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the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

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Anon

 

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William Cowper : The Negro's complaint

Complete transcript of Cowper's poem.

Unknown
Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Anon      

  

Edward Lloyd : [various titles published by Lloyd]

Henry Mayhew interviews 'educated' costermongers who read fiction aloud to groups of costermongers in the courts they inhabit; long account of the comments made by illiterate costermongers when cheap serials are read to them, comments on the story lines they like, characters and illustrations; reading of G.W.M. Reynolds's "Mysteries" and Edward Lloyd's penny bloods

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Serial / periodical

  

 : Garden of Heaven

Henry Mayhew's interview with an orphan flower girl and her sister: "'We've always had good health. We can all read'. [Here the three somewhat insisted upon proving to me their proficiency in reading, and having procured a Roman Catholic book, the 'Garden of Heaven', they read very well."

Century:      Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

 : History of England

Henry Mayhew interviews a sweet-stuff maker: "One of the appliances of the sweet-stuff trade which I saw in the room of seller before mentioned was -Acts of Parliament. A pile of these, a foot or more deep, lay on a shelf. They are used to wrap up the rock, etc, sold. The sweet-stuff maker bought his 'paper' of the stationers or at the old bookshops. Sometimes, he said, he got works in this way in sheets which had never been cut, and which he retained to read at his short intervals of leisure, and then used to wrap his goods in. In this way he had read through two Histories of England!"

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book, Serial / periodical, uncut sheets

  

 : 

Henry Mayhew interviews a long-song seller: to sell ballads he not only cries their titles, but also sings the songs he has for sale in print. "I sometimes begin with singing or trying to sing, for I'm no vocalist, the first few words of any song, and them quite loud..."

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Broadsheet, broadside ballads

  

 : 

Henry Mayhew interviews a running patterer -seller of broadsheets mainly dealing with crime and breaking news, sometimes also 'cocks' or fiction. Patterer's seeling techniques include chanting part of text of sheets to potential purchasers to induce sale

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Broadsheet

  

Oliver Goldsmith : Edwin and Angelina

Henry Mayhew interviews a street author or street poet: "I was very fond of reading poems in my youth, as soon as I could read and understand almost. Yes, very likely sir; perhaps it was that put it into my head to write them afterwards... I was very fond of Goldsmith's poetry always. I can repeat 'Edwin and Emma' now. No sir; I never read the 'Vicar of Wakefield'. I found 'Edwin and Emma' in a book called the 'Speaker'. I often thought of it in travelling through some parts of the country." + recites some of his own poetry to Mayhew

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

 : 

Henry Mayhew interviews a 'cheap John': "From selling the printed songs, I imbibed a wish to learn to read, and, with the assistance of an old soldier, I soon acquired sufficient knowledge to make out the names of each song, and shortly afterwards I could study a song and learn the words without anyone helping me."

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Broadsheet, broadside ballads

  

 : 

Henry Mayhew interviews a blind female seller of 'small wares', the conversation turns to her younger son: "My youngest son -he's now fourteen -is asthmatical; but he's such a good lad, so easily satisfied. He likes to read if he can get hold of a penny book, and has time to read it. He's at a paper-stainer's and works on fancy satin paper, which is very obnicious to such a delicate boy"

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book, Broadsheet, Serial / periodical, penny book

  

[n/a] : Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper

Henry Mayhew interviews a street buyer of waste paper: "The only worldly labour I do on a Sunday is to take my family's dinner to the bakehouse, bring it home after chapel, and read Lloyd's Weekly"

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Broadsheet, Newspaper

  

 : Examiner

Henry Mayhew interviews a fancy cabinet-maker "...one elderly and very intelligent man, a first rate artisan in skill, told me he had been so reduced in the world by the underselling of slop masters , that though in his youth he could take in the 'News' and 'Examiner' papers (each he believed 9d at the time, but was not certain), he could afford, and enjoyed, no reading when I saw him last autumn, beyond the book-leaves in which he received his quarter of cheese, his small piece of bacon or fresh meat, or his saveloys; and his wife schemed to go to the shops who 'wrapped up their things from books', in order that he might have something to read after his day's work."

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Broadsheet, Newspaper, Serial / periodical

  

 : Daily News

Henry Mayhew interviews a fancy cabinet-maker "...one elderly and very intelligent man, a first rate artisan in skill, told me he had been so reduced in the world by the underselling of slop masters , that though in his youth he could take in the 'News' and 'Examiner' papers (each he believed 9d at the time, but was not certain), he could afford, and enjoyed, no reading when I saw him last autumn, beyond the book-leaves in which he received his quarter of cheese, his small piece of bacon or fresh meat, or his saveloys; and his wife schemed to go to the shops who 'wrapped up their things from books', in order that he might have something to read after his day's work."

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Broadsheet, Newspaper

  

 : various

Henry Mayhew interviews a fancy cabinet-maker "...one elderly and very intelligent man, a first rate artisan in skill, told me he had been so reduced in the world by the underselling of slop masters , that though in his youth he could take in the 'News' and 'Examiner' papers (each he believed 9d at the time, but was not certain), he could afford, and enjoyed, no reading when I saw him last autumn, beyond the book-leaves in which he received his quarter of cheese, his small piece of bacon or fresh meat, or his saveloys; and his wife schemed to go to the shops who 'wrapped up their things from books', in order that he might have something to read after his day's work."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book, leaves from books used to wrap food purchases

  

 : Family Friend

Henry Mayhew interviews a penny mouse-trap maker (cripple): "My daughter is eighteen and my son eleven; that is my boy, sir; he's reading the Family Friend just now. My boy goes to school every evening, and twice on a Sunday. I am willing that they should find as much pleasure from reading as I have in my illness"

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Serial / periodical

  

John Milton : Paradise Lost

Henry Mayhew interviews a penny mouse-trap maker (cripple): "I found books often lull my pain... I can't afford them no, for I have no wish to incur any extraneous expense, while the weight of the labour lies on my family more than it does on myself. Over and over again, when I have been in acute pain with my thigh, a scientific book, or a work on history, or a volume of travels, would carry my thoughts far away ...I always had love of solid works. For an hour's light reading, I have often turned to a work of imagination, such as Milton's Paradise Lost, and Shakespeare's plays; but I prefer science to poetry... I think it is solely due to my taste for mechanics and my love of reading scientific books that I am able to live so comfortably as I do in my affliction."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

William Shakespeare : 

Henry Mayhew interviews a penny mouse-trap maker (cripple): "I found books often lull my pain... I can't afford them no, for I have no wish to incur any extraneous expense, while the weight of the labour lies on my family more than it does on myself. Over and over again, when I have been in acute pain with my thigh, a scientific book, or a work on history, or a volume of travels, would carry my thoughts far away ...I always had love of solid works. For an hour's light reading, I have often turned to a work of imagination, such as Milton's Paradise Lost, and Shakespeare's plays; but I prefer science to poetry... I think it is solely due to my taste for mechanics and my love of reading scientific books that I am able to live so comfortably as I do in my affliction."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

 : 

Henry Mayhew interviews a penny mouse-trap maker (cripple): "I found books often lull my pain... I can't afford them no, for I have no wish to incur any extraneous expense, while the weight of the labour lies on my family more than it does on myself. Over and over again, when I have been in acute pain with my thigh, a scientific book, or a work on history, or a volume of travels, would carry my thoughts far away ...I always had love of solid works. For an hour's light reading, I have often turned to a work of imagination, such as Milton's Paradise Lost, and Shakespeare's plays; but I prefer science to poetry... I think it is solely due to my taste for mechanics and my love of reading scientific books that I am able to live so comfortably as I do in my affliction."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

 : Gospel

Henry Mayhew interviews a street entertainer -a 'blind reader': "I was not born blind, but lost my sight four years ago, in consequence of an aneurism... At last I thought I might earn a little by reading in the street. The Society for the Indigent Blind gave me the Gospel of St John, after Mr Freer's system, the price being 8s.; and a brother-in-law supplied me with the Gospel of St Luke which cost 9s. ...I first read in public in Mornington Crescent. For the first fortnight or three weeks I took from 2s6d to 2s9d a day... Since the 1st of January I haven't averaged more than 2s6d a week by my street reading and writing... There are now five or six blind men about London who read in the streets. We can read nothing but the Scriptures, as 'blind-printing' -so it's sometimes called -has only been used in the Scriptures."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Watts : 

Henry Mayhew interviews a boy of 16, a vagrant and inmate of a casual ward of a London workhouse: "My father had no books but religious books; they were all of a religious turn, and what people might think dull. But they never made me dull. I read Wesley's and Watt's hymns, and religious magazines of different connexions. I had a natural inclination for the sae, and would like to get to it now. I've read a good deal about it since -Clark's 'Lives of Pirates', 'Tales of Shipwrecks', and other things in penny numbers (Clark's I got out of the library though). I was what people called a deep boy for a book; and am still. Whenever I had a penny, after I got a bellyful of victuals, it went for a book, but I haven't bought many lately. I did buy one yesterday -the 'Family Herald' -one I often read when I can get it. There's good reading in it; it elevates your mind -anybody that has a mind for studying. It has good tales in it... I've read "Windsor Castle" and "The Tower", -they're by the same man. I Liked "Windsor Castle" and all about Henry VIII and Herne and Hunter. It's a book that's connected with history, and that's a good thing. I like adventurous tales."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

John Wesley : 

