Binding and format similar to the third edition. The binding is beige pasteboard panels, thicker than the for the third edition, secured with a tape spine, with head- and tailbands, 17.5 × 10.5 cm (7 × 4 1/8 inches). As for the third edition, most of the information given on the front of the cover (click to see pop-up image, 50k) is repeated on the full-title page, apart from the absence of a date and the presence of a price (one shilling net). The slight difference in size, the presence of head- and tailbands, the cover’s text applied as a label rather than printed on the board, and the absence of a title on the spine-tape all suggest that my copy may have been rebound—but cf. the information on the fifth edition.

• Full-title page i (click to see pop-up image, 52k)
• Note to the Fifth Impression (Horace Hart) iii (see text below)
• Text 1–408 (last page blank: ‘Z Notes’)

The ‘Preface’, ‘Readers of the Proofs of this Work’, and ‘Authorities Consulted’ of the first three editions have been deleted.

 

NOTE
TO THE FIFTH IMPRESSION

The present edition has been revised under my direction; Mr. F. Howard Collins having died on Nov. 16, 1910.

In going through the pages it was noticed that a number of other persons have died since the first edition was issued; and where dates could be ascertained correction has been made. There are doubtless further entries which ought to be amended, but it would involve very great labour to verify all dates, even if material for doing so were readily available; and the question has no bearing on the correctness of the spellings adopted.

In cases where the plan of this work differs (as in the matter of single and double quotations) from the practice of the Oxford Press, Mr. Collins’s plan has been left unaltered. The reasons which he had for undertaking the work originally, and the methods on which he proceeded, having been fully set out in earlier editions, are not repeated here.

HORACE HART.

OXFORD: Oct. 1912.