44 



OUR COLUMNS. 



October, 1891. 



When the Museum was formed in 1831, Mr. Robert Adams volunteered to act as 

 Curator, a duty which he performed with most zealous care. When he left Bedford in 

 1841, Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Barker was appointed in his place, and watched over the 

 collection till 1849, when it was transferred to the care of the Bedford Rooms Company, 

 and moved to the room over the vestibule where the Witt Museum was placed. 



The important office of Librarian was occupied first by Mr. John Mayle at a salary of 

 £6 6s. per annum, which the second year was raised to £10 10s. Mr. Mayle resigned in 

 1836, and Mr. Grey was appointed his successor at an annual salary of £12 12s., which 

 the following year Avas increased to £16 16s., and in 1841 to £21, and so continued till he 

 retired at the amalgamation. Many old Bedfordians can recall the marked personality of 

 Mr. Grey. Successions of annual reports bear testimony to his unwearied assiduity and 

 diligence. His individuality, sufficiently indicated by his handwriting, was very pro- 

 nounced. Though courteous to all who were courteous to him, his temper was not always 

 proof against the many worries inseparable from the office he held. To people who vexed 

 him by their whims or frivolous complaints when they came for books, he could be, as 

 some described him, "bearish." As a man of few words, he eschewed "gossip." He 

 compiled more than one Library catalogue without assistance. 



BENEFACTOKS. 



The Institution owes so much to the liberality and 2)ublic spirit of those who are now 

 numbered with the dead, that it may be well to place on record a very brief summary of 

 the most noteworthy donations both to the Library and Museum.-'' 



A list of the donors of 500 volumes to the Library at its foundation is prefixed to the 

 first catalogue, and includes about fifty names, mostly of residents. Among the most 

 important gifts were the Delphin Classics, in 141 Vols., by Col. W. B, Higgins, of Turvcy ; 

 Rees' Cyvlopmlia, 45 vols., by the Duke of Bedford; The Transactions of the Society of 

 Arts, 42 vols., by Mr. Cooj)er ; The Beauties of England and Wales, 26 vols., and The 

 Gentleman'' s Magazine from its commencement to 1832, 102 vols., by Mr. AV. Stuart, of 

 Tempsford Hall ; The Transactions of the Linna>an Society, 16 vols., by Mr. Ludlow ; Fisher's 

 Illustrations of Bedfordshire, and a Latin Bible in MS., by Mr. S. Crawley, M.P. ; II 

 Costume Antico e Moderno, 17 vols., royal 4to., by Mr. T. C. Higgins; Latham's Synopsis 

 of Birds, with the Synopsis Ornithologicus annexed, 10 vols., by Mr. Adams ; Macklin's 

 Bible, 6 vols, fob, by Rev. Thos. Gadsby ; The Acta Eruditorum Lipsiensium, 80 vols., by 

 Dr. Witt ; Tresor de Numismatique et de Glyptique, and the Archccoloyia, 10 vols., by 

 Rev. R. Pearson ; Dante, la Divina Commedia, 3 vols., Francesco Petrarca, 2 vols.. Pope's 

 Worhs, fob, 1717, Pennant's London, and Ileylin's Cosmography, fob, 1682, by Miss C. H. 

 Smyth, of Aspley ; Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, by the Author ; and Dodwell's Cyclopeian 

 Remains in Italy and Greece, 2 vols., by Rev. J. Mendham, of Clophill. This list does 

 not, of course, include a tithe of the books which were placed on the shelves by the 

 liberality of other friends. 



Among the gifts to the Museum, the Secretary, Rev. E. R. Williamson, presented a 

 large number of Geological and Conch ological Specimens, as did also the Curator, Mr. 

 Adams, Mr. Salmon (of Devizes), Capt. Forster, R.N., Capt. Smyth, R.N., Miss Benett (of 

 Norton House, Wiltshire), and Mr. Warneford. The Rev. G. E. Smith, of Chichester, 



* The specimens pertaining to the last-named establishment, little to the credit of the town of 

 Bedford, were dispersed to the four winds in 1868 for the lack of a few pounds to pay the cost of their 

 housing. 



