Ghosts and Family Legends: A Volume for Christmas

1859 layout: • First Part: Round the Fire --eight Evenings of ghost stories told in a frame narrative, comprising 19 stories and a Conclusion listed in the book Contents but not distinguished by heading or whitespace where they commence • Appendix --"Autograph Letters communicating Personal Experiences addressed to the Author" • Second Part: Legends of the Earthbound --six stories

Published late in December 1858, apparently too late for the intended Christmas gift season. That and price are from advertisements in The Athenaeum, "Mr. Newby's New Publications": • 1858-11-06 p575 (earliest found) as "1 vol. post 8vo. 10s. 6d. [In Nov."; identically three weeks later • 1858-12-25 p847 (next found) as "1 vol. 10s. 6d. [This day." Christmas day 1858 was a Saturday, as always for the stated publication date of The Athenaeum. "It is hardly necessary to say of a new Christmas volume of tales ..." --so begins a brief notice, The Examiner 1859-01-15 p15, no earlier review found

Ghost Stories and Family Legends is the running title, and the top heading on page 1 (viewed at HathiTrust). It is used in the three publisher advertisements cited here, and none were found 2019-11-20 by automated search for "Ghosts and Family Legends".

"The Prediction" precedes "Haunted Houses" in the Contents list, but there is no plausible candidate other than two paragraphs, pp. 104-05. And as a descriptive title "The Justification" fits only the next two paragraphs, 105-06, rather than the remainder of the Sixth Evening--mainly another account, not the frame narrative.

Data originally from a Google Books scan. • title page imprint (two lines, all caps):   Thomas Cautley Newby, Publisher,   Welbeck Street, Cavendish Square. • title page byline credits 'Mrs. Crowe, authoress of "Night Side of Nature," &c.'; the preface closes 'Catherine Crowe.' and '15th October, 1858.'