(Vol. viii., pp. 220. 395.)
In returning thanks to those of your correspondents who replied to my
Query, I ought, perhaps, to have begged to learn such of our public schools
that were _without_ libraries, as the best means of obtaining for them
bequests or gifts that would form a nucleus of a good library. For example,
a correspondent informs me that the governors of Queen Elizabeth's Grammar
School, Wimborne, Dorset, are laying by 10l. a year towards the purchase of
books for that purpose: that having no library at present, there now is a
favourable opportunity for either a gift or a bequest: but I should in any
case prefer a selection of works likely to prove readable for young people,
as history, biography, travels, and the popular works of science.
I can quite imagine that Eton, Winchester, Westminster, Harrow, Shrewsbury,
and other similar great schools, would have such libraries, but these are
not half the number of our public foundations; the wealthy schools above
mentioned, and the rich men's children who go to them, would be in a sad
plight indeed were they not amply provided for in such matters. But there
are others whose mission is not less important, perhaps more so; and on
this head none would be better pleased than I to find I laboured under an
"erroneous impression," as remarked by ETONENSIS. The English public
appeared to have an "erroneous impression" that they were better provided
with books than any other people a short time ago, till it was disproved
when the agitation respecting parochial libraries was set on foot, the
facts appearing on the institution of the Marylebone public library.
It has been shown that in France and Germany the public libraries, and the
volumes in them, far exceed any that we possess; a strange fact, when we
are better provided with standard authors than any other language in the
world. I should much wish these brief parallels answered. The city of Lyons
has a magnificent public library of 100,000 vols., open to all; how many
has her rival Manchester? Boulogne has a public library of 16,000 vols.;
how many has Southampton? From the obliging notices of correspondents in
"N. & Q.," we have had several articles on parochial libraries, and the sum
of the whole appears to be most miserable; surely some bad system has
prevailed either in not having proper places for them, or in some other
fault. In one place the resident clergyman sells them: surely if they were
combined under some enlarged plan, people desirous of making bequests or
gifts would do so very willingly when they knew they would be cared for and
made use of; for it is probably the case that private libraries are more
numerous here than abroad, and that there are altogether more books in the
country. I am told by a correspondent that in his time there were no books
at Christ's Hospital, therefore the bequest made is, I presume, a late one;
and if such is the case, it will be a favourable opportunity for the
governors of that school to enlarge the collection and make it available to
the scholars.
If, therefore, our schools are no better provided than our public
libraries, the inquiry may be of service; but if they are, it cannot do
harm to know their condition. It is true I have heard of but one public
school hitherto that has no library and wants one, but I shall remain
unsatisfied till other returns make their appearance in "N. & Q." or
privately, when, if it should appear I have taken a wrong opinion, I shall
be as please as anybody else to find myself mistaken.