Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/423

 Jottings. 4II MR. WC PLANT writes to the Daily Telegraph from the Parish of St. Leonard, Shoreditch, Public Library, on the much-debated question of novel reading m free libraries, in order to show to what sex the novel readers belong. He says : " I shall esteem it a great privilege if I may be allowed to inform those interested through the medium of your columns, that of the 602 volumes issued of all classes at the Shoreditch Public Libraries on Saturday last, 421 were to males and 181 to females. Of the issues 126, or 30 per cent, to males, and 17 or 10*6 per cent to females, were non-fictional. Query: Would these 126 males and 17 females have troubled themselves or gone to the expense to obtain on that particular day these works of educational value had the Public Libraries Acts not been adopted in this parish ?" ^ WRITING on the same subject, Mr. Frank Pacy, librarian of the St. George s, Hanover Square, Public Libraries, says : "The books contained in the Public Libraries have, as a rule, been judiciously chosen, and do not include in any large number ' sensational and sentimental romances'; and, after a long experience of what the public read, I unhesitatingly assert that the novels of the classic writers (if we except the authors of such calibre as R. D. Blackmore, Thomas Hardy, R. L. Stevenson, Stanley Weyman, and others) are as popular as the novelists of the present day. After reading your article, I at once made a personal examination of the shelves of our lending library, and now give you the result. I found that works of the following authors were in circulation in the proportions indicated : W. Harrison Ainsworth, 23 ; Jane Austen, 3 ; Charlotte Bronte, 4 ; Charles Dickens, 41 ; A. Dumas, 33 ; George Eliot, 15 ; H. Fielding, 4 ; Charles Kingsley, 10 ; Lord Lytton, 38 ; Captain Marryat, 32 ; Sir Walter Scott, 41 ; T. Smollett, 3 ; R. L. Stevenson, 25 ; and W. M. Thackeray, 12." NOBODY ever wrote with better knowledge of Bristol and its interest- ing past than the late Mr, John Taylor, City librarian, and local antiquar- ians will be glad to learn that it is intended to reproduce in an attractive volume some of those valuable contributions relating to Bristol and its vicinity, which Mr. Taylor made from time to time to the Saturday Review. These include " St. Werburgh's Church, Bristol," " Tewkesbury Abbey," "Berkeley Castle," "St. Mary Redcliffe," "Bath Abbey," " William Wyrcestre," and " The Berkeley Manuscripts." An intimate friend of the writer has undertaken a preface to the book with memoir, and Mr. Frank George will superintend the whole work. A photogravure of Mr. Taylor is promised, and the volume is intended to be a memorial of the late librarian, and will be printed in antique style on hand-made paper. It is to be strictly limited to subscribers. Mr. W. Crofton Hemmons, of St. Stephen's Street, is issuing the preliminary circular, and will publish the work. MR. EDWIN ABBEY'S colossal decorative pictures, illustrating the " Quest of the Holy Grail," which he has executed for the new Public Library at Boston, U.S.A., were exhibited in London on January 19th, and were to many a surprising revelation of the artist's power. THE Vatican Library has nearly been despoiled of some of its priceless treasures. Quite lately a man, styling himself Professor Sordi, offered for sale some old miniatures of great value to the Ministry of Public Instruc- tion in Italy, who, on examining them, recognised that the precious miniatures must have been cut out of two fine illuminated parchments in the Vatican, namely, the Omelia di Frate Giacomo of iioo, and