2 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE 
should study surgery, chemistry, botany, natural 
philosophy, read medical tracts in French and 
German, but also peruse ‘works of general 
information and taste’. Of Dr Spalding’s 400 
books, mostly medical, some were also on history.’ 
Attorneys William Salmon and Wadham Locke had 
large collections of law books which they insured 
against fire, and traders, too, were now stocking 
their bookshelves. Gisborne exhorted them to 
‘peruse eminent authors and not to be absorbed in 
mere worldly concerns’. ° 
Banker Charles Tylee’s library of 700 volumes 
included plays by Ben Jonson and Beaumont and 
Fletcher.’Bookseller Thomas Smith ordered 
volumes I and II of Britton’s Beauties of Wiltshire 
‘for my own private library’,’ while clothier 
Frederick Sandwell possessed the works of 600 
‘admired authors’, including 21 volumes of Buffon’s 
Natural History in French and 21 volumes of 
Hume’s History of England.’ John Anstie had a 
‘select’ library of books, including the moral and 
heroic History of the Life of Gustavus Adolphus of 
Sweden.'° While staying with his uncle John in 
Rowde in 1799, Benjamin Anstie wrote that he was 
reading Locke’s Essay concerning Human Under- 
standing.'! Prison Governor William Brutton could 
reach for The Memonrs of Sully, Byron’s Don Juan or 
Life in London.'? Further down the social scale, 
salesman William Neate had 60 books, including 
poems and volumes of Voltaire’s works, indicating 
an awareness of current political writing as well as 
the contemporary popularity of poetry, fostered by 
such publications as The Gentleman’s Magazine." 
Thomas Lawrence (sen.), landlord of The Bear, kept 
a bookcase in every room for the use of his guests and 
personal friends. During one of his frequent visits, 
David Garrick presented his host with a folio copy of 
The Spectator, the ultimate manual of politeness and 
sensibility. '* Elizabeth Blackburn noted in her 
journal that cabinet maker Richard Knight’s eldest 
son, John, had a ‘good solid understanding 
cultivated by reading’. Women, too, possessed books, 
Miss Carpenter’s library including works by 
Addison, Pope, Swift and Shakespeare. Theological 
works, bibles, almanacs and encyclopaedias featured 
in humbler homes and were prized legacies, but 
literacy was essentially associated with social and 
economic position and was seen as a way of being 
admitted to the town’s genteel society . The book 
became an expression of status and fashion. As The 
Book of Trades commented in 1818 ‘It is by books 
that men generally become distinguished for their 
intelligence, probity and worth’. '° 
Culture and literacy could be proclaimed in 
subscription lists, which not only cut local 
publishers’risks but also boosted sales through a 
dazzling roll call of eminent patrons.'’ Some 
residents, linked by professional or educational 
ties, subscribed to new books published in Devizes 
and Salisbury, ranging from topographical 
publications to works offering spiritual comfort 
and guidance (see Table 1 below). The Andrews and 
Dury map of Wiltshire of 1773 and Tunnicliff’s 
Topographical Survey of 1791 allowed the 
subscriber’s residence or coat of arms to appear as 
well as his name. !® 
Table 1.Devizes Subscribers to locally published 
books and maps 
Title Number of Subscribers 
A Treatise on Peace of Soul and Content of Mind (1765) 4 
Overton, T C, Original Designs of Temples (1766) 16 
Taylor, A, Treatise on the Ananas or Pineapple (1769) 3 
Description of the Antiquities of Wilton House (1769) 1 
Cooke, W, The Way to the Temple of True Honour and 
Fame(1773) 64 
Andrews and Dury, Map of Wiltshire (1773) 1 
Tunnicliff, W, A Topographical Survey of the Counties 
of Hants, Wilts, Dorset, Somerset, Devon and 
Cornwall(1791) 14 
Book clubs and circulating libraries were 
eighteenth-century phenomena. By 1810 a Book 
Society existed in Devizes. Each of the thirty 
subscribers could propose books on_ literary 
subjects not exceeding £1 15s. in price and after 
circulation to members in order of their admission 
to the Society, books could be bought for half the 
cost price. Periodicals taken included the 
Edinburgh, Monthly, Quarterly and Annual Reviews, 
The Gentleman’s Magazine and Rivington’s Annual 
Register. Thus leading townsmen could keep abreast 
of the latest published works and contemporary 
opinion.” 
That there were serious book and antiquarian 
collectors in the town is illustrated by library sale 
catalogues. One of the largest sales ever staged in 
Devizes took place over nine days in 1818, when the 
collection of John Collins was auctioned. 
Descended from a seventeenth-century namesake 
mathematician, surgeon Collins was a man of wide- 
ranging taste, covering the arts, sciences, 
philosophy, history, botany, travel and the classics. 
His unique collection of 15,000 prints, engravings, 
oil paintings and miniatures included works by 
