October, 1891. 



OUR COLUMNS. 



41 



A HISTORY OF THE BEDFORD LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTE 



AND GENERAL LIBRARY. 

 By Thos. Gwyn Elger, F.R.A.S. 



PART III. 



^i)t TBcDforD0t)it:e General litirarp. 



PROSPEROUS TIMES. 



^,HE change from the very limited accommodation afforded by the two small 

 ^Jsj rooms in St. Mary's to the handsome buikling in Harper-street must be 

 ^^:^&J1 regarded as forming a ncAv era in the history of the Institution. That it was 

 generally appreciated is shown by the increase in the number of subscribers from 132 

 in 1835-36 to 174 in 1836-37, and, idtimately, to 182 in 1837-38. The last was the 

 greatest number registered, leaving Compounders out of account, during the 33 years 

 of the Society's existence. Valuable donations continued to be made both to the 

 Library and Museum, and everything pointed to a long career of prosperity. Among 

 the gifts about this time, perhaps the most noteworthy Avas that of a large collection 

 of MSS. relating to Bedfordshire, presented by Mr. H. E. Goodhall and his sister, the 

 son and daughter of Mr. H. H. Goodhall, of the East India House, who was a native 

 of this County, and who had previously enriched the Museum with many geological 

 specimens. Hardly less important was the donation by Mr. T. C. Higgins, of Turvey 

 House, of a rare Italian work, by Ferrario, in 17 vols., royal 4to., printed in Milan in 

 1826, entitled // Costume Antico e Modcrno. It is said that in 1838 there were only 

 tAvo copies of this book in England, — the copy in question and another in Lord Spencer's 

 library at xVlthorpe."^'' As regards the Goodhall MSS., it Avas hoped by the donors that 

 someone Avith the necessary leisure and ability Avould come forAvard and utilize them as 

 materials for a much needed County History. A year or so after they Avere receiA^ed, Dr. 

 Lipscombe aj^plied to the Committee for permission to haA^e access to them for facili- 

 tating the progress of a History of Bedfordshire, AA^iich he appears to have had in hand, 

 but AA-hich Avas never published. Subsequent^, in 1845 and 1846, Dr. Tattam earnestly 

 adA'ocated that use should be made of these documents, and at more than one annual 

 meeting suggested that the County Clergy should be requested to furnish an account 

 of their several parishes, as had already been done Avith respect to the parishes of 

 Biddenham, Wilshamstead, and St. Cuthbert's, Bedford (the first by the Rev. F. C. 

 PaAvsey, and the two last by Dr. Tattam himself). 



DECADENCE. 



The period from 1839 to 1846 Avas comparatively uneA^ntful in the history of the 

 Society. There Avas no very marked decline in the number of donations either to the 

 I/ibrary or Museum, but for some reason or other the roll of annual members did not 

 lengthen year by year, but rather became gradually shorter and shorter. Some hypothesis 

 was necessary to account for this doAvnward tendency, but it A\^as hardly satisfactory to 

 explain the phenomenon by " the number of remoA^als from the toAvn," as AA^as done at 



* The Library copy of this valuable book AVas a few years ago purchased by Major W. F. Higgins, of 

 Turvey, and a more modern work on the same subject substituted. 



