Collections, Research, News and Events at the discover National Library of Scotland

ISSUE 1 SPRING 2006

Setting Scott The Glory of A Friend of in Stone the Garden George Friel Picturing the Plan of The gritty Glasgow ‘Great Unknown’ Drumlanrig unveiled writer revived FingerFinger on on thethe future:future: TaTakingking booksbooks fromfrom shelfshelf toto screenscreen Welcome to the first issue of Discover NLS, our stories spanning 900 years, from rare books and 1 Foreword new quarterly magazine, designed to share the manuscripts smuggled to Scotland from 11th stories of NLS’ great national collections. century Germany to a refreshing insight into one NLS is a world-class research library yet it is of Scotland’s unfairly neglected writers, George still relatively unknown in its own country. A year Friel, who died in 1975. discover ago we conducted a survey that showed that only The relationship between historic houses and twenty per cent of the general Scottish population gardens and our own collections is a key theme of had heard of their National Library. In 2006 this issue. Map Collections Manager, Diana that figure stands at thirty-one per cent. An Webster, profiles a rare copy of an important improvement certainly, but there is still much to be Dumfriesshire estate plan, while we remember done to ensure that people from all walks of life, Hugh Sharp, the man behind one of our most all ages and communities can access and enjoy this prized book collections, during the centenary of wonderful national resource. Discover NLS is one his family home, Hill of Tarvit Mansionhouse. way of spreading the word and is available in And at a time when the future of Abbotsford is print and digital formats. under consideration, we have an interesting article FEATURES Increasingly people use our services online as on the home of Sir Walter Scott. well as by visiting our buildings in Edinburgh. We hope that you will enjoy discovering NLS. In this issue Digital Library Manager, Simon Bains, You can help us to develop the magazine 6 The role of libraries in the digital age and ICT Manager, David Dinham, describe the too - please do send us your views, questions Simon Bains and David Dinham explain why libraries remain crucial in the internet era role of libraries in the digital age. and feedback. NLS currently holds over 13 million items, the majority from the modern era. Our renowned historic collections of manuscripts, maps and rare 10 The glory of the garden Alexandra Miller books are stunning. Features in this issue tell Director of Strategy and Communications Diana Webster unveils a recently purchased plan of an outstanding garden

Contributors in this Issue discover 14 Have rare books and manuscripts, will travel! Gordon Jarvie began his career as an English teacher, then spent over twenty years as a Anette Hagan sends a postcard from a Scots monastery in Bavaria publisher at Oxford University Press, Collins and Longman. He currently works as a Project Manager at Learning and Teaching Scotland. His books include Time's Traverse: Poems 1991-2001, ISSUE 1 SPRING 2006 The Scottish Reciter and the Bloomsbury Grammar Guide. His most recent poetry pamphlet is National Library of Scotland Another Working Monday. See www.scottish-pamphlet-poetry.com for more information. George IV Bridge 16 A friend of George Friel Edinburgh EH1 1EW Gordon Jarvie reflects on his acquaintance with an unsung literary hero Simon Bains is Digital Library Manager, with overall responsibility for leading the Telephone 0131 623 3700 development of NLS' digital and web-based services. He joined NLS in March 2004 Fax 0131 623 3701 from the post of Electronic Information Services Librarian at Edinburgh University Email [email protected] REGULARS Library. He is an active member of various international committees, such as the OCLC 23 Setting Scott in stone Editor-in-Chief: Alexandra Miller 2 NLS News Reference Services Advisory Committee and the Digital Preservation Coalition. Iain Gordon Brown marvels at an illustration capturing the cult of Walter Scott Editor: Julian Stone 9Professional Design: Martin Budd, OneWorld Practice Dr Iain Gordon Brown is Principal Curator in the Manuscripts Collections Division. He is Design, Edinburgh 12 What’s On a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the Society of Antiquaries of London. An Editorial Adviser: Willis Pickard authority on the literature and culture of the age of Walter Scott, he has also written widely Print: Ivanhoe 21 NLS Discovery 26 House for a book-lover on British art and architecture of the period. His book Abbotsford and Sir Walter Scott was Distribution: Bruce Blacklaw We celebrate the life and legacy of a great collector, Hugh Sharp published in 2003. 29 My NLS ISSN: 1 872 116 38 8 We welcome all comments, Dr Anette Hagan is a Curator in the Rare Book Collections Division. Her main questions, editorial submissions and interests are theology, the Scottish Enlightenment, Gaelic and Scots, and modern Scottish subscription enquiries. Please write to us at the address above or and German history. As a curator, she participates in the buying and cataloguing of rare email [email protected] books, organising exhibitions and handling enquiries. She coordinates the Division’s A word on Shelfmarks contributions to the NLS web pages and the digitisation programme. Shelfmarks are references which identify the location of specific collection items Cover (usually a series of numbers and letters e.g. Diana Webster is Manager of the Map Collections Division. She came to the Library 18 Image: MS.1007; 5.144(2); RB.s.788).You can use an years ago because of her passion for maps, and her research interests include early item's shelfmark to search for it in our surveying in Scotland, sea charts, Scots abroad and historical geography. Browsing digital resources online catalogues, to order it up in our on the interactive kiosk reading rooms, and as part of any reference www.nls.uk in our George IV Bridge to that specific NLS copy. building 2 nlsnews 3

