Op Pusric LiprARIES IN DuMFRIES. 43 
hall. It twice or thrice almost ceased to exist. I find that in 1855 
Messrs Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh, made a goodly present of 
books to the Institute. Among these are two notable ones—“ The 
Strayed Reveller, and other Poems,’’ by A., 1849. This is 
marked “ From the Author’’ on the fly-leaf, and is the first 
edition of Matthew Arnold’s poem. It is valued at about £2 
now. The other is “ The Seraphim, and other Poems,”’’ by E. B. 
Barrett, 1838. This would have been valuable had it not been 
badly mutilated. 
In 1861 the Mechanics’ Hall was erected, and in June, 1865, 
an exhibition was held again to reduce debt. We have here 
copies of the catalogues of both exhibitions. At what date the 
Institute came into the possession of the books of the Dumfries 
Public Library I have not been able to determine. It must have 
been before 1877, for the catalogue (pp. 64) of that date is 
divided throughout into two sections “ D.’’ and “ M.,’’ and many 
of the books at present in our reference department correspond 
with the “D.’’ section. The “D.’’ section at that date is clearly 
the better one. Both sections contain fiction. I have also a 
catalogue (pp. 61) dated 1895, which shows considerable change 
in the Library—a decided decline on that of 1877. In 1897 a 
large addition of nearly 1400 volumes was made by the legacy of 
the Rev. W. N. Dodds. It was a very mixed addition indeed, but 
contained many good books. The three collections together 
amounted to 6995 volumes when handed over in 1903 to the 
Ewart Public Library. 1200 were available for the lending de- 
partment. Practically all the fiction had to be destroyed. 
1863.—The first presentations made to your own library were 
in 1863. One of them, “The King’s Quair, a Poem by James 
the First, ed. by E. Thomson, Air, 1815,’’ I have here. In 1881 
the collection was housed, by agreement, in the Observatory, and 
consisted of 37 volumes, besides a great many pamphlets and 
transactions. Subsequently it was removed to the restored 
Presbytery-house, and finally to this building. The Robert 
Dinwiddie Library was presented in 1891, and consisted of some 
240 volumes. A complete catalogue of the collection was 
published in 1898. 
1840 (?).—There must now be mentioned the congregational 
libraries in the town, which latterly became important. The 
first of these was Loreburn Street U.P. Church. It was founded 