Henry Mayhew interviews a boy of 16, a vagrant and inmate of a casual ward of a London workhouse: "My father had no books but religious books; they were all of a religious turn, and what people might think dull. But they never made me dull. I read Wesley's and Watt's hymns, and religious magazines of different connexions. I had a natural inclination for the sae, and would like to get to it now. I've read a good deal about it since -Clark's 'Lives of Pirates', 'Tales of Shipwrecks', and other things in penny numbers (Clark's I got out of the library though). I was what people called a deep boy for a book; and am still. Whenever I had a penny, after I got a bellyful of victuals, it went for a book, but I haven't bought many lately. I did buy one yesterday -the 'Family Herald' -one I often read when I can get it. There's good reading in it; it elevates your mind -anybody that has a mind for studying. It has good tales in it... I've read "Windsor Castle" and "The Tower", -they're by the same man. I Liked "Windsor Castle" and all about Henry VIII and Herne and Hunter. It's a book that's connected with history, and that's a good thing. I like adventurous tales."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

 : religious magazines

Henry Mayhew interviews a boy of 16, a vagrant and inmate of a casual ward of a London workhouse: "My father had no books but religious books; they were all of a religious turn, and what people might think dull. But they never made me dull. I read Wesley's and Watt's hymns, and religious magazines of different connexions. I had a natural inclination for the sae, and would like to get to it now. I've read a good deal about it since -Clark's 'Lives of Pirates', 'Tales of Shipwrecks', and other things in penny numbers (Clark's I got out of the library though). I was what people called a deep boy for a book; and am still. Whenever I had a penny, after I got a bellyful of victuals, it went for a book, but I haven't bought many lately. I did buy one yesterday -the 'Family Herald' -one I often read when I can get it. There's good reading in it; it elevates your mind -anybody that has a mind for studying. It has good tales in it... I've read "Windsor Castle" and "The Tower", -they're by the same man. I Liked "Windsor Castle" and all about Henry VIII and Herne and Hunter. It's a book that's connected with history, and that's a good thing. I like adventurous tales."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Serial / periodical

  

Clark : Lives of Pirates

Henry Mayhew interviews a boy of 16, a vagrant and inmate of a casual ward of a London workhouse: "My father had no books but religious books; they were all of a religious turn, and what people might think dull. But they never made me dull. I read Wesley's and Watt's hymns, and religious magazines of different connexions. I had a natural inclination for the sae, and would like to get to it now. I've read a good deal about it since -Clark's 'Lives of Pirates', 'Tales of Shipwrecks', and other things in penny numbers (Clark's I got out of the library though). I was what people called a deep boy for a book; and am still. Whenever I had a penny, after I got a bellyful of victuals, it went for a book, but I haven't bought many lately. I did buy one yesterday -the 'Family Herald' -one I often read when I can get it. There's good reading in it; it elevates your mind -anybody that has a mind for studying. It has good tales in it... I've read "Windsor Castle" and "The Tower", -they're by the same man. I Liked "Windsor Castle" and all about Henry VIII and Herne and Hunter. It's a book that's connected with history, and that's a good thing. I like adventurous tales."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book, Serial / periodical, numbers collected into volume by library?

  

 : Tales of Shipwrecks

Henry Mayhew interviews a boy of 16, a vagrant and inmate of a casual ward of a London workhouse: "My father had no books but religious books; they were all of a religious turn, and what people might think dull. But they never made me dull. I read Wesley's and Watt's hymns, and religious magazines of different connexions. I had a natural inclination for the sae, and would like to get to it now. I've read a good deal about it since -Clark's 'Lives of Pirates', 'Tales of Shipwrecks', and other things in penny numbers (Clark's I got out of the library though). I was what people called a deep boy for a book; and am still. Whenever I had a penny, after I got a bellyful of victuals, it went for a book, but I haven't bought many lately. I did buy one yesterday -the 'Family Herald' -one I often read when I can get it. There's good reading in it; it elevates your mind -anybody that has a mind for studying. It has good tales in it... I've read "Windsor Castle" and "The Tower", -they're by the same man. I Liked "Windsor Castle" and all about Henry VIII and Herne and Hunter. It's a book that's connected with history, and that's a good thing. I like adventurous tales."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Serial / periodical, probably penny numbers

  

 : Family Herald

Henry Mayhew interviews a boy of 16, a vagrant and inmate of a casual ward of a London workhouse: "My father had no books but religious books; they were all of a religious turn, and what people might think dull. But they never made me dull. I read Wesley's and Watt's hymns, and religious magazines of different connexions. I had a natural inclination for the sae, and would like to get to it now. I've read a good deal about it since -Clark's 'Lives of Pirates', 'Tales of Shipwrecks', and other things in penny numbers (Clark's I got out of the library though). I was what people called a deep boy for a book; and am still. Whenever I had a penny, after I got a bellyful of victuals, it went for a book, but I haven't bought many lately. I did buy one yesterday -the 'Family Herald' -one I often read when I can get it. There's good reading in it; it elevates your mind -anybody that has a mind for studying. It has good tales in it... I've read "Windsor Castle" and "The Tower", -they're by the same man. I Liked "Windsor Castle" and all about Henry VIII and Herne and Hunter. It's a book that's connected with history, and that's a good thing. I like adventurous tales."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Serial / periodical

  

William Harrison Ainsworth : Windsor Castle

Henry Mayhew interviews a boy of 16, a vagrant and inmate of a casual ward of a London workhouse: "My father had no books but religious books; they were all of a religious turn, and what people might think dull. But they never made me dull. I read Wesley's and Watt's hymns, and religious magazines of different connexions. I had a natural inclination for the sae, and would like to get to it now. I've read a good deal about it since -Clark's 'Lives of Pirates', 'Tales of Shipwrecks', and other things in penny numbers (Clark's I got out of the library though). I was what people called a deep boy for a book; and am still. Whenever I had a penny, after I got a bellyful of victuals, it went for a book, but I haven't bought many lately. I did buy one yesterday -the 'Family Herald' -one I often read when I can get it. There's good reading in it; it elevates your mind -anybody that has a mind for studying. It has good tales in it... I've read "Windsor Castle" and "The Tower", -they're by the same man. I Liked "Windsor Castle" and all about Henry VIII and Herne and Hunter. It's a book that's connected with history, and that's a good thing. I like adventurous tales."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book, Serial / periodical, unsure if penny numbers or book

  

William Harrison Ainsworth : The Tower of London

Henry Mayhew interviews a boy of 16, a vagrant and inmate of a casual ward of a London workhouse: "My father had no books but religious books; they were all of a religious turn, and what people might think dull. But they never made me dull. I read Wesley's and Watt's hymns, and religious magazines of different connexions. I had a natural inclination for the sae, and would like to get to it now. I've read a good deal about it since -Clark's 'Lives of Pirates', 'Tales of Shipwrecks', and other things in penny numbers (Clark's I got out of the library though). I was what people called a deep boy for a book; and am still. Whenever I had a penny, after I got a bellyful of victuals, it went for a book, but I haven't bought many lately. I did buy one yesterday -the 'Family Herald' -one I often read when I can get it. There's good reading in it; it elevates your mind -anybody that has a mind for studying. It has good tales in it... I've read "Windsor Castle" and "The Tower", -they're by the same man. I Liked "Windsor Castle" and all about Henry VIII and Herne and Hunter. It's a book that's connected with history, and that's a good thing. I like adventurous tales."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book, Serial / periodical, unsure if penny numbers or book

  

 : 

Henry Mayhew interviews a boy of 17, an inmate of a London workhouse: "I thought I should make my fortune in London -I'd heard it was such a grand place. I had read in novels and romances -halfpenny and penny books -about such things, but I've met with nothing of the kind."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book, Serial / periodical, penny books

  

William Harrison Ainsworth : Jack Sheppard

Henry Mayhew interviews a boy of 17, an inmate of a London workhouse: "I've read 'Jack Sheppard' through, in three volumes; and I used to tell stories out of that sometimes."

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

William Harrison Ainsworth : Jack Sheppard

Henry Mayhew interviews a 'London sneak or common thief': "On Sunday evenings the only books read were such as 'Jack Sheppard', 'Dick Turpin' and the 'Newgate Calendar', they got out of the neighbouring libraries by depositing 1s. These were read with much interest; the lodgers would sooner have these than any other books."

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

William Harrison Ainsworth : Rookwood

Henry Mayhew interviews a 'London sneak or common thief': "On Sunday evenings the only books read were such as 'Jack Sheppard', 'Dick Turpin' and the 'Newgate Calendar', they got out of the neighbouring libraries by depositing 1s. These were read with much interest; the lodgers would sooner have these than any other books."

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

 : Newgate Calendar

Henry Mayhew interviews a 'London sneak or common thief': "On Sunday evenings the only books read were such as 'Jack Sheppard', 'Dick Turpin' and the 'Newgate Calendar', they got out of the neighbouring libraries by depositing 1s. These were read with much interest; the lodgers would sooner have these than any other books."