Web accessibility plaudits Livingstone letters The Library’s website, www.nls.uk, has reached an important 500 Years of Printing in online Learning resources stage in the development of its accessibility standards.When Scotland 1508–2008 NLS is contributing to an innovative pilot web project to go live audited by expert assessors at the Royal National Institute of the The Library is taking a key role in promoting the publish the medical and scientific letters of David Livingstone, Our partnership with Learning and Teaching Scotland Blind (RNIB), the site comfortably passed 20 out of the 27 anniversary of 500 Years of Scottish Printing, to be the legendary 19th-century explorer, doctor and missionary. (LTS) has come to fruition as NLS digitised collections checkpoints required for See it Right status, the standard for celebrated in 2008. Livingstone Online, a project instigated by the Wellcome went live on the Scottish Schools Digital Network in auditing websites.This is higher than the average 40-50% pass Scottish printing dates back to 4 April 1508, when Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College February. Historical maps, 13th-century manuscript the rate among comparable organisations, and the encouraging news Androw Myllar and Walter Chepman produced the London (UCL) and led by Professor Christopher Lawrence, Murthly Hours and Edinburgh Calotype Club takes the Library a step closer to qualifying for the RNIB's web- earliest known dated output from their Edinburgh press aims to display original copies of Livingstone’s letters photographs are now available online, accompanied by site accessibility award. – The Complaint of the Black Knight,a poem by John alongside transcribed and edited versions. Livingstone was a video and audio commentaries from curators, teachers Senior Web Accessibility Consultant at the RNIB, Henny Lydgate. Digitised versions of Chepman and Myllar’s prolific correspondent and over 2,000 of his letters are and experts. Some of these interpretative clips will also Swan commended the NLS web team. ‘We were impressed with printing can be found on our website at: scattered throughout the world.The largest share of these be made available for podcast, enabling them to be the work that has already gone into making the main area of the www.nls.uk/digitallibrary/chepman. reside in NLS holdings (with 77 recent additions from the downloaded and watched on portable digital media site accessible’, she said. ‘The site is clean, navigable and most The celebration is being planned in collaboration John Murray Archive). Prof. Lawrence and his team have players.The building of the Forth Railway Bridge will important of all, usable for people with disabilities.’ with the Scottish Printing Archival Trust, and other already made several visits to the Library to select material for feature in future snippets, alongside plans to develop a Digital Library Manager, Simon Bains, expressed his delight at interested organisations are being invited to participate. digitisation. Initially, 70 letters from the Wellcome Trust Library long-term literacy resource. Log on to the news, saying: ‘This is clear evidence that NLS is working hard The full gamut of printing activity will be celebrated from will go online at www.livingstoneonline.ucl.ac.uk www.ltscotland.org.uk/scottishhistory/nls to ensure that its web presence is accessible to all. There is still books to newspapers, commercial printing and even to view the clips. room for improvement though, and we'll be doing the work packaging. A wide range of activities is being planned required to apply for an accessibility award from the RNIB.’ including exhibitions, workshops, open days, Letter of David Livingstone to his son, Shortly before we went to press, NLS also received the competitions, publications and a heritage trail. The Thomas Steele Livingstone, 1861. results of a site assessment by the Plain English Campaign (PEC). Library will support the initiative with a major exhibition Dame Muriel Spark PEC describes the NLS site as ‘impressive’, with ‘excellent’ on the history of the book in Scotland and with a web (1918 –2006) content, and made a few recommendations which are mostly feature, showing a digitised version of a publication from We were saddened to hear the news of the death of Dame ‘minor details’. We will now work towards reaching the standards the earliest printing press established in every city or Muriel Spark, who passed away at her home in Tuscany on needed to apply for the Campaign’s Internet Crystal Mark. town throughout Scotland. Thursday 13 April, just before we went to press. Dame Muriel On 30 May 2006, at 12.30, there will be an event was undoubtedly one of the greatest writers of the past at the