Books and Borrowing 1750-1830

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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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A Comparison of the Borrowings of Different Classes at the Library of Innerpeffray, John Gray Library, Haddington, and Selkirk Subscription Library

In my last blog post, I discussed the Library of Innerpeffray’s exceptional labouring-class borrowing demographic. Labouring-class people were the driving force for borrowings at Innerpeffray as early as the eighteenth century, contradicting narratives claiming that they only began accessing libraries in the nineteenth century, with access previously exclusive to scholarly, aristocratic, and professional elites. The […]

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Agricultural Improvement at Westerkirk Library

One of the fascinating things about working on the records of Westerkirk Parish Library has been watching the way its borrowing records reflect a gradual transition from a miners’ library in the 1790s, to a rural subscription library by the 1810s. This long-term shift is suggested by descriptions of Westerkirk parish and its library in […]

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Romantic-Period Book Circulation

I’ve long been fascinated by the idea of a salon – and the women who ran salons in the eighteenth century, such as Madame Geoffrin, Mlle de Scudéry, Madame de Staël, and Madame Necker in France, and Elizabeth Montague, Mary Berry, Lady Holland, and the Countess of Blessington on this side of the English Channel. […]

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Writing One’s Own Story with Walter Scott

Your author’s quill commands no life to grow The codex mute remains in dusty gloom ’Till, tripping lightly thro’ the antique stacks A bookworm sings themselves in unison With inky song.                                    Old Play [1] In 1816, the anglophone […]

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John Anderson: Professor, Philosopher, and Military Man

As the end of my scholarship draws closer, I intend to bring my project closer to home by delving into eighteenth-century professorial registers from the University of Glasgow. More specifically, I have examined the borrowing records for John Anderson (1726-1796), a Professor at the University of Glasgow between 1754 and 1796. As these records have […]

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Romantic Period Book Circulation: Our BARS Salon, 18 August 2021

Which books were really circulating in the Romantic Period? We will be hosting a salon at Romantic Disconnections/Reconnections, BARS’ International Digital Conference which is taking place from 12-20 August 2021. Our salon on ‘Romantic Period Book Circulation’ will take place on 18 August 2021 from 11:30-13:00 (BST) and is limited to 20 participants. Registrants will […]

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Labouring-Class Borrowing at Innerpeffray Library, 1815-1833

Now that I’m in the final few weeks of my Carnegie-funded research with Books and Borrowing (I’m very sad about this!) I thought I’d share some of my findings with you. There’s too much for me to share in a single blog post, so this post will centre around labouring-class borrowings at Innerpeffray Library from […]

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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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In Memoriam William St Clair

The Books and Borrowing team were all saddened to hear of the recent death of William St Clair. In what follows, three of us reflect on his enduring legacy. Matthew Sangster writes: I have a very clear memory of first reading The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period on a train in the Scottish Highlands. […]

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