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book, Serial / periodical

  

 : Bible

Henry Mayhew interviews a former London pickpocket, turned patterer; grew up in Shropshire, father a Wesleyan minister: "I went to school to learn to write and cipher, and had before this learned to read at home with my father and mother. We had a very happy home and very strict in the way of religion... My father had family worship every night between 8 and 9 o'clock, when the curtains were drawn over the windows, the candle was lighted, and each of the children was taught to kneel separately at prayer. After reading the Bible, and half an hour's conversation, each one retired to their bed..."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

 : Bible

Henry Mayhew interviews a former London pickpocket, turned patterer; grew up in Shropshire, father a Wesleyan minister: "...We often had ministers to dinner and supper at our house, and always after their meals the conversation would be sure to turn into discussions on the different points of doctrine... At this time I would be sitting there greedily drinking in every word, and as soon as they were gone I would fly to the Bible and examine the different texts of Scripture they had brought forward, and it seemed to produce a feeling in my mind that any religious opinions could be supported by it..."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Thomas Paine : 

Henry Mayhew interviews a former London pickpocket, turned patterer; grew up in Shropshire, father a Wesleyan minister: "...I have read Paine, and Valney, and Holyoake, those infidel writers, and have also read the works of Bulwer, Dickens and numbers of others..."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Volney : 

Henry Mayhew interviews a former London pickpocket, turned patterer; grew up in Shropshire, father a Wesleyan minister: "...I have read Paine, and Valney, and Holyoake, those infidel writers, and have also read the works of Bulwer, Dickens and numbers of others..."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

George Jacob Holyoake : 

Henry Mayhew interviews a former London pickpocket, turned patterer; grew up in Shropshire, father a Wesleyan minister: "...I have read Paine, and Valney, and Holyoake, those infidel writers, and have also read the works of Bulwer, Dickens and numbers of others..."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Edward Bulwer-Lytton : 

Henry Mayhew interviews a former London pickpocket, turned patterer; grew up in Shropshire, father a Wesleyan minister: "...I have read Paine, and Valney, and Holyoake, those infidel writers, and have also read the works of Bulwer, Dickens and numbers of others..."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book, Serial / periodical

  

Charles Dickens : 

Henry Mayhew interviews a former London pickpocket, turned patterer; grew up in Shropshire, father a Wesleyan minister: "...I have read Paine, and Valney, and Holyoake, those infidel writers, and have also read the works of Bulwer, Dickens and numbers of others..."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book, Serial / periodical

  

William Harrison Ainsworth : Jack Sheppard

Henry Mayhew holds meeting with a group of the lowest class of male juvenile thieves and vagabonds; during the meeting they tell him what they have read/ read regularly and Mayhew records this: "Respecting their education, according to the popular meaning of the term, 63 of the 150 were able to read and write, and they were principally thieves. Fifty of this number said they had read 'Jack Sheppard' and the lines of Dick Turpin, Claude du Val, and all the other popular thieves' novels, as well as the Newgate Calendar and Lives of Robbers and Pirates. Those who could not read themselves, said they'd had 'Jack Sheppard' read to them at the lodging houses. Numbers avowed that they had been induced to resort to an abandoned course of life from reading the lives of notorious thieves and novels about highway robbers."

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book, Serial / periodical, either in penny numbers or as volume

  

William Harrison Ainsworth : Rookwood

Henry Mayhew holds meeting with a group of the lowest class of male juvenile thieves and vagabonds; during the meeting they tell him what they have read/ read regularly and Mayhew records this: "Respecting their education, according to the popular meaning of the term, 63 of the 150 were able to read and write, and they were principally thieves. Fifty of this number said they had read 'Jack Sheppard' and the lines of Dick Turpin, Claude du Val, and all the other popular thieves' novels, as well as the Newgate Calendar and Lives of Robbers and Pirates. Those who could not read themselves, said they'd had 'Jack Sheppard' read to them at the lodging houses. Numbers avowed that they had been induced to resort to an abandoned course of life from reading the lives of notorious thieves and novels about highway robbers."

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book, Serial / periodical, either in penny numbers or as volume

  

 : Claude du Val

Henry Mayhew holds meeting with a group of the lowest class of male juvenile thieves and vagabonds; during the meeting they tell him what they have read/ read regularly and Mayhew records this: "Respecting their education, according to the popular meaning of the term, 63 of the 150 were able to read and write, and they were principally thieves. Fifty of this number said they had read 'Jack Sheppard' and the lines of Dick Turpin, Claude du Val, and all the other popular thieves' novels, as well as the Newgate Calendar and Lives of Robbers and Pirates. Those who could not read themselves, said they'd had 'Jack Sheppard' read to them at the lodging houses. Numbers avowed that they had been induced to resort to an abandoned course of life from reading the lives of notorious thieves and novels about highway robbers."

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book, Serial / periodical, either in penny numbers or as volume

  

 : Newgate Calendar

Henry Mayhew holds meeting with a group of the lowest class of male juvenile thieves and vagabonds; during the meeting they tell him what they have read/ read regularly and Mayhew records this: "Respecting their education, according to the popular meaning of the term, 63 of the 150 were able to read and write, and they were principally thieves. Fifty of this number said they had read 'Jack Sheppard' and the lines of Dick Turpin, Claude du Val, and all the other popular thieves' novels, as well as the Newgate Calendar and Lives of Robbers and Pirates. Those who could not read themselves, said they'd had 'Jack Sheppard' read to them at the lodging houses. Numbers avowed that they had been induced to resort to an abandoned course of life from reading the lives of notorious thieves and novels about highway robbers."

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Serial / periodical

  

 : Lives of the Robbers and Pirates

Henry Mayhew holds meeting with a group of the lowest class of male juvenile thieves and vagabonds; during the meeting they tell him what they have read/ read regularly and Mayhew records this: "Respecting their education, according to the popular meaning of the term, 63 of the 150 were able to read and write, and they were principally thieves. Fifty of this number said they had read 'Jack Sheppard' and the lines of Dick Turpin, Claude du Val, and all the other popular thieves' novels, as well as the Newgate Calendar and Lives of Robbers and Pirates. Those who could not read themselves, said they'd had 'Jack Sheppard' read to them at the lodging houses. Numbers avowed that they had been induced to resort to an abandoned course of life from reading the lives of notorious thieves and novels about highway robbers."

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Serial / periodical

  

Henry Brougham : review of Byron, Hours of Idleness

' ... a most violent attack is preparing for me in the the next number of the Edinburgh Review, this I have from the authority of a friend who has seen the proof and manuscript of the Critique ... '

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: proofManuscript: Unknown

  

Peter Cunningham : Lives of the most Eminent Booksellers: Jacob Tonson

[Annotation NOT in Cunningham's hand (unidentified)]: above the sentence 'Jacob Tonson is the first bookseller of any note we can treat of': 'bio. Prin & Shepherd'.

Century:      Reader/Listener/Group: Anon      Manuscript: Pamphlet

  

 : A Proposal

[Annotation NOT in Cunningham's hand (unidentified, but the same as that on MS about Tonson)]: Top LH corner, in pencil, 'Dodsley', underlined.

Century:      Reader/Listener/Group: Anon      Print: Advertisement

  

 : Code of Laws 1648

" ... in Springfield when a printed copy of the code of laws of 1648 arrived in 1649, it was promptly 'published,' that is, read aloud to a gathering of the townspeople."

Century: 1600-1699     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Unknown

  

Charles Dickens : novels

"Alice Foley's father was an often drunk, sometimes violent Irish factory worker in Bolton, but when 'in sober mood, he read aloud to the family the novels of Dickens and George Eliot'."

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

George Eliot : novels

"Alice Foley's father was an often drunk, sometimes violent Irish factory worker in Bolton, but when 'in sober mood, he read aloud to the family the novels of Dickens and George Eliot'."

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Olive Schreiner : The Story of an African Farm

"Mary Brown ... wrote in her Memories that "'I asked a Lancashire working woman what she thought of Story of an African Farm and a strange expression came over her face as she said 'I read parts of it over and over.' 'What parts?' I asked, and her reply was 'About yon poor lass (Lyndall) ... I think there is a hundred of women what feels like that but can't speak it, but she could speak what we feel'."

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

George Eiiot : Adam Bede

Elizabeth Segel, "As the Twig is Bent: Gender and Childhood Reading": "When Lucy Lyttelton's grandmother began reading aloud Adam Bede ... it was 'duly bowdlerized for our young minds,' Lucy reported in her diary. She was eighteen at the time."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Unknown

  

Thomas Babington Macaulay : History of England

" ... a young compositor encounters Macaulay for the first time: "'Bernard Shaw tells me how he could get more intoxication from Mozart and Beethoven than any common mortal could from a bottle of brandy. I was as intoxicated that day far more completely than wine or whisky have ever made me, and intoxicated by literary art, as well as by the pageantry of its historical theme.'"

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Sir Philip Sidney : The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

"According to one contemporary anecdote, when a would-be lover borrowed from the Arcadia to woo a lady, she immediately saw through his deception: she 'was so well versed in his author, as tacitely she traced him to the bottom of a leaf.'"

Unknown
Century: 1600-1699     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      

  

John Milton : Paradise Regain'd/Samson Agonistes

"One of the copies [of Paradise Regain'd ... Samson Agonistes] I examined at the British Library, London (shelfmark C14a12) ... contains handwritten corrections of both the errata and Omissa."

Century: 1600-1699     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

 : The Attempt

"To the Editors of the Attempt, Gentlemen, If I recollect rightly you give notice to the effect, that communication cannot be received after the twentieth of the month..."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Serial / periodical

  

Jonathan Edwards : Dissertation Concerning Liberty and Necessity

" ... an irritated reader of Jonathan Edwards's Dissertation Concerning Liberty and Necessity (1797) provides an epigraph from Milton on the title page, right after the author's name: 'So spoke the Fiend, and with Necessity, / -- excused his dev'lish deeds.'"

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Richard Watson : A Letter to His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury

H. J. Jackson notes, partially reproduces, and discusses lengthy annotations, including mock completion of title and close, argumentative marginal responses to text, made by contemporary reader of copy of Richard Watson, Bishop of Llandaff, A Letter to His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury (1783).

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Unknown

  

William Beckford : Annotations to Robert Southey, A Vision of Judgement

"The [Pierpont] Morgan [Library] copy [of Southey, A Vision of Judgement (1821)] once belonged to Byron. It contains a transcription, in ink, not necessarily made in Byron's lifetime, of Beckford's satirical but defensive annotations to the work."

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Manuscript: annotations in printed text

  

William Mudford : Nubilia in Search of a Husband

H. J. Jackson discusses copious annotations and commentary by unidentified, contemporary male reader in copy of William Mudford, Nubilia in Search of a Husband (1809); annotations include subject headings, and remarks including "'The preceding observations on tuition are, I make no doubt, very just ...'" and "'Let a certain fair reader attend to this passage.'"

