Birmingham Post

Birmingham Post

Newspaper Clippings and Pamphlets

newspaper clipping, scrapbook

Lucy Lloyd (scrapbook of clippings ), Specimens of Bushman Folklore (Lucy Lloyd's scrapbook of clippings ), scrapbook (Lucy Lloyd's )

"Bushman Folklore. By the late Dr W.H.T.[sic] Bleek and Miss L.C. Lloyd. (Allen.) 21s. net." The "Birmingham Post" writer begins by stating that only half-dozen people in the world know anything about the subject of the book and that an "appreciation" in the "Athenaeum" will appear by one of them. The article describes what the book "is and does" and some of the "patient industry" of first Bleek and then Lloyd "for the pure love of knowledge". It reminds the reader that Bleek arrived in time to save from extinction the language and "mental history" of the Bushmen. The author describes how the plight of the Bushmen occurred alongside Lloyd's struggles to find a "courageous" publisher (Allen). They compare the Bushmen's speech and mentality to that of other similar peoples (although they are "the most primitive people on the earth") who show man the way "back to his origins" in terms of the development of speech, "rudiments of a mind and "the glimmering of a theory of the universe". The author points to examples of these in the volume - such as the folklore and any demonstration of the spiritual link between the Bushman and "civilised" man. The author briefly describes the contents of the volume and concludes by referring to Lloyd's "Preface", in which she expresses her wish to publish more material including Stow's copies of Bushman paintings. The name of the publication and the date (the writing is obscured by a mark) are hand-written across the top of the article. The scrapbook page features the handwritten number 12 in top right-hand corner.