Library to launch the website century, with more than twenty novels to her name, alongside Libraries protected from www.500yearsofprinting.org which will be used to numerous volumes of short stories, verse and literary ‘terror’ legislation log and coordinate events as they are planned. If you biography. Best-known as the author of The Prime of Miss Jean are interested in attending this event please contact: Brodie,Dame Muriel decided in the 1940s to keep a record of NLS has played a part in protecting libraries and their staff from [email protected] or call 0131 623 3899. her professional and personal activities, beginning a personal potentially far-reaching implications of the Terrorism Bill. The archive that is held at NLS, and is now one of the largest and Bill, introduced in October 2005, originally contained a clause most comprehensive in the world. We plan to celebrate her which made it an offence to hold or provide material that could life and work with a more detailed article in a later issue, but incite customers to commit acts of terrorism. NLS was part of readers can learn more about her in the meantime by a UK-wide consortium of library organisations that succeeded visiting our web feature at www.nls.uk/murielspark in lobbying government to amend the clause. The legislation held serious consequences for NLS and other major libraries - including potential prosecution of staff - considering the practicalities of reviewing the content of entire collections and assessing its impact on individual readers. The study of terrorism could also have been impeded if libraries were forced to be more cautious in our collecting decisions. The government responded to the arguments put forward on our behalf by members of the House of Lords. The Bill was amended to ensure that intent to encourage terrorism would need to be proved before a library or librarian could be prosecuted under the Act. This amendment ensures that our legitimate efforts to provide access to information as freely as The device, or logo, of Androw Myllar, Scotland's first printer. possible can continue unhindered.

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The Archive arrives Life with the John Murray Archive The John Murray Archive, arguably the most important publisher’s Archive to become publicly available for a century, finally arrived at NLS on Ruth Boreham,John Murray Archive 28 March, thanks to generous support from the Project Curator, shares her experiences of Heritage Lottery Fund and the Scottish Executive. delving into its depths at the offices of its A treasure trove of 150,000 items valued at last owners, the seventh-generation Murray £45m, the Archive contains letters, manuscripts and family. correspondence from some of the greatest writers, politicians, scientists and thinkers of the late 18th to the early 20th centuries. Welcoming the arrival, ince I began my role in June 2005, I have National Librarian Martyn Wade said: enjoyed a privileged position in the front row of the acquisition of this Archive. I It is wonderful to welcome the John Murray Archive ‘ have spent much of the past nine months to the National Library. Now we can start the work S shuttling between the Library and Albemarle of making this fantastic resource available to the Street, London, the home of the publishing people of Scotland and further afield. We have great company and the Archive since 1812, and many plans for the Archive, including a permanent more hours among the boxes and ledgers that exhibition, which will open in summer 2007, make up the JMA. I have been meeting old travelling exhibitions and a digitisation programme friends and new acquaintances, reading gossip that will see 15,000 items being made available on and scandal, travelling to far-off places and the internet within four years.’ broadening my mind. My main task has been to JMA Project Curator Ruth Boreham try to understand the Archive a little better - I Now that the Archive is here, the project begins (left) with Patricia Ferguson, say a little better as it is too vast to get a proper in earnest: to raise the philanthropic funds to secure Minister for Culture,Tourism and And then I was taken to see the Archive. Ruth Boreham (left) grip on it in such a short space of time - the its place in Scotland and to promote its riches and Sport, opening the final boxes of the Considering this was a private Archive, it was in with John Murray current working list has 16,500 people Archivist, Ginnie Murray make it available as widely as possible. Archive’s contents. incredibly good condition. Over the months I represented in the Archive! in Albemarle Street. looked at famous names - Byron, Scott, I first met John and Ginnie Murray, and the Livingstone - and not so famous names, making Archive, on the second day of starting this job. discoveries on the way and enjoying just Being shown the drawing room in Albemarle opening up a box and seeing who was inside. Street, which is virtually unchanged since the As this is a largely uncatalogued Archive, each memoirs of Byron were burnt in the fireplace, trip to London was filled with excitement and with the portraits of past authors and generations wonder - who was I going to meet today? The of Murrays on the walls, I got a tremendous sense Nominate a scientist various generations of Murrays became friends of history and atmosphere. If I closed my eyes