1 Unsigned review of ‘Greek Folk-Songs from the Turkish Provinces of Greece, Albania, Thessaly (not yet wholly free), and Macedonia. Literal and metrical translations by Lucy M. J. Garnett. [. . .]’, Book-lore, November 1885, 50.

2 See, with reference to French and German scholars Politis, A., ‘Από τον Φωριέλ στην Ιουλιέτα Λαμπέρ-Αδάμ: η παρουσία της ελληνικής λογοτεχνίας στα γαλλικά γράμματα’, in Chrysos, E. and Farnaud, C. (eds), La France et la Grèce au XIXe siècle (Athens 2012) 143–66Google Scholar, A. Katsigiannis, ‘Η παρουσία Γάλλων ελληνιστών στο Εθνικόν Ημερολόγιον του Μαρίνου Παπαδόπουλου Βρετού (1863-1871). Μια υπόθεση εργασίας’, in Tabaki, A. and Altouva, A. (eds), Πρακτικά επιστημονικού συμποσίου: Μετάφραση και περιοδικός τύπος στον 19ο αιώνα (Athens 2016) 135–44Google Scholar, and Mitsou, M., ‘Δίκτυα (νεο)ελληνιστών και πολιτισμικές μεταφορές στα τέλη του 19ου αι. (Karl Krumbacher, Émile Legrand, Ν. Γ. Πολίτης)’, in Moennig, U. (ed.), «. . .ως αθύρματα παίδας »: Festschrift für Hans Eideneier (Berlin 2016) 313–25.Google Scholar

3 See, e.g., Mitsou, M.-E., ‘Négoce et transfert culturel: Dimitrios Bikélas et le réseau intellectuel franco-grec dans la seconde moitié du XIX^e siècle’, Rives méditerranéennes 50 (2015) 13–25 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 See Chrysanthopoulou, V., ‘Ο Νικόλαος Πολίτης και οι Βρετανοί αλληλογράφοι του: Επιστημονικές και φιλελληνικές ανταλλαγές’, in Πρακτικά διεθνούς επιστημονικού συνεδρίου: Ο Νικόλαος Γ. Πολίτης και το Κέντρον Ερεύνης της Ελληνικής Λαογραφίας, 2 vols (Athens 2012) II, 1029-43Google Scholar. Chrysanthopoulou deals more extensively with a short letter sent by Politis in 1882 by E. B. Tylor. On the basis of this letter we can ascertain that Tylor acknowledged the Hellenist ethnographer's work and that he established some sort of communication with him. Thanks to another letter sent by Tylor in 1892 and recently discovered in the Politis archive, we can safely surmise that their contact lasted for a number of years. In fact, Politis attributed his study on the funeral rite of breaking vessels in modern Greece, read at the March 1893 meeting of the Royal Anthropological Institute, to Tylor's ‘request’: See Politis, N. G., ‘Το έθιμον της θραύσεως αγγείων κατά την κηδείαν’, in Λαογραφικά Σύμμεικτα, II (Athens 1921) 268–83: note on p. 268Google Scholar. Also, its translation by Dyer, L., ‘Greek folklore: On the breaking of vessels as a funeral rite in modern Greece’, The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 23 (1894) 28–41 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Cf. Chrysanthopoulou, ‘Ο Νικόλαος Πολίτης’, 1033-4. Dyer's correspondence with Politis (2 letters) is to be found in the latter's archive.

5 Further evidence of this concern is provided by a letter preserved in Politis’ archive, sent to the Greek folklorist by the editor of the Athenaeum sometime in the mid-1880s, declining to publish his criticism of James Theodore Bent's work (probably his book on the Cyclades).