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

 : LIfe of Theobald Wolfe Tone, the Founder of the 'United Irishmen'

"An Irish nationalist annotating the autobiographical Life of Theobald Wolfe Tone, the Founder of the 'United Irishmen' (1845) identifies the pseudonymous author of the 'Dedication'' ... but is also moved to register his views about the history of his country ...[ eg 'The Irish Aristocracy always opposed to the independence of Ireland ...']"

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

James Boswell : The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D

"An unknown reader inclined to be sarcastic at Boswell's expense in a British Library copy of the 1829 edition [of the Life of Johnson] ... goes to some pains to record a moment of agreement with Johnson's protest ' [...] What is climate to happiness? Place me in the heart of Asia, should I not be exiled?' This the reader confirms by his own example: '15th Novr on the Nile -- how often have I found this realised' (p.198)."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

James Boswell : The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D

H. J. Jackson notes unknown reader's marginal contradiction of assertion of Samuel Johnson that a dog will be as likely to take a small piece of meat as a large one, when presented wth both, recorded in James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson.

Century:      Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

James Boswell : The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D

H. J. Jackson on readers' responses in annotations to Samuel Johnson's comment that the letter H seldom begins any but the first syllable of a word, recorded by James Boswell in the Life of Samuel Johnson: "A Cambridge University Library copy of the first edition annotated in at least four hands has in the margin at that point a list of words that would appear to refute Johnson's statement: 'Shepherd / Cowherd / Abhor / Behave / Uphold / Exhaust' (1: 166)."

Century:      Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

 : Annotation in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D

H. J. Jackson on readers' responses in annotations to Samuel Johnson's comment that the letter H seldom begins any but the first syllable of a word, recorded by James Boswell in the Life of Samuel Johnson: "A Cambridge University Library copy of the first edition [1791] annotated in at least four hands has in the margin at that point a list of words that would appear to refute Johnson's statement: 'Shepherd / Cowherd / Abhor / Behave / Uphold / Exhaust' (1: 166). Then a note by a later reader remarks, 'N.B. All but one of these are compound words where h begins ye first syllable of ye simple word.'"

Century:      Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Manuscript: annotation in printed text

  

Mrs Henry Sandford : Thomas Poole and His Friends

H. J. Jackson notes "extra illustration" ("prompted by the text") of a copy of Margaret Sandford, Thomas Poole and His Friends (1888), with inserts including letters and "a flower taken from Wordsworth's garden in 1844."

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

 : guide to Salisbury Cathedral

" ... a tourist guide to Salisbury Cathedral, published about 1800 and acquired by the British Library in 1874, contains notes made by an unidentified annotator who supplemented the guide by registering changes in the cathedral since the time of printing, such as 'Both are now (1810) in the Nave,' for instance, adding statements made by authorities who contradict assertions in the text; and providing neat little sketches of architectural details."

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

George Eliot : Middlemarch

H. J. Jackson notes annotations in a copy of Middlemarch by a reader who, "initially repelled by the books, was gradually won over."

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Samuel Saunders : A Short and Easy Introduction to Scientific and Philosophic Botany

H. J. Jackson notes annotations (adding"information and explanations") made to copy of Samuel Saunders, Short and Easy Introduction to Scientific and Physical Botany (1792) by contemporary, possibly female reader.

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

 : The New School of Love

H. J. Jackson notes pencilled parodic completions by unknown (apparently male) reader of verses in The New School of Love, "a tiny Scottish chapbook of the kind sold by itinerant peddlers to the poorest readers ... [a] closely printed little book of just twenty-four pages ... a guide to the arts of courtship, including the significance of marks on different parts of the body and the meaning of dreams ... [and including] model love letters, love songs ... [etc]."

Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Justinian  : The Institutes of Justinian; with English Introduction, Translation, and Notes, by Thomas Collett Sandars

"A Victorian edition of a legal classic, the Institutes of Justinian, shows signs of careful and laborious study, with an elaborate system of marking (underlining ... lines in the margin ... etc); heads for important terms and definitions; corrections to the translation; cross-references to other law books; and occasional comments on matters of history or interpretation. But a little more than halfway through this volume of 599 pages ... comes a personal note: 'Left off work at this pt to row head of the river 12th May 1864!'"

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Giles Widdowes : Lawlesse Kneelesse Schismaticall Puritan

"In 1630 [William] Prynne saracastically claimed [in Lame Giles his Haltings 2-3] that he had 'repaired to the Printing House' to examine the sheets of Giles Widdowes's Lawlesse Kneelesse Schismaticall Puritan as they were being printed. He reported that he had 'found the written Copie' there, 'so mangled, so interlined and razed by Mr Page, and others who perused it before its approbation, that there was scarce one page in all the Coppie, in which there were not severall written Errours, Absurdities and Impertinences quite expunged.'"

Century: 1600-1699     Reader/Listener/Group: anon ("others")      Print: Book, proof copy

  

 : The Bible

"Hugh Leeson [a member of the preacher John Rogers's Dublin congregation in the early 1650s] ... was first 'wrought upon' by his wife, 'whom God made the first Instrument of my good; by her often reading of the Scriptures to me ...'"

Century: 1600-1699     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Isaac Newton : Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica

"[Isaac] Newton had gained international renown following the publication of his Principia in 1679 ... [attaining] something of the status of a demi-god. 'Does he eat and sleep? Is he like other men?' an awed nobleman had asked John Arbuthnot after scanning the work."

Century: 1600-1699     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Harriet Martineau : volume containing "Garveloch" stories

Harriet Martineau, on a response to her series of "Tales", denounced as 'improper' in the Quarterly Review, by a woman lent the 'Garveloch' stories by one of Martineau's friends: 'A few days after, [she] brought back the book, saying [...] it was so harmless that her husband had read it aloud to the young people in the evening [having been offered another] [...] The lady and her husband read the whole series through in this way, and never could find out the "improper book."'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Harriet Martineau : work on Toussaint L'Ouverture

Harriet Martineau, on plans for, and execution of, her work on Toussaint L'Ouverture: 'I went to my confidante, with a sheetful of notes, and a heartful of longings to draw that glorious character [...] But my friend could not see the subject as I did [...] I gave it up; but a few years after, when ill at Tynemouth, I reverted to my scheme and fulfilled it; and my kind adviser, while never liking the subject in an artistic sense, graciously told me that the book had kept her up, over her dressing-room fire, till three in the morning.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Harriet Martineau : Retrospect of Western Travel

'[A friend] one day desired to be allowed to see and criticise the first chapter of my [Harriet Martineau's] "Retrospect of Western Travel." I gave him the MS. at night; and in the morning he produced it, covered with pencil marks.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Manuscript: Unknown

  

Harriet Martineau : articles on Household Education

Harriet Martineau to 'Mr Atkinson', 21 November 1847: 'I saw a sort of scared smile on Mrs. ----'s face the other day, when in talking about education, I said we had yet to see what could be done by a direct appeal to human nature. She, liberal as she is, thinks we have such active bad tendencies [...] that we can do nothing without [...] Help. Yet she, and Mrs. ---- too, devours my Household education papers, as if she had never met with anything true before on that subject.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Unknown

  

Harriet Martineau : Letter

Harriet Martineau on the death of a Town Missionary acquaintance of hers: 'A friend of his at Birmingham wrote to me that he declared himself dying [of consumption] [...] she immediately wrote to suggest to me that a letter from me would gratify him. There was scarcely anything I would rather have done [Martineau having abandoned her Christian faith]: but it was impossible to refuse. I wrote at once [...] There was not a word about the future, or God, or even Christ. It was a letter of sympathy in his benevolent and happy life, and also, of course, in his present weakness. It reached him on the last day of his life. It was read to him. When he a little revived, he asked for it, and read it himself; and then desired his wife to tell all who loved him of "ths last flush on his darkness."'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Manuscript: Letter

  

Auguste Comte : unknown

'On the 8th of May [1851], I [Harriet Martineau] went for a fortnight to stay with some friends, between whom and myself there was cordial affection, though they were Swedenborgians [Martineau had renounced her Christian religion] [...] [The host's wife] came to my writing-table, to beg the loan of the first volume [of Auguste Comte, which Martineau was translating], when I was going out for a walk. When her daughter and I returned from our walk [...] the whole affair was settled. She [...] had decided that Comte knew nothing. I inquired in amazement the grounds for this decision. She had glanced over the first chapter, and could venture to say that she now "knew all about it."'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : A proclamation for observation of the thirtieth day of January as a day of fast and humiliation according to the late act of parliament for that purpose

''This day the parson read a proclamacion at church for the keeping of Wednesday next, the 30th of January, a fast for the murther of the late King.'

Century: 1600-1699     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Handbill

  

[unknown] : [unknown]

The boy is 'discontented ... because I cannot understand that which I reade'. The Devil Magirus 'expounded the places that were difficult', and for this reading expertise the student promises the Devil his soul. He later regrets this, but disappears, presumably carried off by the Devil.

