Editorial.

It is flattering to have so many readers telling me how much they enjoyed my last piece 'On the Track of Watkin Tench'. Seldom do readers let me know what they have enjoyed in Margin. You do not even tell me what you did not like, which is probably a good thing at least for my self esteem. Although the rest of Watkin Tench is in draft form I will not be filling the pages of Margin with it for the time being.

Work is progressing on the Index to Margin numbers 1 to 60. I plan to let subscribers have this early next year. So far it has been completed up to 1994 which is the period that Margin was edited by Dennis Davison. Even the simple listing of the author and title index has taken many pages. Readers may be interested in the fact that The biography of John Lang Australia's Larrikin Writer is almost finished being edited and it should be available early nest year. The first three chapters were published in Margin in 2001 and was planned for publication early in 2002. It is only two years late. This seems to be rather common with publications these days.

This issue has an article or I should say an essay in the true sense by the late Francis Letters on the Public Library of New South Wales now the State Library of New South Wales. This building was often regarded as a disgrace especially when contrasted to the grand building in Melbourne for their Public Library. Then there is another article on the Tichbome Claimant, a case of never ending fascination. Girls' education in the early days of the colony is a rather neglected subject and there is an article based on Annabella Boswell's celebrated Journal

There are some book reviews and notes. There seem to be quite a few new publications about life and people in nineteenth century Australia now that it has become 'ancient history'. We now have an old history and some heritage buildings. There is much excavation going on in parts of Sydney with the foundations of very early buildings being uncovered. Some people have expressed surprise that we now have archaeologists undertaking 'digs' in Australia instead of in ancient Greece or Rome. Which reminds me about the Nicholson Museum at Sydney University. It has an excellent collection of Ancient artefacts from Greece and Rome in addition to some very interesting Egyptian exhibits. It is a little known cultural treasure and it is open to the public. It is situated on the ground floor of a beautiful gothic building in one corner of the 'quad'. The building is well worth a visit for itself. It used to be the Fisher Library which is now housed in a modern building out in front of the main building. When you think of it as a building started one hundred and fifty years ago only a few years after the building of the Palace of Westminster in London (Parliament House) we can really start to think we do have an old history.