6 See, for example, Tozer, H. F., ‘Modern Greek mythology. Μελέτη επί του βίου των νεωτέρων Ελλήνων, υπό Ν. Γ. Πολίτου: Vol. I. Νεοελληνική Μυθολογία: Part 2. (Athens: Wilberg.)’, The Academy 176 (18 September 1875) 298–9Google Scholar, Edmonds, E. M.’s notice under the rubric ‘Charms’, The Academy 781 (23 April 1887) 291 Google Scholar, and Edmonds, Elizabeth M., ‘Myths of cosmogony by Dr. Polites’, The Academy 1177 (24 November 1894) 425 Google Scholar.

7 Edmonds was elected in February 1895. See ‘Φιλολογικός Σύλλογος Παρνασσός – Φεβρουάριος 1895 – Εργασίαι Συλλόγου’, Παρνασσός 17/6 (1895) 479-80: 480, and her letter no. 17. Soon afterwards Tozer and Tylor were also elected. See ‘Έκθεσις των πεπραγμένων υπό του συλλόγου κατά το ΛΒ′ έτος από της συστάσεως αυτού (1896-1897) (Προεδρεία Ν. Γ. Πολίτου)’, Φιλολογικός Σύλλογος Παρνασσός, Επετηρίς 2 (1898) 329-43: 330.

8 ‘Notes and news’, The Academy 1195 (30 March 1895) 275-6: 276.

9 See Gotsi, G., ‘Οι Νεοέλληνες στον καθρέφτη του ξένου: Συμβολή στη μελέτη των ελληνοβρετανικών πολιτισμικών δικτύων, 1870-1900’, in Tabaki, A. and Polykandrioti, O. (eds), Πρακτικά συμποσίου: Ελληνικότητα και ετερότητα. Πολιτισμικές διαμεσολαβήσεις και ‘εθνικός χαρακτήρας’ στον 19ο αιώνα, 2 vols (Athens 2016) I, 95-116Google Scholar.

10 H. F. Tozer, ‘Οι Φράγκοι εν Πελοποννήσω’, trans. ** Λ, Εστία 21/523-5 (January 1886) 6-9, 22-6 and 39-43. Also, Edmonds, E., ‘Η κόρη του ζωγράφου – Διήγημα’, Εστία Εικονογραφημένη 26 (June 1892) 401–6Google Scholar. G. Drosinis and N. G. Politis were co-editors of Hestia for the period January 1889 up to the end of 1890, when Drosinis undertook the editorship alone until September 1894.

11 See Gotsi, G., ‘Elizabeth Mayhew Edmonds: Greek prose fiction in English dress’, Σύγκριση/Comparaison/Comparison 25 (2015) 23–60 Google Scholar [http://epublishing.ekt.gr/el/10924/%CE%A3%CF%8D%CE%B3%CE%BA%CF%81%CE%B9%CF%83%CE%B7/14753] and Varelas, L., Μετά θάρρους ανησυχίαν εμπνέοντος: Η κριτική πρόσληψη του Γ. Μ. Βιζυηνού (1873-1896) (Thessaloniki 2014) 85 and 140 Google Scholar.

12 Tozer, H. F., ‘Two translations of modern Greek poetry. Greek Lays, Idylls, Legends, &c. A Selection from Recent and Contemporary Poets . Translated by Edmonds, E. M.. (Trübner.)Google Scholar. Greek Folk-Songs from the Turkish Provinces of Greece. Literal and metrical translations. By Lucy M. J. Garnett. (Elliot Stock.)’, The Academy 687 (4 July 1885) 1-2:1. Tozer had kind words for Lucy Garnett's collection of translated Greek folk-songs but dismissed Stuart Glennie's introductory essay on the survival of paganism as being irrelevant to a book of poetry.

13 See Tozer, H. F., ‘“Adventure Series.” – Kolokotrones, the Klepht and the Warrior. Sixty Years of Peril and Daring. Translated from the Greek by Mrs. Ed[mon]ds. (Fisher Unwin.)’, The Academy 1032 (13 February 1892) 152–3Google Scholar.

14 See Tozer, H. F., ‘ Rhigas Pheraios; The Protomartyr of Greek Independence. By Mrs. Edmonds. (Longmans.)’, The Academy 928 (15 February 1890) 113Google Scholar.