Century: 1600-1699     Reader/Listener/Group: anon [a boy]      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : [letter]

'we had reached a cell in the west wing, to which the first letter was addressed. The women were locked up in their cells during tea-time, and the clerk, placing her mouth close against the door, called the name of the prisoner located within. "Yes, mum", was the answer that came from the cell. "Here's a letter for you", added the clerk, as she stooped down and threw the document under the door. In a moment there was a postive scream of delight from within, followed by a cry of "Oh! how glad I am". Then we could hear the poor creature tear open the sheet, and begin mumbling the contents to herself in half hysteric tones.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Manuscript: Letter

  

[unknown] : [letter]

'In the laundry, the prisoner to whom the letter was given smiled gratefully in the clerk's face, as she thrust it into her bosom. "Can you read it?" inquired the letter-carrier, who seemed almost as delighted as the prisoner herself. "Oh yes, mum, thank you" replied the woman; and she hurried to the other end of the wash-house, to enjoy its contents quietly be herself.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Manuscript: Letter

  

Rev Lewis Tomlinson : Recreations in Astronomy

'We were told that a Bible and Testament were placed at the head of each bed; and we saw one convict reading "Recreations in Astronomy".'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Thomas Pearson : Infidelity; its Aspects, Causes and Agencies

'We found some of the prisoners here engaged in reading, while waiting till the officers returned from their breakfast. One was perusing a treatise on "Infidelity; its Aspects, Causes and Agencies"; another the "Home Friend - a weekly miscellany"; a third, the "Saturday Magazine"; a fourth, the "History of Redemption"; and a fifth, the "Family Quarrel - an humble story".'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Home Friend - a weekly miscellany

'We found some of the prisoners here engaged in reading, while waiting till the officers returned from their breakfast. One was perusing a treatise on "Infidelity; its Aspects, Causes and Agencies"; another the "Home Friend - a weekly miscellany"; a third, the "Saturday Magazine"; a fourth, the "History of Redemption"; and a fifth, the "Family Quarrel - an humble story".'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Serial / periodical

  

[n/a] : Saturday Magazine

'We found some of the prisoners here engaged in reading, while waiting till the officers returned from their breakfast. One was perusing a treatise on "Infidelity; its Aspects, Causes and Agencies"; another the "Home Friend - a weekly miscellany"; a third, the "Saturday Magazine"; a fourth, the "History of Redemption"; and a fifth, the "Family Quarrel - an humble story".'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Serial / periodical

  

Jonathan Edwards [?] : History of Redemption

'We found some of the prisoners here engaged in reading, while waiting till the officers returned from their breakfast. One was perusing a treatise on "Infidelity; its Aspects, Causes and Agencies"; another the "Home Friend - a weekly miscellany"; a third, the "Saturday Magazine"; a fourth, the "History of Redemption"; and a fifth, the "Family Quarrel - an humble story".'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : Family Quarrel - an humble story

'We found some of the prisoners here engaged in reading, while waiting till the officers returned from their breakfast. One was perusing a treatise on "Infidelity; its Aspects, Causes and Agencies"; another the "Home Friend - a weekly miscellany"; a third, the "Saturday Magazine"; a fourth, the "History of Redemption"; and a fifth, the "Family Quarrel - an humble story".'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Unknown

  

[unknown] : [French and German language books]

Recognised among the prisoners a once eminent City merchant, sentenced to transportation for fraud: 'This person, we were told, found special consolation in the study of languages, and on the table of his cell was a high pyramid of books, consisting of French and German exercises, with others of a religious character.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : [unknown]

'In one of the yards we noticed...an old man of eighty, with hair as white as the prison walls themselves, and which was especially striking from the generality of prisoners being mere youths. He no sooner saw us enter, than hastily put on his spectacles, he commenced reading, bending his face down as if to hide it from shame... he had once held a high command in the army. He was there for a nameless offence.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : [unknown]

'A big sailor-looking man with red whiskers growing under his chin, advanced to the hearer's desk. Not a word was spoken as the copy-book was handed in. The prison-tutor pointed in silence to a mistake, the pupil nodded, and, on another signal, began to read aloud what he had written, "Give to every man that asketh, and of him that taketh away thy goods, ask him not again".'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Manuscript: Sheet

  

[unknown] : [unknown]

'Another - a lad with a bandage round his face, and heavy, dingy-coloured eyes - was sent back for having too many blots and errors. This man, when repeating his lessons, stumbled over the sentence "There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth", calling it "genashing" instead.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Manuscript: Sheet

  

[unknown] : [unknown]

'Once the head master had occasion to speak. A lad with ruddy skin, and light hair, had a defect in his speech, and could not pronounce his "r's", so that he read out: "Whatsoever is wight that shall ye weceive". "Do try and pronounce your 'r's' better", said the master, kindly; and there upon there was a shuffling of feet from the other pupils, as if the only method of laughing under the silent system was with the shoes.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Manuscript: Sheet

  

[n/a] : Bible

Schoolroom in the female prison at Tothill Fields: 'The warder, to let us see the acquirements of her scholars, bade one of them read a passage from the Bible, that each held in her hand. The woman, however, made such a bungle of the verse, that the teacher had again to assure us that the reader had learned her letters in the jail.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : [unknown]

'A young man sat in the corner of another cell with his cheek leaning on his hand and his elbow resting on the table. He appeared to be absorbed reading. The labour machine stood beside him, with the handle pointing upwards, as if he were exhausted, and was recruiting his strength, by taking a glance at some book which interested him.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : [lesson: either Bible or school textbook]

Schoolroom for juvenile males at Wandsworth Prison: 'One little pale-faced boy was reading his lesson to his kind-hearted teacher... One boy had copied from a Bible, which lay before him, a verse of the 26th chapter of Proverbs: "As snow in summer, as rain in harvest, so honour is not seemly for a fool!" He was a sharp-eyed lad of fourteen, with a finely formed countenance.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Bible

Schoolroom for juvenile males at Wandsworth Prison: 'One little pale-faced boy was reading his lesson to his kind-hearted teacher... One boy had copied from a Bible, which lay before him, a verse of the 26th chapter of Proverbs: "As snow in summer, as rain in harvest, so honour is not seemly for a fool!" He was a sharp-eyed lad of fourteen, with a finely formed countenance.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : [unknown]

Pictures from the cells at Wandsworth: 'Before leaving, on the third day of our visit, we visited the cell where the little girl was confined, whom we had seen in the punishment cell. She was clad in another prison dress, and was reading a book, and appeared to be quiet and subdued in her manner. She had been subjected to a punishment of bread and water for two days. From her card we found she was under confinement for picking pockets; there was nothing remarkable in her appearance.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : [unknown]

Newgate Prison: Visiting the cells: 'We first went to Gallery B, occupied by penal servitude men. In one cell we saw a pleasant looking, dark-complexioned man of about 30 years of age, sitting with one knee over the other reading a book.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : [manuscripts]

Newgate Prison: Visiting the cells: 'In another cell we saw a respectable looking man in middle life, seated at his table with his head leaning on his hand, and copious manuscripts spread before him. On seeing us approach, he appeared to be a little sensitive. He was dressed in a fine black coat and vest, and light trousers. He was charged with obtaining goods to the enormous amount of ?12,000, and represented himself to be a merchant.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Manuscript: Sheet

  

[unknown] : [unknown]

Horsemonger Lane Gaol - Visiting the cells: 'On looking into another cell, we saw a prisoner sentenced to penal servitude, engaged reading by his table, having just finished his dinner. He was born in Canada, and came to this country with his father in early life, to secure certain property left by an uncle. He was a good looking man, a costermonger, and complained he had been hunted by the police from pillar to post, and driven into misfortune.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Charles Dickens : [works]

'My pal was a typical Cockney recidivist who sold fruit on a coster's barrow between convictions and went crook when sales dwindled to vanishing point... I was attracted to him in the first place by his amazing knowledge of Dickens. He spent every moment of leisure reading Dickens and had, in the course of a dozen or more years in prison, read little else. There was no single scrap of Dickens' work that he hadn't read, not once, or twice, but many times. Mention any character you liked and little B- would give you a verbal picture of him and his setting in the story in which he appeared. More than once at exercise he has walked behind me spouting whole pages dealing with his favourite characters, accompanying his copious quotations with a running commentary on their virtues and failings in a vein so humorous that I have more than once had to fall out to avoid startling the whole exercise by going off into peals of laughter.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book, Serial / periodical

  

[n/a] : Daily Chronicle

'six months later I read the following announcement in the "Daily Chronicle": "Yesterday a smart and well-dressed young man named L. F. H. S. was charged before the Lord Mayor with having stolen postal orders, the property of the Postmaster-General, and was committed for trial at the Old Bailey"'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Newspaper

  

[n/a] : [funeral service]

Monday 26 October 'we are sailing this Morning 9 miles a hour if we go on at that rate we shall soone be ther i Don't care how soon, we get ther A child died today it is a verry serrous thing they sowe the body up in a rug then they get a plank and let the body go down the shool master Reed the furnell sevice'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Homer : Illiad

'The individual...was a fellow-worker of mine for nigh two years in Dartmoor. He had, in his younger days, passed through the workhouse; read the pestilent literature of rascaldom which has educated so many criminal characters in this country; then graduated in the "School", and ultimately became a noted burglar. His reading in prison had been pretty extensive, while his intelligence would have insured him a position in society above that of a labouring man... I could not help looking upon it as a very novel experience, for even this grotesque world, to have to listen to a man who could delight in a literary discussion, quote all the choice parts of Pope's "Illiad", and boast of having read Pascal and Lafontaine in the original, maintain, in sober argument, that "thieving was an honourable pursuit", and that religion, law, patriotism and bodily disease were the real and only enemies of humanity.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Blaise Pascal : [unknown]

'The individual...was a fellow-worker of mine for nigh two years in Dartmoor. He had, in his younger days, passed through the workhouse; read the pestilent literature of rascaldom which has educated so many criminal characters in this country; then graduated in the "School", and ultimately became a noted burglar. His reading in prison had been pretty extensive, while his intelligence would have insured him a position in society above that of a labouring man... I could not help looking upon it as a very novel experience, for even this grotesque world, to have to listen to a man who could delight in a literary discussion, quote all the choice parts of Pope's "Illiad", and boast of having read Pascal and Lafontaine in the original, maintain, in sober argument, that "thieving was an honourable pursuit", and that religion, law, patriotism and bodily disease were the real and only enemies of humanity.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Jean de La Fontaine : [unknown]

'The individual...was a fellow-worker of mine for nigh two years in Dartmoor. He had, in his younger days, passed through the workhouse; read the pestilent literature of rascaldom which has educated so many criminal characters in this country; then graduated in the "School", and ultimately became a noted burglar. His reading in prison had been pretty extensive, while his intelligence would have insured him a position in society above that of a labouring man... I could not help looking upon it as a very novel experience, for even this grotesque world, to have to listen to a man who could delight in a literary discussion, quote all the choice parts of Pope's "Illiad", and boast of having read Pascal and Lafontaine in the original, maintain, in sober argument, that "thieving was an honourable pursuit", and that religion, law, patriotism and bodily disease were the real and only enemies of humanity.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : [pestilent literature of rascaldom]

