair of stairs, the author of my Church history—you may also speak to the gentleman who lies by him in the flock bed, my index maker."—Swift's Account of the Condition of Edmund Curll (Instructions to a porter how to find Mr. Curll's authors).

BAD indexers are everywhere, and what is most singular is that each one makes the same sort of blunders—blunders which it would seem impossible that any one could make, until we find these same blunders over and over again in black and white. One of the commonest is to place the references under unimportant words, for which no one would think of looking, such as A and The. The worst indexes of this class are often added to journals and newspapers. A good instance of confusion will be found in the index to a volume of The Freemason which is before me; but this is by no means singular, and certainly not the worst of its class. Under A we find the following entries:

"Afternoon Outing of the Skelmersdale Lodge."

"An Oration delivered," etc.

"Annual Outing of the Queen Victoria Lodge."

"Another Masonic MS."

Under B:

"Bro. Bain's Masonic Library."

Under F:

"First Ball of the Fellowship Lodge.

"First Ladies' Night."

Under I:

"Interesting Extract from an 'Old Masonian's' Letter."

Under L:

"Ladies' Banquet."

"Ladies' Night."

"Ladies' Summer Outing."

"Late Bro. Sir B. W. Richardson."

Under N:

"New Grand Officers."

"New Home for Keighley Freemasons."

"New Masonic Hall."

Under O:

"Our Portrait Gallery."

Under R:

"Recent Festival."

Under S:

"Send-off dinner."

"Summer Festival."

"Summer Outing."

Under T:

"Third Ladies' Night."

Under Y:

"Ye olde Masonians."

There are many other absurd headings, but these are the worst instances. They show the confusion of not only placing references where they would never be looked for, but of giving similar entries all over the index under whatever heading came first to the mind of the indexer. For instance, there is one Afternoon Outing, one Annual Outing, one Ladies' Outing, one Summer Outing, and three other Outings under O. None of these have any references the one from the other.

There are a large number of indexes in which not only the best heading is not chosen, but the very worst is. Thus, choosing at random, we find such an order as the following in an old volume of the Canadian Journal

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1

All these words are fairly common; but there is another which was used only occasionally in the sixteenth century. This is "pye," supposed to be derived from the Greek πίναξ, among the meanings of which, as given in Liddell and Scott's Lexicon, is, "A register, or list." The late Sir T. Duffus Hardy, in some observations on the derivation of the word "Pye-Book," remarks that the earliest use he had noted of pye in this sense is dated 1547: "A Pye of all the names of such Balives as been to accompte pro anno regni regis Edwardi Sexti primo."—Appendix to the "35th Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records," p. 195.

2

There is a note to the table which shows that the book grew in size during the printing—"p. signifying the page, f. the folioes from pag. 513 to 545 (which exceeded the Printer's computation), m. the marginall notes: if you finde f. before any pages from 545 to 568, then looke the folioes which are overcast; if p. then the page following."

3

See Cobbett's State Trials, vol. 3, coll. 561-586.

4

Letters of David Hume to William Strahan, edited by G. Birkbeck Hill, D.C.L. Oxford, 1888.

5

Paget's Life, p. 350.

6

To the original edition of the Indicator; the reprint (2 vols. 8vo, 1834) has no index.

7

Rosicrucians and Free-Masons (De Quincey's Works, vol. 13, p. 388).

8

Memorial Chronology (De Quincey's Works, vol. 14, p. 309).

9

Memoirs of Bishop Atterbury, compiled by Folkestone Williams, vol. i. (1869), p. 42.