15 As his student, Farnell, L. R., remembers in An Oxonian Looks Back (London [1934]) 38–9Google Scholar.

16 See P. M. Frazer, ‘Tozer, Henry Fanshawe (1829-1916)’, rev. Baigent, E., in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford 2004)Google Scholar [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/38073 accessed 23/11/2013]. Also Koelsch, W. A., ‘Henry Fanshawe Tozer: A “missing person” in historical geography?’, Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers 72 (2010) 118–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 Edmonds, E. M., ‘After fifty’, Women's Penny Paper 10 (29 December 1888) 6 Google Scholar.

18 Xenopoulos, G., ‘Σύγχρονοι ξένοι συγγραφείς: Ελισάβετ Μ. Έδμονδς’, Εστία Εικονογραφημένη 36 (1893) 89–90 Google Scholar.

19 See S. Assinder, ‘Greece in British Women's Writing, 1866-1915’, PhD thesis, University of Cambridge, 2012, quote on p. 16, and Assinder, S., ‘“To say the same thing in different words”: Politics and poetics in late Victorian translation from modern Greek’, Journal of International Women's Studies 13/6 (2012) 72–84 Google Scholar. In Politis’ archive we also find a letter, written in Greek and dated 15 Dec. 1889, by Elizabeth A. S. Dawes, the first woman to receive a doctoral degree from the University of London: she asks him to review her thesis on The Pronunciation of Greek with Suggestions for a Reform in Teaching that Language (1889) in Hestia.

20 For a similar view see Miliori, M., ‘Europe, the classical polis, and the Greek nation: Philhellenism and Hellenism in nineteenth-century Britain’, in Beaton, R. and Ricks, D. (eds), The Making of Modern Greece: Nationalism, Romanticism, and the Uses of the Past (1797-1896) (Farnham 2009) 65–77: 74Google Scholar.

21 For more details see Gotsi, ‘Elizabeth Mayhew Edmonds’. Also, Assinder, ‘Greece’, 110-11 and 114, who refers to Edmonds's ‘translation programme’. Cf. Assinder, ‘“To say the same thing in different words”’, 78.

22 Politis, N. G., Μελέτη επί του βίου των νεωτέρων Ελλήνων, I: Νεοελληνική μυθολογία, 2 parts (Athens 1871-4)Google Scholar.

23 See ‘Modern Greek life and folklore’, The Saturday Review 872 (13 July 1872) 57-8: 58. Whereas the anonymous reviewer met the volume's main premise on the resemblance between modern and ancient myths with scepticism, he commented positively on Politis’ comparative method.

24 See earlier Edmonds, E. M., ‘Notes on Greek folk-lore. Burial customs’, The Folk-Lore Journal 2/6 (1884) 168–72Google Scholar and ‘Local Greek myths. Communicated by Y. [sic] N. Politês to Mrs. Edmonds’, The Folk-Lore Journal 4/3 (1886) 250-2. On her methods for establishing authority see also Assinder, ‘Greece’, 57; and 106 on her gradual gaining of renown.

25 On this issue see Stewart, C., ‘Syncretism as a dimension of nationalist discourse in modern Greece’, in Stewart, C. and Shaw, R. (eds.), Syncretism/Anti-syncretism: The Politics of Religious Synthesis (London and New York 1994) 127–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 On these issues see P. A. Yfantis, ‘Η χριστιανική πίστη στην επιστημονική σκέψη και στα ιδεολογικά οράματα του Νικολάου Πολίτη’ in Ο Νικόλαος Γ. Πολίτης, II, 925-44 and E. A. Datsi, ‘Διαφωτισμός και εξελικτισμός: Οι θεωρητικές και ιδεολογικές συντεταγμένες του Νικόλαου Πολίτη’, ibid, 633-46.