I with so many of their authors that the letters From everyday objects, like the telephone and most important contribution to the world as we know it? could almost see Walter Scott and Byron aren’t just about publishing and business. Many television, to life-saving advances in medicine, such as The site www.nls.uk/scientist gives a snapshot of ascending the stairs discussing friends, before contain snippets of family news, gossip, letting penicillin and anaesthetics, it is hard to imagine what life the life and work of 24 Scottish scientists from the past. joining other authors such as John Barrow, each other know what was going on in their Isaac Disraeli and George Canning. would be like without the work of pioneering Scottish Log on now to learn more about the 24 candidates and part of the world. While I miss my scientists. It’s not too late to cast your vote for your influence the selection of the final top ten, before the trips to London and being among the favourite Scottish scientist. Who do you think has made the polls close in October. Archive in its original home, the growing stream of enquiries it will doubtless generate will certainly be easier to service, now I can just pop along to the strong room and look at the item in question nls Left: The manuscript of The library has many exciting plans for the Handbook to Scotland, Archive and opportunities for people to revisions for edition three, become acquainted with it. We’ll be exploring believed to be written by some of these, along with the different subject John Murray III, who areas and the figures the Archive comprises in started the popular series Illustrations: Courtesy of Frank Boyle forthcoming issues. of travel guides.

www.nls.uk discovernls issue 1 2006 6 nlsfeature 7 The role of libraries in the digital age Simon Bains and David Dinham offer some thoughts on the It would be extremely over-simplistic to 3. Offline or deep web concept of the ‘digital library’ and the importance of libraries suggest that, in the face of new information It is easy to be deluded into thinking that and their imperatives in the ‘Amazoogle’ age. In the first in an delivery channels, the library is doomed to ‘everything’s online these days’, especially after on-going series of articles exploring the many facets of digital inevitable decline and extinction. In fact, the the aforementioned search which resulted in library provision, we also look ahead to the challenges of the opposite appears to be happening, as the major hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of results. players in the IT and internet industries actively future and suggest how NLS will respond to them. However, huge amounts of information remain engage with libraries to deliver benefits to both only in ‘analogue’ form, and much digital parties. Recent announcements about information, for reasons of copyright and cost, is Computer resources n 2004, a well-publicised report predicted the partnerships between Google, Yahoo and hidden from search engine ‘crawlers’, and thus on the mezzanine floor disappearance of British public libraries within Microsoft and major research libraries to digitise of our General Reading invisible to internet searchers, in the depths of fifteen years.1 Various reasons were cited, but Room. their collections have received widespread media what is known as the ‘deep web’. Libraries of all I interestingly not the, by now obvious, cliché coverage, and whilst the reaction has not always types maintain subscriptions to these sorts of that libraries would be rendered redundant by the been positive (with concerns ranging from resources and offer access to their users, who advent of the internet, the world wide web, and ‘Anglo-Saxon’ bias to copyright infringements), would not otherwise be able to use them. And, the information revolution heralded by the arrival it is worth noting that the new players in the of course, libraries like NLS have printed of firms such as Google, Amazon and eBay. information industry are now forming materials some of which may never be available Indeed, it recognised the need for libraries to partnerships with the old. in digital form at all. provide books and technology. It also noted the What do libraries bring to the digital apparent belief that the public no longer wanted 4. Information literacy and interpretation information world? libraries for books and reading, with information Research has shown that the majority of internet technology taking the place of traditional book This is not an exhaustive list, but it highlights searches are very, very simple; one word, maybe collections. In fact, as long ago as 1992 (which is some important issues, and offers a context within two (usually in the form of a name), with positively prehistoric in internet terms) an article which the National Library of Scotland finds itself instances of more sophisticated searching being argued: in relation to them: far rarer. Search engines can reference millions of 1. Research quality web pages, but how do you interpret the ‘Who needs libraries now that the information brought back? Librarians, equipped Anyone who has searched on Google (the world’s information is accessible with the skills, tools and resources, can assist number of people who have is estimated at tens of their users in making more effective use of the through computer networks? Soon millions, in