Books and Odd Volumes wanted 438 Notices to Correspondents 439 Advertisements 439 ON THE PROPOSED RECORD OF EXISTING MONUMENTS. Although disappointed in the hope we had entertained of being, by this time, in a position to announce that some decided steps had been taken to carry out, in a practical manner, the great scheme of preserving a record of our existing Monuments, we are gratified at being enabled to bring under the notice of our readers several communications which show the still increasing interest which is felt upon the subject. The first, by Sir Thomas Phillipps, besides some valuable information upon the matter immediately under consideration, contains several very useful suggestions upon other, though kindred points. In approving of the design mentioned in your "NOTES" by MR. DUNKIN, it has surprised me that in no one of the communications which you have there printed is any allusion to the multitude of inscriptions already collected, and now preserved in the British Museum and other libraries. A list of what are already copied should _first_ be made, which would considerably abridge the labour of collecting. For instance, the whole of Gloucestershire has been preserved by Bigland, and nearly two-thirds of these have been printed. I should recommend his plan to be adopted, being _multum in parvo_, as to the headstones in the churchyards, and the clearest for reference by its alphabetical order of parishes. He copies them about 1780; so that now seventy years remain to be obtained. His collection would make two, or at most three, volumes folio, by which we can form an approximate idea as to the extent for the kingdom, which I estimate at one hundred volumes for the forty counties, because some of these are very small, and many monuments have been destroyed by the barbarous Gothlike conduct of church renovators and builders. (_A propos_ of which conduct, I believe they are liable to an _action at law_ from the next of kin: at all events, it is sacrilege.) In many county histories, _all_ the monuments inside the churches, up to nearly the date of the publication, have been printed, as in Nichols's _Leicestershire_. I have myself printed the greater part of those for Wiltshire; but some are incorrectly printed, not having been collated; for I merely printed a few as handbooks to accompany me in my personal correcting survey of each church at another time. I have also printed as far as letter "E" of Antony à Wood's and Hinton's _Oxfordshire Monuments_, of which, I believe, MR. DUNKIN has a MS. copy. Now, it would be useless to reprint those which have been printed; consequently I should imagine twenty-five or thirty volumes, on Bigland's plan, would comprise all the villages; and I should imagine five or ten volumes at most would comprise all the capital towns.