THE SOUTH DEVON 



MONTHLY MUSEUM. 



PLYMOUTH, JANUARY IST, 1833. 

 No. 1.] PRICE SIXPENCE. [VOL. I. 



PUBLIC LIBRARY, PLYMOUTH. 



WE are proud of our distinction as a literary place. 

 In this respect, Plymouth may venture to claim pre- 

 cedence with most of the provincial towns in the 

 kingdom. The present attempt to establish a local 

 repository and register of science, letters and art, 

 may be regarded as one proof among many, of the 

 prevalence of literary feeling in the neighbourhood. 

 While the Public Library owed its origin to the ex- 

 istence of such a feeling, its establishment must have 

 re-acted in confirming and diffusing the existing pre- 

 dilection. The formation of an institution, at once 

 so honourable and useful to his native town, is 

 mainly attributable to the exertions of the late George 

 Eastlake, Esqr., a gentleman still remembered by 

 many for his literary tastes and acquirements, at a 

 period when intellectual pursuits were less commonly 

 followed than in our own times, the facilities for doing 

 so, prodigiously inferior to those enjoyed by the 

 present generation. 



The collection of books which formed the nucleus 

 of the Plymouth Library, was originally deposited 

 in a room at the Guildhall, but was transferred from 

 thence to the building in Cornwall Street on its 

 erection in 1812. 



The situation is sufficiently commodious, but such 

 a structure in another site might have been rendered 

 more ornamental to the town. We have often wished 

 it had formed a sort of right wing to the Hotel and 



VOL. I. 1833. A THIRD EDITION. 