27 This was an ideological-political attack. For further details see D. T. Katsaris, ‘Ο “άθεος” Νικόλαος Γ. Πολίτης’, in Ο Νικόλαος Γ. Πολίτης, I, 455-76.

28 See Jenkyns, M., ‘Introduction’, in Greek Lays, Idylls, Legends, &c. A Selection from Recent and Contemporary Poets. Translated by Edmonds, E. M.. With Introduction and Notes (London 1885) 19–20 Google Scholar. Cf. Jenkyns, M., ‘Introduction’ in Greek Lays, Idylls, Legends, &c. A Selection From Recent and Contemporary Poets. Translated by Edmonds, E. M.. With Introduction and Notes. Revised and Enlarged Edition (London 1886) 19–20 Google Scholar.

29 On Stuart Glennie and his long collaboration with Garnett see Dorson, R. M., The British Folklorists: A History (London and New York 1999 [¹1968]) 310-12; quote on p. 310Google Scholar.

30 Garnett, L. M. J., Greek Folk-Songs from the Turkish Provinces of Greece, Ἡ Δούλη Ἑλλάς: Albania, Thessaly, (not yet wholly free,) and Macedonia: Literal and Metrical Translations. Classified, Revised, and Edited, with An Historical Introduction on the Survival of Paganism by Glennie, John S. Stuart (London 1885)Google Scholar. From Garnett's letter to Politis of 27 March 1892 (also found in his archive), it is apparent that, at Vikelas’ suggestion, she solicited ‘historical’ legends from him for her New Folklore Researches. Greek Folk Poesy: Annotated Translations, From the Whole Cycle of Romanic Folk-Verse and Folk-Prose (Guildford 1896).

31 Stuart Glennie, ‘Preface: Remarks, political and linguistic’, in Garnett, Greek Folk-Songs, xxx-xxxi, and ‘The survival of paganism’, ibid, 32-3. On the resemblances among Greek, Irish and Scottish identities in 19^th-century British discourse see Tzanelli, R., ‘Unclaimed colonies: Anglo-Greek identities through the prism of the Dilessi/Marathon murders (1870)’, Journal of Historical Sociology 15/2 (June 2002) 169–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 Stuart Glennie, ‘Preface’, xxxi.

33 Stuart Glennie, ‘The survival of paganism’, 41, 5 (cf. p. 16).

34 Stuart Glennie, ‘The survival of paganism’, 19-20 and note 99, for his reference to Politis, Μελέτη επί του βίου των νεωτέρων Ελλήνων.

35 Stuart Glennie, ‘The survival of paganism’, 60.

36 Stuart Glennie, ‘Preface’, xxvii. On Politis’ and Glennie's treatment of classical Greece see Herzfeld, M., Ours Once More: Folkore, Ideology, and the Making of Modern Greece (New York 1986) 104 Google Scholar.

37 See Stuart Glennie, ‘Preface’, xx, where he stated his hope to contribute ‘in some degree, to the renewal of British Philhellenism, and to the completion of Hellenic Independence’. Similarly, Lucy Garnett in her ‘Note by the Translator’, Greek Folk-Songs, 66, hoped ‘that such study will have not only speculative and scientific, but practical and political results in exciting sympathy, and gaining aid, for that reconstitution of Hellas which is still unachieved [. . .]’.

38 Stuart Glennie, ‘Preface’, xxi-xxii.

39 Edmonds, E. M., ‘Preface’ in Fair Athens (London 1881)Google Scholar.

40 Jenkyns, ‘Introduction’, in Greek Lays (1885 and 1886), 16. Cf. Edmonds, ‘Preface’, in Greek Lays (1886), viii. Moreover, see her congratulatory message on the occasion of the 25^th anniversary of King George's accession in ‘Αυτόγραφα’, in Εστία. Πανηγυρικόν τεύχος επί τη εικοσιπενταετηρίδι της Βασιλείας Γεωργίου, 1863-1888 (Leipzig [1888]) 36: ‘Η έκτασις της χώρας δεν συνεπιφέρει αναγκαίως το μεγαλείον ή την ευπορίαν του έθνους. [. . .] Είθε να μη αναχαιτίση την τοιαύτην ανάπτυξιν [της Ελλάδος] πολιτική αστασία, είθε ο Βασιλεύς αυτής να αισθάνηται την αγάπην του λαού του αυξάνουσαν από έτους εις έτος, και τότε – θεού θέλοντος – δεν βλάπτει ολίγη πλειοτέρα απλοχωρία’.

