Books and Borrowing 1750-1830

Author: Isla Macfarlane

Visitor Vignettes: Nicknames

Reposted with permission from the Innerpeffray Library Blog Today’s blog on the use of nicknames in the Innerpeffray visitors’ books is inspired by a recent discovery of a 1965 visitor to Innerpeffray, who signed their entry ‘Littel Elf’! In the Innerpeffray visitors’ book of September 1965, there are a series of entries by the Hall […]

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Wild Words and Spooky Happenstance: A Festival Diary

Republished with permission from The Library of Innerpeffray Blog From Thursday 7 to Sunday 10 September 2023, Innerpeffray Library hosted its third annual Festival of Reading, celebrating the theme of Wild Words. Authors, poets, storytellers, musicians, artists, and readers met in and around the historic location of Scotland’s first free lending library. On Thursday evening, […]

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A Visitor to Innerpeffray Library: Rupert Vardon de Burgh Griffith

Reposted with permission from the Innerpeffray Library blog: https://innerpeffraylibrary.co.uk/visitor-vignettes-lieutenant-rupert-vardon-de-burgh-griffith/ Almost exactly 124 years ago, on 22nd August 1899, one of my favourite signatures was entered into the Innerpeffray Visitors’ Books by a young visitor to the library. Every time I come across this page, I am delighted all over again that Alice Mary Griffith allowed […]

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A Library Tour of Manchester

Reposted with permission from the Innerpeffray Library blog Back in December 2022, I headed to Manchester for a whirlwind day tour of some of its prestigious libraries! On the day I was lucky enough to take part in a tour of Chetham’s Library and spend a little time researching at the Portico Library. Unfortunately I […]

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A Visitor to Innerpeffray Library: Héloïse Russell-Fergusson

Reposted with permission from the Innerpeffray Library Blog’s ‘Visitor Vignettes’ series The Innerpeffray Library visitors’ books contain signatures and details of visitors to the library from 1859 to the present day – with each modern visitor adding to the living archive. By digitising and investigating the information within the visitors’ books, it is possible to […]

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J. Cuthbert Hadden: ‘Master of the Song’

Originally posted at the Library of Innerpeffray blog and re-posted here with permission. In short, in regard to music, our great writers have been just like other people—some have been passionately fond of music, some have liked it in a mild kind of way, and some have been absolutely indifferent to it.[1] James Cuthbert Hadden […]

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A Signet Library Tour for the Books and Borrowing Team

The Books and Borrowing team was recently treated to a private tour of the Signet Library by our very own Kit Baston! Kit has worked with and alongside the library and archives for years, so there was no better person to show us around. Located behind St Giles Cathedral, just off the Royal Mile, the […]

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Festival of Reading

Last week I spent a delightful few days at the Library of Innerpeffray’s inaugural Festival of Reading! From  8 to 11 September 2021, Innerpeffray hosted eight Tayside writers to celebrate the Past on the Page, in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Sir Walter Scott. In the run up to the festival, […]

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Beatrix Potter at Innerpeffray Library

First posted on the Library of Innerpeffray’s blog and cross-posted here by kind permission of the Keeper of Books Beatrix Potter at Innerpeffray Library As it is the 155th anniversary of Beatrix Potter’s birth on 28 July 2021, we are celebrating by exploring some of the links between Beatrix Potter and the Library of Innerpeffray. […]

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Walter Scott at Innerpeffray: Read to Death

Innerpeffray Library has now re-opened to visitors! After a longer than usual winter closure period due to lockdown and Covid-19 restrictions, you can once again travel to rural Perthshire and see the first free public library in Scotland – and its new exhibition. Celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth of Sir Walter Scott, ‘Read […]

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