From the Editor
The volumes assembled here comprise such papers, journals, telegrams, and clippings as could be recovered from the personal effects of the gentlemen and ladies who came, in the course of their peculiar labours, to be known as the Arbuthnott Collective.
It is the Editor's hope that, taken together, these documents will furnish the discerning reader with some understanding of the matters into which the Collective enquired — though it must be cautioned at the outset that several papers have been suppressed, others lost, and a few are of so distressing a nature that their inclusion has been gravely considered before being permitted.
The papers are presented in such order as best illuminates the broader investigation, rather than in strict chronology. Where the Editor has felt it necessary to supply context, footnotes have been provided. The voices of the Collective themselves, however, have been preserved as they were set down — in their own hands, their own words, and with such errors and infelicities as the original documents contain.
The reader is invited to begin where they will. Those new to these affairs may find it instructive to commence with the earliest recovered papers; those already familiar with the Collective's reputation may prefer to proceed directly to the later dispatches, where the matter grows darker.
— The Editor