41 From 1898 to 1900, Lawson was a Craven student at the British School at Athens. He made acknowledged use of Politis’ publications in his Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion: A Study in Survivals (1910); see Chrysanthopoulou, ‘Ο Νικόλαος Πολίτης’, 1034-6. According to Herzfeld, Ours Once More, 103, his treatment of living folk beliefs and practices as a means to interpret the religious thought of ancient Greece ‘may indeed have absorbed’ elements of Politis’ notion of survivalism.

42 See ‘Our programme’, The Ladder 1/2 (February 1891) 7-8: 7.

43 On this collaboration see Gotsi, G., ‘Η Ε. M. Edmonds και ο αθηναϊκός περιοδικός τύπος’, Μικροφιλολογικά 41 (Spring 2017) 7–13 Google Scholar.

44 See ‘Introduction’, The Eastern and Western Review 1/1 (February 1892) 1.

45 On the confusion created by the various forms of Edmonds's name see Assinder, ‘Greece’, 72 and 106, who also discusses the way she signed her texts, seeing a gradual movement from ‘E. M. Edmonds’ to ‘Mrs Edmonds’.

46 All the letters and postcards presented here are located in the Nikolaos G. Politis Archive (no. 302) held in the Benaki Museum Historical Archives, Athens. I wish to thank Dr Maria Dimitriadou of the Historical Archives for her help.

47 See Edmonds, Greek Lays. The first edition of this anthology of modern Greek poetry appeared in the first half of 1885, as one can tell from the publication of reviews in the British press as early as May of that year.

48 See Politis, N. G., ‘Αι ασθένειαι κατά τους μύθους του ελληνικού λαού’, Δελτίον της Ιστορικής και Εθνολογικής Εταιρίας της Ελλάδος 1 (1883) 1–30 Google Scholar.

49 Garnett, Greek Folk-Songs.

50 It might also be read as ‘superstitions’.

51 See Politis, ‘Αι ασθένειαι’, 9 and 10. The superscript numbers 1-5 here are as used by Edmonds.

52 Reading unclear.

53 The year 1885, especially its last months, was a difficult period for Vizyinos with the onset of health problems and organized attacks against his scholarly work by certain critics. See Varelas, Μετά θάρρους, 94-99, 106 and 114. This perhaps explains why he had not communicated with his translator and amicable critic. For Edmonds's presentation of Vizyinos’ poetry to the British public see Varelas, Μετά θάρρους, 80-6 and Gotsi, G., ‘ Αναγινώσκονται, κρίνονται και εκτιμώνται, -να το είπωμεν;- περισσότερον ή εν Ελλάδι: Νέα στοιχεία για την πρόσληψη του Γ. M. Βιζυηνού στην Αγγλία, 1883-1896’, Πόρφυρας 150 (2014) 327–42Google Scholar.

54 ‘Jewish folk-medicine’, The Spectator, 13 March 1886, 347-8.

55 It seems that her abridged version of Politis’ study was never published in the Folk-Lore Journal. Most probably this is why later Edmonds published a long note, under the rubric ‘Charms’, in The Academy 781 (23 April 1887) 291, where she presented two charms against disease recorded by the Greek folklorist in his study.

56 It may be that Edmonds's semi-legible superscript is intended to be ‘Monsieur’.

57 Edmonds, Mrs., Rhigas Pheraios: The Protomartyr of Greek Independence. A Biographical Sketch (London and New York 1890)Google Scholar.

