[Charles Nunneley and C. O. Smith, eds.] Edwardian circulating magazine 'The Budget: An AGD Magazine', containing unique original contributions by workers at General Post Office, North London, including 14 photographs of Cambridge by E. G. Richardson

99 + [3] pp., 4to, of which 31pp. are original photographs, on grey card mounts, each with tissue guard and manuscript caption in white ink. A further five small photographs laid down on pages of the typed text. In very good condition, on aged paper, in modern green leather quarter-binding with cloth boards and misleading title on spine 'THE BUDGET | CAMBRIDGE' In a contemporary hand on leaf preceding title-page: 'Please return to | Chas Nunneley | (Room 1, 3rd Floor) | A & R Branch | A. G. Dept | General Post Office (North) | (London) | E.C. | or to | C. O. Smith | Room 26 | 3rd Floor'. Attractive title-page by C. O. Smith, in black and white ink on soft grey card, with illustration of man in bowler hat with hands in pockets, smoking a clay pipe, standing in a street in front of a bollard, with advertising board displaying 'No 16', and the title 'The Budget | An A G D Magazine | Edited by G. Nunneley & C. O. Smith'. The magazine is a rare example of a late-Victorian/Edwardian method of circulating original material. Subscribing contributors would send in their articles (typed and in manuscript) and illustrations (drawing, paintings and photographs) to the editors, who would make them up into a unique magazine, which would then be circulated to subscribers, each of whom was only allowed to keep hold of the item for a set time. Apart from the title-page and the contents page (both by C. O. Smith), the text of the present item is entirely typed, with all the illustrations photographs. The volume begins with five pages of 'Editorial Remarks' by Nunneley, ending: 'In conclusion, I have only to remind our Readers that each Subscriber is entitled to keep the "Budget" for one night, and that Subscriptions are payable to either of the Editors.' The magazine's main article (pp.9-26) is 'Cambridge by 'E. G. R.', consisting of five pages of text and fourteen excellent architectural views, beginning with 'Trinity, Principal Gate' and ending with 'Clare Bridge'. Nunneley identifies the author in his preface, and gives the background of the photographs: 'Mr. E. G. Richardson has again generously provided us with a large proportion of our Photographs. In spite of his complaint that the Yearly Photographic Conventions "last for too short a time", his results serve to shew that at least one photographer made the most of his opportunities during the 1901 Meeting at Cambridge. May that same photographer enjoy many more such Meetings in equally congenial circumstances!' The magazine's other articles (with authors identified from Nunneley's preface) are 'The District of Dorking' (pp.79-89) by P. D. Mathie; four contributions by 'A. C.' [A. LeCheminant], consisting of two poems, 'Loves Transformation' and 'In the Twilight', a short story titled 'The King's Mercy' and the final article titled 'The Poet Discourses'; an article with photographs by 'W. H. H.' [W. H. Haines], 'Prints from Old Negatives' ('The negatives are not so very old this time - only the last six or eight years. The first six are views about Godstone - only twenty miles from London, in a charming Surrey country, still wonderfully unspoiled, thanks to the absence of a railway'); 'A Medley of Quaint Epitaphs | Wise and Otherwise' by Nunneley; a story by 'E. H. W.' [E. H. Ward], 'The Souls choosing new Lives'. The final page of the volume carries a 'Financial Statement', signed by Nunneley, giving receipts and payments (including 'Binding', 'Typewriting, Paper, Mounts, &c.'). Bound in at the end of the volume is the customary section of contributors' feedback, in this case consisting of three pages of manuscript 'Criticisms & Suggestions' by seven individuals, each signing with initials. The first of these, by 'A. G. W.', begins: 'I am writing this in the 5.15, racing down to that most maligned Southend on Sea. I am not drunk as ye suppose. This number of the Budget seems to me a little "stodgier" than usual, unless it is that I am becoming more frivolous in my old age.' After continuing in this tone for another nine lines, 'A. G. W.' ends with a four-line poem.