'The individual...was a fellow-worker of mine for nigh two years in Dartmoor. He had, in his younger days, passed through the workhouse; read the pestilent literature of rascaldom which has educated so many criminal characters in this country; then graduated in the "School", and ultimately became a noted burglar. His reading in prison had been pretty extensive, while his intelligence would have insured him a position in society above that of a labouring man... I could not help looking upon it as a very novel experience, for even this grotesque world, to have to listen to a man who could delight in a literary discussion, quote all the choice parts of Pope's "Illiad", and boast of having read Pascal and Lafontaine in the original, maintain, in sober argument, that "thieving was an honourable pursuit", and that religion, law, patriotism and bodily disease were the real and only enemies of humanity.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book, Serial / periodical

  

[unknown] : [the barren fig tree]

Short way into the voyage, surgeon receives a letter from one of the convicts: 'He then mentions the influence which the perusal since he came on board of some treatise on the "barren fig tree" had produced upon his mind - the insight it had given him into his character, and then alludes to some of the great and precious promises of the gospel; especially to those contained in Matt xi the chapter we had read in our usual course the proceeding evening. He makes also grateful reference to the first chapter of the prophecies of Isaiah.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Bible

Short way into the voyage, surgeon receives a letter from one of the convicts: 'He then mentions the influence which the perusal since he came on board of some treatise on the "barren fig tree" had produced upon his mind - the insight it had given him into his character, and then alludes to some of the great and precious promises of the gospel; especially to those contained in Matt xi the chapter we had read in our usual course the proceeding evening. He makes also grateful reference to the first chapter of the prophecies of Isaiah.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Robert Louis Stevenson : Treasure Island

One day, as Louis was leaving the hotel, he stopped to send a message up to my mother by one of the 'Buttons', as they were called. The only boy present was sitting, deeply engrossed in a book. When Louis spoke to him, he made no answer but went on reading. Impatient, Louis plucked the book out of the boy's hand. It was 'Treasure Island'. Returning it instantly, he said: 'Go right on reading, my little man. Don't let anyone disturb you.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Daniel Defoe : Robinson Crusoe

A friend of mine, a Welsh blacksmith, was twenty-five years old and could neither read nor write, when he heard a chapter of 'Robinson' read aloud in a farm kitchen. Up to that moment he had sat content, huddled in his ignorance, but he left that farm another man. There were day-dreams, it appeared, divine day-dreams, written and printed and bound, and to be bought for money and enjoyed at pleasure. Down he sat that day, painfully learning to read Welsh, and returned to borrow the book. It had been lost, nor could he find another copy but one that was in English. Down he sat once more, learned English, and at length, and with entire delight, read 'Robinson'.

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

William Wordsworth : The Excursion (excerpts)

'This modern fashion [in the study of poetry in schools] of treating noble thoughts, feelings, and principles, set forth in prose or verse, merely as the material for grammatical analysis, appears to my prejudiced mind to be a kind of intellectual vivisection. The life is destroyed in the act of discovering and distinguishing the elements of which its body os composed. A young friend of mine said to me that she had 'done' the story of Margaret, in the Excursion, with notes, for a correspondence class [...] All that she had retained from this 'doing' was, as far as I can gather, nothing but the fact that she had 'done' it. Feeling, admiration, there was none. The poetry had been a lesson to be "got through."'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Petrus de Palude [?] : Sermones thesauri novi de tempore

Marginal notes appear throughout this book, on almost every page. These notes range from comments written in Latin shorthand, underlinings, numbers marking particular passages and sketches of pointing hands. There is an obvious engagement with the text, and certainly evidence of a very intensive reading experience. There appear to be several different hands marking the book, indicating it was read and used by more than one person, as well as different types of ink.

Century: 1500-1599     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Bible

'and so the women and W. Hewer and I walked upon the Downes, where a flock of sheep was, and the most pleasant and innocent sight that ever I saw in my life; we find a shepheard and his little boy reading, far from any houses or sight of people, the Bible to him. So I made the boy read to me, which he did with the forced Tone that children do usually read, that was mighty pretty; and then I did give him something and went to the father and talked with him; and I find he had been a servant in my Cosen Pepy's house, and told me what was become of their old servants.'

Century: 1600-1699     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : New Testament

Report of Inspector of Prisons on Reading Gaol - interviews with prisoners on progress in learning and reading at the gaol: '4370. Has been here 4 times, and is sentenced to seven years' transportation. Knew how to write a little before he came in. Is now learning by heart in the New Testament. "I do not know the meaning of what I repeat." This man repeated five verses perfectly, but when asked the meaning of a simple word, was unable to answer.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : New Testament

Report of Inspector of Prisons on Reading Gaol - interviews with prisoners on progress in learning and reading at the gaol: '4429. Has been here 7 times. "I have learnt all the Galatians through by heart, and am now upon the Ephesians. I cannot say I understand it. I know the Commandments." This man repeated his last lesson perfectly, but was ignorant of the meaning of what he had acquired.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Bible

Report of Inspector of Prisons on Reading Gaol - interviews with prisoners on progress in learning and reading at the gaol: '142. Government prisoner. 7 years' transportation, without work, received from Newgate, July 19th, 1850. No work allowed to prisoners for one month after reception. This prisoner said "I endeavour to understand what I learn, but find difficulty. The marginal references are useful."'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : New Testament

Report of Inspector of Prisons on Reading Gaol - interviews with prisoners on progress in learning and reading at the gaol: '129. Prussian Jew. Attends chapel. "I was asked to learn passages in the New Testament".'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Bible

Report of Inspector of Prisons on Reading Gaol - interviews with prisoners on progress in learning and reading at the gaol: '116. Did not know his letters. Has learnt by heart: began at John, and has now got to the ninth chapter of Romans.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : New Testament

Report of Inspector of Prisons on Reading Gaol - interviews with prisoners on progress in learning and reading at the gaol: 'Committed June 1st, 1849, sentenced to 2 years' imprisonment; coal-heaver by profession; says "I do not understand what I have learnt; I have been all through St John and am now in Matthew.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : New Testament

Report of Inspector of Prisons on Reading Gaol - interviews with prisoners on progress in learning and reading at the gaol: 'Sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment; was in Newbury union; says, "I like this better than the union, the food is better here; there is not much odds in the labour - I pick oakum there, and knit stockings here. I like the stockings best. I have learnt by heart from Matthew to the Romans; I do not understand what I have learnt." This man reads very fluently.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Bible

Extracts from the journal of Joseph Kingsmill: 30 October: Kingsmill visits man convicted for forgery on Austrian Government Bank; 'He had never read a page of Holy Scripture until he entered this prison and was taught to read in the English tongue.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : [unknown]

Extracts from the journal of Joseph Kingsmill: 30 October: 'A very deaf prisoner was allowed a visit today from his friends in the same room. I permitted the visit to take place in my office, and hearing the poor man tell his friends of his great progress in reading, I gave him a book to read for them. They were quite surprised. It was extremely hard, certainly, to teach him; but he was very persevering, and now is enjoying the comfort of it.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : [unknown]

Visit from cell to cell: '2. A vagrant tumbler, and low thief - naturally very shrewd, but from his habits of life, and some bad falls on his head, very odd - approaching to derrangement. He has made great progress in books, and has imbibed religious knowledge almost too rapidly, - he is very exciteable on this subject.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Bible

Visit from cell to cell: '9. A prizefighter. Under a false name he was convicted of highway robbery, innocent, he alleged, of that crime; however, has done bad, and worse, many times. Was, at the time of his apprehension, in a bad house, with thieves and loose characters, spending 5s. he had gotten from a clergyman in Derby, he attending his lecture and making a pitiful tale. He took it all now as a judgement from God, for that and other sins. He had escaped justice in a case of manslaughter - having killed a man in a prizefight and fled. The preaching of God's word seems to have come home to this man's heart. He delights in reading the Holy Scriptures, which he has been taught here to do; and has become gentle, docile and obedient.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : [book on the Protestant martyrs]

Visit from cell to cell: '15. A farm labourer, of good capacity, who, having mastered here the alphabet and the art of reading, had from the library an account of our Protestant martyrs, and being much interested in the subject, asked me several questions in relation to them; one was, whether I knew Master Ridley?'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Bible

Visit from cell to cell: '25. A letter-carrier, for a post-office felony. A man of dissolute and drunken habits; a professed infidel; never read the Bible until he was shut up in this prison. Since his incarceration two of his little children have died. He was very fond of them, with all his faults; and their death seemed to make an impression. He studied Holy Scripture, and professed, at least, belief in revelation.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : [novels]

Causes of their own crime, stated by convicts: '37. I became acquainted with some young fellows who had less regard for Sunday than I had been accustomed to. By degrees, I went once, instead of twice, to chapel; then I got fond of theatres - going, perhaps, once or twice a week; then came public houses, a distaste for religion, novel reading, Sunday newspapers, and an ardent desire to see what is termed "London Life", - that is, scenes of profligacy and vice.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book, Serial / periodical

  

[n/a] : [Sunday newspapers]

Causes of their own crime, stated by convicts: '37. I became acquainted with some young fellows who had less regard for Sunday than I had been accustomed to. Be degrees, I went once, instead of twice, to chapel; then I got fond of theatres - going, perhaps, once or twice a week; then came public houses, a distaste for religion, novel reading, Sunday newspapers, and an ardent desire to see what is termed "London Life", - that is, scenes of profligacy and vice.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Newspaper

  

[unknown] : [novels and romances]

