June 20, 1891. 



OUR COLUMNS. 



23 



A HISTORY OF THE BEDFORD LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTE 



AND GENERAL LIBRARY. 

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



PART II. 



Cf)e T6eriforD0f)ite General libtarp. 



^'HIS Institution, desj^ite the long pre-existence of the Old Library, must be regarded 

 1^' as the fans ct orujo of the present establishment. It was founded in 1830, when 

 Bedford, at that time only a bright little country town, numbering some 7000 

 inhabitants, dependent chiefly on the trade in timber, coals, cereals, &:c., due to its position 

 on a then navigable river, and to a less degree on the manufacture of pillow lace, was 

 gradually becoming known to the outside world through the fame of the Harpur Charity, 

 which has subsequently played such an importaiit part in building up its prosperity. The 

 excellent free education which the Schools, under easy conditions, offered to all residents, 

 was beginning to attract a class of people of somewhat higher mental aims and attain- 

 ments than that who, before the era of railways, usually constituted the bulk of the residents 

 of small provincial towns. I'hese outsiders, or, as they were sometimes un^Dolitely termed, 

 " squatters," found rent and taxes phenomenally low, all the necessaries of life equally 

 moderate, and the cost of a good classical or commercial education absolutely nil. But with 

 all these advantages some of them craved for one thing that was wanting, — a library of 

 books. It is true that a reading room had been inaugurated in 1826 (of which more by- 

 and-bye), but with the exception of the Old Bedford Library in St. Paul's Vestry, doubt- 

 less still enveloped in the dust and cobwebs so picturesquely described by Mr. J. Fisher 

 thirteen years before, there was no large collection of books in the town, and certainly 

 nothing to satisfy the growing need for a good library of modern literature. 



FOUXDATION. 



The initiative step towards the formation of a public Library was taken on December 7, 

 1829, when a Committee, consisting of Dr. Hunt, Capt. Smyth, R.N., Rev. E. L. Lockwood, 

 Rev. E. R. Williamson, Dr. Witt, Dr. Brereton, Sir W. Long, Dr. Moore, and Mr. Thomas, 

 was formed to take preliminary measures " for establishing a General Permanent General 

 Library in the Town and Coimty of Bedford." It was proposed that the Society should con- 

 sist not only of annual subscribers of one guinea, but of " shareholders" often and five guineas 

 respectively, so that a fund might be forthwith raised to purchase a good stock of books 

 for the commencement of the establishment. The shareholders of ten guineas were to be 

 exempt from paying any annual subscription, and those of five guineas were only to pay 

 half-a-guinea. This preliminary movement does not appear to have led to any immediate 

 result, — probaby because most of those associated with it were leading members of the Read- 

 ing Room just mentioned, — an establishment conducted on narrow and exclusive principles; 

 but in the summer of the following year, 1830, a circular was issued by 28 of the leading 

 inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood inviting all intending subscribers to attend a 

 meeting at the Sessions House on July 6th " to consider whether it may not be expedient 

 to commence the Library without further delay, either with compounders, under certain 

 conditions, or wholly with annual subscribers." The results of this and of subsequent 

 meetings on July 8th and 17th were that the "Bedfordshire General Library" was 