the UK alone) knows the frustration of internet, or can advise of alternatives when it is only historians may be interested receiving several hundred thousand ‘hits’, but no inappropriate. They also offer reference services 2 obvious indication that one of them is the right in these shrines to learning’ and act on behalf of their users to locate one. Search engine technologies are constantly materials. That we are experiencing an information improving of course, and it is easier than it was to Information literacy is a specialist skill-set revolution driven by technological change is locate the relevant information, but Google-type that all good librarians should and could offer, incontestable. Search technologies, of which services remain the domain of the quick fix, and requiring observance of a number of crucial Google remains dominant, offer information on are far less likely to be valuable for sophisticated steps. It entails identification of information any subject almost instantly (particularly for the and in-depth research enquiries. By contrast, needs, devising a search strategy, locating rapidly expanding base of broadband users in the libraries have centuries of experience in selecting, appropriate sources, using those sources to UK, although admittedly coverage in Scotland lags cataloguing, classifying and organising retrieve relevant results, whilst minimising ‘noise’ behind the rest of the UK). For those products information to aid highly effective retrieval. which cannot simply be converted into digital (irrelevant material). Next there is the need to form and distributed over a network connection, 2.Trust evaluate the results against criteria such as the internet has introduced the ability to shop, day Assuming that you locate a relevant reference currency, authority, relevance, bias and accuracy or night, without leaving your home, for from an internet search, a second skill must be and finally, to synthesise the information, everything from books to groceries (and even to brought to bear: evaluation. Is the information manage and disseminate it, and cite references easily check your bank balance beforehand, to accurate, objective, current, and provided by an correctly. ensure you can afford to do so). The phrase authoritative source? Library collections offer a There has been plenty of research which ‘amazoogle’ has been coined to represent the higher likelihood of quality, and are supported suggests that even the most able academic powerful attraction of the Amazon/Google/eBay by librarians if there is any doubt regarding struggles with some of these concepts, let alone phenomenon.3 provenance. the casual Google user. 4

www.nls.uk discovernls issue 1 2006 8 nlsfeature nlsprofessional practice 9

5. Preservation not miss out on the opportunities offered by the In 2005, NLS published information revolution. Another access issue is a three year Digital Many internet searchers will have also Library Strategic Plan.7 Visionary Scottish research bank takes shape experienced the frustration of discovering that the how people reach the information that is not yet In this plan, we commit result that looked most useful has, in fact, available online, or is restricted in some way. to developing disappeared without trace. Efforts are now being Libraries use expertise, funds and traditional collections, services and made across the world to successfully archive collections to avoid the ‘if it’s not on Google, it technologies to address As SCURL Service Development Manager, doesn’t exist’ quandary. Now, libraries and all of the issues websites, especially those that have particular described above. We Jill Evans coordinates NLS’ liaison with the technology organisations are beginning to work cultural or historical significance. Digital objects expect to transform wider professional research community. She generally are subject to loss and degradation, together to ensure more and more content is our ‘digital library’ from outlines one of the many innovative research just the same as printed material, the crucial digitised, and becomes available to search engine a set of digitised difference being that you cannot get away with users. NLS already offers a ‘digital library’ on its resources into an projects that the Library contributes to. online service which hoping for the best (a concept known as ‘benign website, which is a modest collection of digitised rivals the physical items drawn from our own collections. We neglect’). Clearly that is an inadvisable strategy in library in its scope and the print world, but, with luck, acid-free paper continue to build this collection, and expect to content. ‘Institutional repositories’ are a new and accelerate the process. Recognising that search developing concept, designed to ensure that and good weather conditions, a book might still In the next issue we research produced in the digital age is preserved be on a shelf, and legible, a hundred years after it engines have become the starting point for many will take a detailed look was placed there. A digital object, conversely, will information searches, we ensure these materials at the issue of digital and made as widely accessible as possible. not necessarily still be accessible. For numerous can be found via tools such as Google nls preservation, and the Repositories allow researchers in any institution reasons, digital files