BOOK III. Chapter XX. Town Libraries of Scotland. a series of recommendations for the improvement of King's College Library by which, he thought, all the University and requirements would be met, in so far as this City is concerned." The chief suggestions were these: (1.) A grant of money for the purpose of preparing and publishing a classified Catalogue; (2.) An increase of the annual grant from Government, in proportion to that given to the other Scottish Universities; (3.) A salary to the Librarian, the present salary being altogether inadequate; (4.) A more liberal system of access, both by extending the right, and diffusing more widely, but still under needful restriction, the power of recommendation.1 There are many Town and Parochial Libraries in Scotland, but they are usually small, and scantily, or not at all, endowed. Of Stirling's Library at Glasgow, some account has already been given. At Dunblane, in Perthshire, there is a Library which merits notice, both on its own account, and on that of its excellent founder, Archbishop Leighton. in the The Leightonian If Archbishop Laud, when he threw off his cap Court of Star Chamber to thank the God of all Mercy that a Scottish physician had been sentenced to a cruel and infamous punishment, for declaring that Prelacy was antichristian, and the political influence of Bishops the destruction of the realm, could have shown, in some magic mirror, to the prisoner whom he was sending to tor 1 Report etc. of Scottish Universities Commission, 351-362; Abstract of Supplemental Returns on Public Libraries (1849), 2, 3; Report and Minutes of Evidence of the Select Committee on Public Libraries (1849), 56-59; 202-204; and MS. Correspondence. Library at Dunblane. BOOK III. Chapter XX. Town Libraries ture, his own son, arrayed in archiepiscopal robes, the University and prediction would have doubtless added heartache to his of Scotland. sufferings. But Laud himself would have seen with, perhaps, greater pain that Robert Leighton was destined by the very virtues which have made his name illustrious, to widen the gulf between Episcopacy and Scotland. If a man who united in his own person the learnThe career of ing of a Benedictine of St. Maur with the zeal of an apostle, and the humility of a martyr, failed to commend Prelacy to his countrymen, even in its most winning form, the task might well be abandoned in despair. Archbishop "During his government of the See of Glasgow," says one of his biographers, "hee laboured for ane accommodatione with the Presbyterians of those pairts, keeped severall meettings with them, and made large profferrs and condescensions to them, if possible they might be gained to a peace and unitie with the Church, the healeing of her breaches, and cementing of divisions; but all his endeavours proved ineffectuall, so that he grew weary of the world, and resolved upon a retreat from all public employments." It was with much difficulty and after long delay that he obtained permission to carry his purpose into effect. At length, his dignity resigned into the King's hands, he withdrew into Sussex, "where he lived in an absolute retirement, in a most devote and contemplative life, for the space of about seven years. ..... His large and liberall charities to the poor made every body think that he could have nothing left to bestow that way at his death." But 1 Bishop Douglas, Account of the Leightonian Library (Bannatyne Miscellany, iii, 235, 236). BOOK III. Chapter XX. Town Libraries of Scotland. his liberality was as provident, and as catholic, as his life had been self-denying. He left funds towards the University and perpetual maintenance of the infirm poor, both at Dunblane and at Glasgow. He founded bursaries of philosophy at Glasgow College and at Edinburgh. He bequeathed his Library to the Cathedral and Clergy of the Diocese of Dunblane, "and also mortifyed moneyes for building of the Library house, and setleing a yearlie sellarie upon a Bibliothecarius for the better preservatione both of the fabrick and books." Archbishop Leighton's Will was dated the 17th of February 1683. He died in London on the 25th June 1684. The Archbishop's Trustees speedily communicated with the then Bishop of Dunblane, Robert Douglas, to whom a hundred pounds sterling (afterwards increased to a hundred and seventy pounds) was remitted "that the roome might be built of convenient largeness and good lights, and handsomely furnished with presses and shelves, and some deskes for readeing at them, and chaires or stooles to sitt on." The books were forwarded from Sussex to Dunblane in 1687, and with them some of the Archbishop's MSS., including "a collectione of such select sentences, as he was pleased to note in his readings, seemingly designed only for his own use, promisscuously set downe, some in Greek, some in Latine, and some few in French. Some of them bound in octavoes, others stitched, or in loose papers." The further sum of three hundred pounds was vested in the Trustees of the Library towards the salary of the keeper. The original number of volumes was 1373, in addition to 186 sermons and BOOK III. Chapter XX. other unbound tracts. They have since been increased University and both by gifts and by some small bequests. The found Town Libraries of Scotland. Library founded by Leslie and at Saltoun. er's MS. treatises were subsequently removed for the purpose of being printed, and unfortunately were not returned. A Catalogue of the Library was printed at Edinburgh, in 1793, and reprinted, with additions, in 1843.1 At Saltoun, in Haddingtonshire, there is a parochial Bishop Burnet Library which was founded by Mr. Norman Leslie, about the time [1666] when Gilbert Burnet entered in that parish, on his first cure of Souls. It comprised a respectable series of volumes in Theology, and a few in Church History. At his departure from Saltoun, Burnet did something more than fulfil his obligation, “to leave them in the same case that he found them," by adding some good books to the number; and long afterwards, by his last Will, he bequeathed £2000 to Trustees, for the education of children of the poorer sort," and ... "for the increase of a Library which had begun to be formed for the minister's house and use, .... as an expression of my kind gratitude to that parish which had the first fruits of my labours, and among whom I had all possible kindness and encouragement." Mainly by means of this benefaction, the collection, which in Burnet's time numbered but 145 volumes, has grown to nearly a thousand volumes. 2 .... 1 Douglas, ut supra (Bannatyne Miscellany, iii, 233-264); Letters relating to the Leightonian Library (Ibid. 265-272). 2 Extracts from the Acts and Proceedings of the Presbytery of Haddington, relating to Dr. Gilbert Burnet and the Library of the Kerk of Saltoun (Bannatyne Miscellany, iii, 389-402). BOOK III. Chapter XX. Town Libraries of Scotland. To the Town Council and Presbytery of Linlithgow, Dr. Robert Henry bequeathed in 1790, (a few days University and before his death,) his collection of books as the foundation of a Public Library, and with the expression of his hope that in course of time "a Library might at last be created, which should contribute to the diffusion of knowledge and literature."1 by Watt at Greenock. Two eminent men who have thrown additional lustre Library founded on the long roll of Scottish worthies, but whose lives and works are so bound up with enterprises of worldwide scope that they are, perhaps, but rarely thought of as Scotchmen,-James Watt and Thomas Telford,endeavoured, by promoting the foundation of Libraries, to lessen some of those impediments to mental progress in humble life, which they had themselves nobly wrestled with and overcome. Watt, in 1816, gave to the Town of Greenock a donation for the purchase of books, “to form the beginning of a scientific Library .. (under the guardianship of the Mayor and Town Council), in the hope of prompting others to add to it, and of rendering his townsmen as eminent for their knowledge as they are for their spirit of enterprise." To this design his son many years afterwards gave munificent furtherance. A handsome Library building, containing a good selection of scientific books, and a memorial statue of its founder, is now one of the chief ornaments of the town. 1 Life of Henry, prefixed to his History of Great Britain (1799), xii; 489. 2 Muirhead, Memoirs etc. of James Watt, i, 221. |