Causes of their own crime, stated by convicts: '41. Low company, a harsh schoolmaster, attending theatres, reading novels, romances, etc.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book, Serial / periodical

  

[n/a] : Bible

'A prisoner on his admission could read but very imperfectly; his Bible he almost had never read before, and indeed knew little or nothing concerning it. At first he made rapid progress in reading, and after a short time he commenced the Scriptures, the great and all-important truths of which took such a hold upon his mind, that in the seculsion of his cell he very soon had read them through twice, and opposite the prophecies of the Old Testament, he had marked with a pencil on the margin of his Bible, which had no references, and without the aid of anyone, the parallel passages of their fulfillment in the New Testament, a list of which we now have before us. They are chiefly from the Psalms, and the prophecies of Isaiah and Zechariah...'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Bible

Accounts of prisoners: 'The writer of the following exercise was entirely ignorant of the contents of the Bible, and could not repeat the Lord's Prayer, when committed, on a second charage of felony. He had been in prison about six months before the date of this.' Examination provided as proof of his intensive reading of the Bible.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Bible

Accounts of prisoners: 'I have never met with a less promising character than the writer of the two following exercises appeared when committed. He had been a most depraved and abandoned profligate; of a temper so violent and savage, that for some time I visited his cell with reluctance ... To such a criminal the seculsion of his cell was a punishment most severely felt, but most corrective...' Examination provided as proof of his intensive reading of the Bible.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Bible

Details of prisoners committed with history of insanity: (presented in tabular form) Reg. no. 87: 'An uncle died insane. Could read perfectly on committal. Learnt portions of the Old Testament, and the whole of the New Testament as far as the Epistle to the Romans. 12 months' imprisonment.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon [87]      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Bible

Details of prisoners committed with history of insanity: (presented in tabular form) Reg. no. 240: 'Sister a lunatic. Most ignorant on committal. Learnt to read and committed to memory three of the Gospels and several chapters of the Old Testament. Imprisoned six months.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon [240]      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Bible

Details of prisoners committed with history of insanity: (presented in tabular form) Reg. no. 264: 'An uncle deranged, and a brother of weak intellect. Could not read on committal. Has learnt to read, and committed to memory the four Gospels, and part of the Acts of the Apostles.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon [264]      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Bible

Details of prisoners committed with history of insanity: (presented in tabular form) Reg. no. 26: 'Brother of No. 264. Could not read on committal. Learnt to read, and could repeat the gospels of St Mark and St John. 6 months in prison.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon [26]      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Bible

Details of prisoners committed with history of insanity: (presented in tabular form) Reg. no. 505: 'An aunt insane. Could not read on committal. Learnt to read, and committed to memory the gospels of St Matthew and St John. 7 months for house breaking.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon [505]      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Bible

Details of prisoners committed with history of insanity: (presented in tabular form) Reg. no. 353: 'Father had been insane. Could read on committal. Learnt several chapters of the New Testament. Term of imprisonment 14 days, [for] misconduct in workhouse.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon [353]      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Bible

Details of prisoners committed with history of insanity: (presented in tabular form) Reg. no. 670: 'An uncle in a lunatic asylum. Could read and write on committal. Can repeat the Gospel of St John. [In prison] since May, 1845, for maliciously wounding his wife.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon [670]      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Bible

Details of prisoners committed with history of insanity: (presented in tabular form) Reg. no. 734: 'Sister a lunatic. Could read and write on committal. Learnt several chapters of the New Testament. [Imprisoned] 1 month for assault.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon [734]      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Bible

Details of prisoners committed with history of insanity: (presented in tabular form) Reg. no. 792: 'Brother died lately in a lunatic asylum. Could read and write on committal. Learnt the Gospel of St John. [In prison] since August 1845, for housebreaking.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon [792]      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Bible

Details of prisoners committed with history of insanity: (presented in tabular form) Reg. no. 839: 'An uncle insane. Could read. Has learnt several chapters of the New Testament. [In prison] since Sept 13 1845, for a felony.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon [839]      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Bible

Details of prisoners committed with history of insanity: (presented in tabular form) Reg. no. 814: 'A sister died in a lunatic asylum. Could read and write on committal. Learnt several chapters of the New Testament. [In prison] 14 days for destroying clothes, etc.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon [814]      Print: Book

  

 : prayers

'The Presbyterian Minister came and read prayers to the prisoners.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Unknown

  

 : prayers

'The Presbyterian Minister read prayers and addressed the Protestants'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

 : prayers

'The Presbyterian Minister read prayers to the prisoners, and afterwards preached a sermon.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

 : prayers and exhortation

'The Catholic Prisoners had prayers and an exhortation read to them during the day.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

 : prayers

'Prayers were read to the Catholic prisoners'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

 : prayers

'The Presbyterian Minister read prayers and delivered an Address to the Protestant prisoners.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

 : prayers

'The Presbyterian Minister read prayers to the prisoners.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

 : prayers

'The presbyterian minister read prayers to the prisoners.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Elizabeth Barrett : An Essay on Mind, with Other Poems

John Ramsay to James Graham-Clarke, 14 October 1826: 'Some time ago I sent a Copy of the little work of your highly-gifted, elegant-minded Niece [Elizabeth Barrett] to a literary character in Edinburgh well known to [Francis] Jeffrey. I did not hear from him till yesterday [...] I shall transcribe parts of his letter to me. '"I perused with much pleasure the Essay on Mind &ca. The whole I consider an excellent production when the age of the Author [20] is taken into account. But I have hesitated to present the book to the Edinr Reviewers [...] The subject "Mind" is greatly too extensive, and instead if being exhausted the different departments of the subject are scarcely noticed [goes on to discuss in great, critical detail]"'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Irving : preface

Angela Bayford to Henrietta Moulton-Barrett, 23 June 1827: 'I am glad Ba [Elizabeth Barrett] is so pleased with Irving's new book; I have not yet been able to read it thro'. as there are so many here who have a prior claim to the first perusal; but Mama has read aloud to me some of the most striking passages in the preface, which have quite delighted me'.

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Percy Bysshe Shelley : Rosalind and Helen, a Modern Eclogue

Robert Browning to William Johnson Fox, ?28 March 1833: 'You must not think me too incroaching, if I make the getting back [of] "Rosalind & Helen" an excuse for calling on you some evening -- the said R. & H has I observe been well thumbed & sedulously marked by an acquaintance of mine, but I have not time to rub out his labour of love.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Philip James Bailey : Festus

Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 9 June 1843: 'A gentleman, a poet, a correspondent, at large intervals, of mine [...] wrote to me, praising [John] Sterling extravagantly. [italics]I[end italics], .. who never cd see much in Sterling, .. was sincere & cold about him in reply, .. & begged the praiser to read Festus, which I was reading at the moment. Well! -- Presently I had another letter. My correspondent was astounded at me! Upon my praise, he had procured Festus, & looked at one or two pages, .. when he was driven back in convulsive fits, by the hot blast of Indecency & Blasphemy emitted from the leaves -- he found it impossible to read such a book!'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Elizabeth Missing Sewell : Katherine Ashton

'Colonel Forbes has not in appearance, position and surroundings the least resemblance to his prototype; yet that the character is in the main true was shown to me strangely by the fact that the gentleman who gave me the idea of it came to me after he had read "Katherine Ashton" and owned that Colonel Forbes resembled himself, though no one else ever suggested the likeness.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon.      Print: Book

  

unknown : unknown

Friday 14 December 1917: 'Today we went to see Philip at Fishmongers Hall [being used as military hospital] [...] a great burly cavalry officer was reading his book in a far corner; unused to reading books, I should think.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Forrest Reid : Following Darkness

E. M. Forster to Forrest Reid, 2 February 1913: 'I sent F[ollowing].D[arkness]. to a woman of another kind [i.e. than Alice Meynell, possibly reviewer of book in the Times Literary Supplement] and have just heard "I am still haunted by it -- it has interested me very much -- it is extraordinarily intimate and has a certain distinction and beauty that attract me [...] together with a certain brutal reality. My impressions are complex and I don't express them well. I do think it quite extraordinarily good."'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

 : evening paper

'In front of the fire, the little plump cook read the evening paper aloud to the housemaid. "'The Queen is now asleep,'" she quoted in sepulchral tones, while I, absorbed with my crayons, reamined busily unaware that so much more than a reign was ending, and that the long age of effulgent prosperity into which I had been born was to break up in thirteen years' time with an explosion which would reverberate through my personal life to the end of my days.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: anon [a cook]      Print: Newspaper

  

Alfred Tennyson : The Charge of the Light Brigade

'The following tribute was received [by Tennyson] from Scutari: '"We had in hospital a man of the Light Brigade, one of the few who survived that fatal mistake, the Balaclava charge [...] This patient had received a kick in the chest from a horse long after the battle of Balaclava, while in barracks at Scutari. He was depressed in spirits, which prevented him from throwing off the disease engendered by the blow. The doctor remarked that he wished the soldier could be roused. Amongst other remedies leeches were prescribed. I tried to enter into a conversation with him, spoke of the charge, but could elicit only monosyllablic replies. A copy of Tennyson's poem having been lent me that morning, I took it out and read it. The man, with kindling eye, at once entered upon a spirited description of the fatal gallop between the guns' mouths to and from that cannon-crowded height. He asked to hear it again, but, as by this time a number of convalescents were gathered around, I slipped out of the ward. The chaplain who had lent me the poem, understanding the enthusiasm with which it had been received, afterwards procured from England a number of copies for distribution. In a few days the invalid requested the doctor to discharge him for duty, being now in health; but whether the cure was effected by the leeches or the poem it is impossible to say."'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Unknown

  

