From that date, Mr. George Skelly continued to correspond with us on the subject of the "Two Catnachs," nearly up to the last moment of our going to press with our own "Life and Times of James Catnach," and to him we are greatly indebted for much of the information therein contained. And it was at his suggestion that we wrote the following letter to the _Alnwick Journal_--Mr. Skelly at the same time furnishing the local paragraph.
76, Rose Hill Terrace, Brighton, June 16th, 1876.
SIR,--Your townsman, Mr. George Skelly, in the concluding chapter of his excellent article of "John and James Catnach," makes mention of my name as being engaged in preparing for publication "The Life and Times of James Catnach, formerly of Seven Dials, printer of ballads, &c." Such being the fact, I shall therefore be glad if you would allow me sufficient space in the _Alnwick Journal_, to ask your readers and correspondents who possess any additional facts, sayings, doings, or letters of the two Catnachs--John and James--to supply me with the same, when I shall have much pleasure in assigning to any such contributions a proper chronological place in my work, and of acknowledging the source of the same, while all documents or books will be faithfully returned by yours, &c., &c.,
JOHN AND JAMES CATNACH.--It will be seen by a correspondence in another page that Mr. Charles Hindley, of Brighton, is preparing for publication the "Life and Times of James Catnach," and he respectfully solicits from our readers any facts and scraps they may be possessed of, also the loan of any letters or books suitable for the extention of the life of the celebrated and withal eccentric printer, who, although a native of Alnwick, settled in London, and occupied a peculiar position for upwards of a quarter of a century in the Seven Dials district. We trust that our correspondent may be enabled to add to his all ready large stock of material in hand a few more items, by the publication of his letter in our columns. Mr. Hindley's work, will, it is expected, be published by Messrs. Reeves and Turner, of the Strand, London, during the coming autumn.
The above letter to the _Alnwick Journal_ was the means of obtaining another valuable correspondent--Mr. George H. Thompson, also of Alnwick, who volunteered his services to aid and assist, to the best of his time and ability, in supplying all the information he possessed or could glean from his friends and acquaintances in the good old borough of Alnwick, or the county at large. And _inter alia_ copied out _verbatim_ from the Parish Register of Baptisms in St. Michael's Church all the entries in connection with the family of John and Mary Catnach and which will be found _in extenso_ at pages 2-3 of this work.