58 Politis, N. G., ‘Η νεότης του Pήγα’, Εστία 19/470 (1 January 1885) 13–16 Google Scholar.

59 Politis writes ‘Νταμπεγλί’ in ‘Η νεότης του Pήγα’, 15. In Rhigas Pheraios, 18, Edmonds meticulously added a footnote on ‘Ntambegli = Dampegli’, specifying that ‘In the official documents (Athens, 1884) it is written Ntimpegli’.

60 See the column ‘Athenian periodicals’, in The Ladder 1/4 (April 1891) 255-6.

61 The newspaper Λόγος was a religious paper covering general themes, published in Athens under the editorship of S. D. Philaretos for the period 1889-1905. An organ of the popular lay preacher Apostolos Makrakis and his followers, the newspaper advocated his views on the regeneration of ‘Christian Hellenism’. It seems that Edmonds was unaware of Politis’ hostile relations with Makrakis’ circle and especially with Philaretos himself, who had angrily attacked him in 1884-5 for his ‘anti-Christian’ ideas. Cf. my introductory comments.

62 See Edmonds, E. M., The History of a Church Mouse (London 1892)Google Scholar.

63 Edmonds, E. M., ‘Quaint customs of rural Greece’, The Eastern and Western Review 2/2 (July 1892) 115–22Google Scholar.

64 Edmonds, E. M., ‘The flower of the Levant: Zante’, The Eastern and Western Review 3/5 (May 1893) 341–6Google Scholar.

65 The games, held in Athens from 6 to 15 April 1896 (25 March to 3 April by the Julian calendar), were the first modern Olympic Games. For Edmonds's poem see Elizabeth Mayhew Edmonds, ‘Original verse: Runners from Marathon (490 B.C. and April 10, 1896, A.D.)’, The Academy 1250 (18 April 1896) 324. Photographs of this letter are published in Ο Νικόλαος Γ. Πολίτης, I, 399 and II, 1164-5 (Appendix).

66 Charilaos Trikoupis, who served as prime minister of Greece seven times from 1875 until 1895, died in Cannes on 11 April/30 March 1896.

67 The letter was most likely written in 1898. The monthly journal Παρνασσός (1877-95) issued by the Parnassos Literary Society was replaced by the annual publication Επετηρίς (1896-1917). The second volume of Επετηρίς appeared in March 1898 (see the announcement in the newspaper Το Άστυ, 16 March 1898, http://invenio.lib.auth.gr/record/97565?ln=es) and contains the annual report of the president of the society N. G. Politis for the year 1896-7. Timoleon, A. Argyropoulos succeeded Politis as president in September 1897. See ‘Έκθεσις των πεπραγμένων υπό του Συλλόγου κατά το ΛΒ′ έτος της συστάσεως αυτού (1896-1897) (Προεδρεία Ν. Γ. Πολίτου)’, Επετηρίς 2 (1898) 329–43Google Scholar.

68 Φιλολογικός Σύλλογος Παρνασσός, Επετηρίς 2 (1898), which appeared in March of that year.

69 Politis, N. G., Μελέται περί του βίου και της γλώσσης του ελληνικού λαού: Παροιμίαι, 4 vols (Athens 1899-1902)Google Scholar.

70 Elizabeth née Waller married Augustus Robert Edmonds on 15 December 1849, thus making 1899 their golden anniversary. See S. Assinder, ‘Edmonds, Elizabeth Mayhew (bap. 1821, d. 1907)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Sept 2015 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/107349, accessed 4 Feb 2017].

71 It is quite probable that Edmonds's correspondence with Greek writers was destroyed in this fire, which might explain why Assinder, ‘Greece’, 11, found ‘no record of the fate of her correspondence.’

72 Reading unclear.

73 Enclosed is a brief newspaper clipping recording the death of her husband, Augustus Robert Edmonds, and providing brief biographical information.