 : texts used in teaching self to read

'At the end of the year [1855] an unknown Nottingham artizan [sic] came to call. My father asked him to dinner and at his request read "Maud." It appears that the poor man had sent his poems beforehand. They had been acknowledged, but had not been returned, and had been forgotten. He was informed that the poems, thus sent, were always looked at, although my father and mother had not time to pass judgement on them. A most pathetic incident of this kind, my father told me, happened to him at Twickenham, when a Waterloo soldier brought twelve large cantos on the battle of Waterloo. The veteran had actually taught himself in his old age to read and write that he might thus commemorate Wellington's great victory. The epic lay for some time under the sofa in my father's study, and was a source of much anxiety to him. How could he go through such a vast poem? One day he mustered up courage and took a portion out. It opened on the head of a canto: "The Angels encamped above the field of Waterloo." On that day, at least, he "read no more." He gave the author, when he called for his manuscript, this criticism: "Though great images loom here and there, your poem could not be published as a whole." The old man answered nothing, wrapt up each of the twelve cantos carefully, placed them in a strong oak case and carried them off. He was asked to come again but he never came.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Unknown

  

Alfred Tennyson : Enoch Arden

'A district visitor was delivering tracts among a large meeting of some poor folk to whom she had lately read part of "Enoch Arden." "Thank you ma'am," one old lady said, "but I'd give all I had for that other beautiful tract which you read t'other day (a sentiment which was echoed by the others), it did me a power of good.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Alfred Tennyson : The Northern Farmer

W. G. Clark, on a reader of Tennyson's 'The Northern Farmer': '[?W. H.] Thompson has been staying at Fryston, where he met a Mr Creyke, a Yorkshireman, with a talent for recitation. This Mr Creyke had been staying at a farmhouse in Holderness, where in the evening the neighbouring farmers used to come and smoke. One evening, he repeated "The Northern Farmer." When it was done, one of them said, "Dang it, that caps owt. Now, sur, is that i' print, because if it be I'll buy t' book, cost what it may?" Creyke said, "The book contains things you mayn't like as well, so I'll write it out for you." 'This he did: the farmer put it in his breast-pocket; and next day when out shooting Creyke saw him from time to time taking it out to read.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Manuscript: Unknown, In hand of 'Mr Creyke.'

  

Alfred Tennyson : The Northern Cobbler

From Tennyson's notes on Demeter and Other Poems: 'A lady tells me that when she read "The Northern Cobbler" at a village entertainment, the drunkard of the village, on her coming to the line, 'An' I loook'd [sic] cock-eyed at my noase an' i sead 'im a-gittin o'fire, 'left the room, saying, "Women knoaws too much now-a-daay."'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Walter Scott : Marmion

Monday, 27 March 1826: 'I answerd two modest requests [for assistance with sons' career advancement] from widow Ladies -- One whom I had already assisted on some law business on the footing of her having visited my mother [...] Another widowed dame whose claim is having read Marmion and the Lady of the Lake besides a promise to read all my other works [...] demands that I shall either pay £200 to get her cub into some place or settle him in a seminary of education [...] I do believe your destitute widow, especially if she hath a charge of children and one or two fit for patronage, is one of the most impudent animals living.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Walter Scott : The Lady of the Lake

Monday, 27 March 1826: 'I answerd two modest requests [for assistance with sons' career advancement] from widow Ladies -- One whom I had already assisted on some law business on the footing of her having visited my mother [...] Another widowed dame whose claim is having read Marmion and the Lady of the Lake besides a promise to read all my other works [...] demands that I shall either pay £200 to get her cub into some place or settle him in a seminary of education [...] I do believe your destitute widow, especially if she hath a charge of children and one or two fit for patronage, is one of the most impudent animals living.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Walter Scott : Life of Napoleon

Thursday, 28 June 1827: 'Visited on invitation a fine old little commodore Trunnion who, in reading a part of Napoleon's history with which he had himself been interested as commanding a flotilla, thought he had detected a mistake, but was luckily mistaken to my great delight.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Aphra Behn : [?]Oroonoko

Quoted from 'one of Sir Walter Scott's works of biography', in chapter entitled 'Oroonoko': '"The editor was acquainted by an old lady of family, who assured him that in her younger days Mrs. Behn's novels were as currently upon the toilette as the works of Miss Edgeworth at present; and described with some humour her own surprise when the book falling into her hands after a long interval of years, and when its contents were quite forgotten, she found it impossible to endure at the age of fourscore what at fifteen she, like all the fashionable world of the time, had perused without an idea of impropriety."'

Century: 1600-1699 / 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Aphra Behn : [?]Oroonoko

Quoted from 'one of Sir Walter Scott's works of biography', in chapter entitled 'Oroonoko': '"The editor was acquainted by an old lady of family, who assured him that in her younger days Mrs. Behn's novels were as currently upon the toilette as the works of Miss Edgeworth at present; and described with some humour her own surprise when the book falling into her hands after a long interval of years, and when its contents were quite forgotten, she found it impossible to endure at the age of fourscore what at fifteen she, like all the fashionable world of the time, had perused without an idea of impropriety."'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

 : 'lines to the earl of Oxford'

Aaron Hill to Samuel Richardson, 13 October 1746, on a past conversation with Alexander Pope on the sublime in poetry: 'I informed him [Pope], that, at reading a new play at Lord Tyrconnel's, there was present a gentleman, distinguished for rank and genius, who [...] repeated those fine lines to the earl of Oxford, printed before Dr Parnell's poems [...] this gentleman had been so generously warmed, in his repeating them, that he was the most undeniable example I had ever seen of all Longinus's effect of the sublime, in its most amiable force of energy! [...] he told us, "He could never read those verses without rapture; for, that sentiments such as those were, appeared to carry more of the god in them than the man, and he was never weary of admiring them!" [goes on to relate how he identified this reader to Pope as the Speaker of the House of Commons]'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Louis-Jean Lévesque de Pouilly : Theorie des sentimens agréables

Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 14 February 1754: 'Did you ever read a little French book called Theorie des Sentimens Agreables? [...] I have some curiosity about it, from hearing a very ingenious and good kind of man say it always made him form resolutions of amendment.'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Thomas Newton : Dissertations on the Prophecies, Which Have Remarkably Been Fulfilled, And Are Being Fulfilled

[Catherine Talbot to Elizabeth Carter, 13 April 1756:] 'I have been running about sadly since I wrote to you last, once at Oxford, twice at Richmond with Lady Grey, who is far from well. How dearly you would love her little girl! just turned of five, has no joy but in books, and of those will not read little idle stories such as were first given to her [...] her knowledge in geography and English history is astonishing; her present book is Dr Newton's Dissertations on the Prophecies, which she has almost by heart, and gives the most connected and rational account of it. With all this she is just such a romp as a child ought to be [...] and bating such little weeds of pride and passion as will shoot up spontaneously in every human soil, an exceeding good little heart.'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

 : report of illness of Archbishop of Canterbury

[Elizabeth Carter to Catherine Talbot, 26 July 1768, following expressions of concern over illness of Talbot's stepfather Thomas Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury:] 'Since I wrote the above, a gentleman called here and mentioned his having read in Sunday night's paper that his Grace was attended by four physicians; I feel greatly alarmed about it: a line to relieve me, pray.'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Newspaper

  

 : 

[Elizabeth Carter to Elizabeth Vesey, 13 November 1769:] 'My sister and all her family are with me at present, among the rest the little prattling boy who breakfasted with you last year, and who is now reading in my room.'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Samuel Richardson : Clarissa

[Thomas Edwards to Samuel Richardson, 31 March 1753:] 'I cannot help mentioning to you, because I know it will give you pleasure, the good fortune that has fallen to one of your pretty disciples in my neighbourhood, who is a great admirer of Clarissa. She is the daughter of a yeoman near me [goes on to tell how the young woman has been married to "a gentleman in possession of a very handsome estate, and who will have a greater"] [...] Her neatness, modesty, and sweetness of temper, often put me in mind of your Pamela in her single state: but when I visited them lately on their marriage, the likeness was extremely striking [...] the same unaffected humility towards those whom she was now raised to a level with, and that sort of awful regard for her benefactor which you so finely paint in that amiable character, were truly exemplified here. The gentleman, like Mr. B., has the majority against him on this occasion; but he is contented rather to be happy than fashionable.'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Elizabeth Gaskell : Life of Charlotte Bronte

[From letter to Clement Shorter from the niece of John Nunn:] 'In 1857 I was staying with Mr Nunn at Thorndon, in Suffolk, of which place he was rector. The good man had never read a novel in his life, and of course had never heard of the famous Bronte books. I was reading Mrs Gaskell's Life [of Charlotte Bronte] with absorbed interest, and one day my uncle said, "I have heard lately a name mentioned with which I was well familiar. What is it all about?" He was told, when he added, "Patrick Bronte [father of Charlotte] was once my greatest friend. Next morning my uncle brought out a thick bundle of letters and said, "These were written by Patrick Bronte. They refer to his spiritual state. I have read them once more, and now I destroy them."'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Print: Book

  

Branwell Bronte : 

Branwell Bronte to Francis H. Grundy, 9 June 1842: 'Mr James Montgomery and another literary gentleman who have lately seen something of my "head work" wish me to turn my attention to literature, and along with that advice, they give me plenty of puff and praise. All very well, but I have little conceit for myself, and great desire for activity.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: anon      Manuscript: Unknown

  

Charlotte Bronte : Jane Eyre

[A former pupil of Cowan Bridge School, Yorkshire (the model for 'Lowood' in Jane Eyre), to Charlotte Bronte's widower, Arthur Bell Nicholls:]


'On first reading Jane Eyre several years ago I recognised immediately the picture there drawn [of the school], and was far from considering it in any way exaggerated. In fact, I thought at the time, and still think the matter rather understated than otherwise [comments further on points of comparison between the real and fictional schools] [...] I had no knowledge of Mrs Nicholls [Bronte] personally, therefore my statement may fairly be considered an impartial one.'

Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Anon      Print: Book

 

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