Sir Walter Scott. The books covered a wide range of subjects including history,

biography, poetry and fiction, as well as Chamber’s Encyclopaedia and

Gazeteers, and there were also books and manuals on practical subjects. The

only subsequent additions to the library were four volumes of Queen Victoria’s

Letters, in 1908; all the other books were printed between 1900 and 1906.

Membership of the library cost two shillings a year, paid quarterly in

advance; books could be lent only to the persons who subscribed, and only

one book could be borrowed at a time. The library had 135 registered sub-

scribers and at first it was fairly well patronised, but gradually the number

of books borrowed began to decline, and in 1918 the library ceased lending

books.

There is no way of knowing how many times books were referred to or

looked at in the library, but there is a list of the number of times each book

was borrowed between 1907 and 1908.

Sir Water Scott had the greatest number of books in the library with 22

novels, and the total number of times his books were borrowed, 118 times,

was greater than anyone else’s.

Anthony Hope’s The Prisoner of Zenda and its sequel Rupert of Henzau

were each borrowed 17 times.

A.

Conan Doyle’s Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes proved as popular as Jerome

K. Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat, being borrowed 18 times each.

Seven books by Jules Verne were borrowed more than 80 times, with

Dropped from the Clouds and Secret of the Island slightly more popular than

Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea.

Mark Twain had five books in the library, with a total number of borrow-

ings of 69 with Huckleberry Finn the favourite with 15 borrowings and The

Adventures of Tom Sawyer borrowed 14 times.

Three of the most popular books in the library were by Guy Boothby

whose Kidnapped President was borrowed 23 times, Doctor Nikola 24 times

and Pharos the Egyptian especially popular being borrowed 33 times.

There were 17 books by Charles Dickens and they were borrowed more

than 100 times, with Nicholas Nickleby, Pickwick Papers and The Old

Curiosity Shop being the most popular, with only one borrower for Sketches

by Boz.

Jane Austen had five books, which were borrowed 63 times, with Pride and

Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and Emma borrowed more often than Northanger

Abbey and Sense and Sensibility.

R.D. Blackmore’s Lorna Doone was even more popular than Jane Austen’s

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