Although this volume is typical of the annual journals published by English local societies of archaeology and history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it is distinguished by a charming obituary of a local librarian. Entitled 'Mrs. Teague' it opens: 'High above the crowded streets and the busy routes of rail and river lies the quiet room of our Black Gate Library: dark, simply furnished and crowded to bursting point with books and papers, but full of that subtle atmosphere which makes a good library something akin to a home. The personification of duty and devotion who presided over this collection for over forty years was Mrs. Teague.' Her eulogist was the Romanist Ian Richardson (who had just assumed the chair of Archaeology of the Roman Empire at the University of Oxford. He alludes to her late husband but gives few biographical details of either of them beyond celebrating teas that Mrs Teague provided to the monthly meetings of the Society. The Old Newcastle project that restored the Black Gate in 2013 gives her husband's name as John Teague but barely mentions his wife. A quick search of genealogical records identified John James Teague (1862-1941) and the National Probate Calendar shows that he left an estate worth about £50 to his wife Isabella. More research has her born in Gateshead in 1877, marrying John in 1908 and, upon her death in 1956, bequeathing £340 to her unmarried daughter Sophie, who had assisted her as warden of the Keep museum after John's death. ( )