492 LIBRARIES IN ESKDALE. PART VIII. 



pectedly left me 500Z., with a share of his residuary pro- 

 perty, which I am told will make it amount in all to 850/. 

 This is truly a godsend, and I am most grateful for it. 

 It gives me the comfortable knowledge that, if it should 

 please God soon to take me from this world, my family 

 would have resources fully sufficient for their support 

 till such time as their affairs could be put in order, and 

 the proceeds of my books, remains, &c., be rendered 

 available. I have never been anxious overmuch, nor 

 ever taken more thought for the morrow than it is the 

 duty of every one to take who has to earn his livelihood ; 

 but to be thus provided for at this time I feel to be an 

 especial blessing." l 



Among the most valuable results of Telford's bequests 

 in his own district, was the establishment of the libraries 

 at Langholm and Westerkirk on a firmer foundation. 

 That at Westerkirk had been originally instituted in the 

 year 1792, by the miners employed to work an anti- 

 mony mine (since abandoned) on the farm of Glen- 

 dinning, within sight of the place where Telford was 

 born. On the dissolution of the mining company, in 

 1800, the little collection of books was removed to Kirk- 

 ton Hill ; but on receipt of Telford's bequest, a special 

 building was erected for their reception at New Burtpath, 

 near the village of Westerkirk. The annual income 

 derived from the Telford fund enabled additions of new 

 volumes to be made to it from time to time ; and its uses 

 as a public institution were thus greatly increased. The 

 books are exchanged once a month, on the day of the 

 full moon ; on which occasion readers of all ages and con- 

 ditions, farmers, shepherds, -ploughmen, labourers, and 

 their children, resort to it from far and near, taking 

 away with them as many volumes as they desire for the 

 month's reading. 



1 ' Selections from the Letters of article which Southey wrote for the 

 Robert Southey,' vol. iv., p. 391. 'Quarterly' was his review of the 

 We may here mention that the last j ' Life of Telford.' 