become inaccessible very role NLS intends to to submit their (electronic) work to a central Discover more play in ensuring quickly unless actively managed and preserved. information management system, knowing Screenshot from an Scotland’s digital • Reading it immediately in a paper format that it will be preserved and made accessible early mock-up of the The classic example is the laserdisc version of the cultural heritage is • Accessing it as a keyword subject search using IRIScotland portal, which Domesday Book produced in 1986. Whilst the 1Coates,Tim (2004).Who’s in charge? Responsibility for the safeguarded in the same to anyone. the terms ‘IRIScotland’ on the NLS website is currently in original is still readable 900 years later, the digital public library service. Laser Foundation. Available at: way, and with the same NLS is a leading partner in the new project, www.libriforums.org/whosincharge when the content of the magazine is development at the version is already obsolete, and new projects have degree of care, as Institutional Repository Infrastructure for Centre for Digital Library 2 traditional artefacts. ‘converted’ to an electronic format and thus had to be created to rescue the data.5 Libraries are Holderness, Mike (1992).Time to shelve the library? Scotland (IRIScotland). This will provide a Research (CDLR), New Scientist issue 1850. We will also look at platform for Scotland’s research output to be immediately searchable and accessible world University of Strathclyde. at the forefront of recognising the significance, how NLS is responding 3 wide at www.nls.uk scale and complexity of this problem, and taking Dempsy, Lorcan (2005).The sound of words: Amazoogle to these challenges in organised, preserved, shared and made freely steps to address it before it’s too late. and Googlezon. Lorcan Dempsey’s weblog. practical terms, accessible. A key feature of this (and other) Retrieving it by searching for the author’s http://orweblog.oclc.org/archives/000562.html • including the repositories is inter-operability with other ICT name and/or keywords when hosted on a 6. Access 4 A Digital Dark Age? CBS News, 2003. introduction of smart systems, so that scholarly material can easily be repository Information is available via search engines to www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/21/tech/main537308.shtml card Readers’ Tickets. submitted to and extracted from the repository IRIScotland was launched in September 2005 anyone with a PC and an internet connection. 5Darlington, Jeffrey et al (2003). Domesday redux. by the widest possible range of people from the as a two-year project led by Edinburgh University However, libraries offer a valuable resource to Ariadne, issue 36. www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue36/tna/ local to international level. The investment in on behalf of the Scottish Confederation of those on the wrong side of the digital divide. 6www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk developing IRIScotland also provides valuable University and Research Libraries (SCURL). Initiatives such as The People’s Network6 are vital 7www.nls.uk/professional/policy/docs/nls_digital_library_strategy.pdf insights in how best to manage digital Funded by the UK research support body Joint if we are to ensure that the disadvantaged do publications in the longer term. Information Systems Committee (JISC), the The project will especially benefit Scottish repository is due to go live as a prototype later researchers in smaller universities and research in 2006. bodies, which do not have a ‘local’ repository of Repositories are part of the growing movement their own. Access to the repository will be by researchers and information professionals to available to everyone, whether or not they are ensure that the products of research (in any field, attached to an educational institution, from science and technology to arts and social providing great benefits for independent sciences) are stored securely and made as easy researchers as well as academics and students. as possible to find by other researchers. The It will be possible to search the repository by role of research libraries is crucial not only in keyword, subject or author while contributions supporting moves to widen access to to the repository will initially be managed information, but also in providing through the participating research organisations. leadership to repositories which bring new A practical example is that you are opportunities for the sharing and exploitation probably now reading this article in the first of knowledge paper issue of the National Library of Scotland’s nls magazine, Discover NLS, (the article was written on the remote Fair Isle.) The content of the magazine could soon be accessed by a number Illustration: Pawel Pych of different routes:

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Diana Webster, Map Collections Manager, After 1747, new improvements hunts down a rare 18th-century plan of a largely ceased, and the gardens historic estate, believed to be the only remained more or less in the copy in a public collection in Scotland. form shown on John Rocque’s plan until the succession of the Fourth Duke in 1778. Sadly, he was more interested in horse- racing, neglecting the gardens and grounds. He cut down many of the trees, especially during the Napoleonic Wars. The Glory ofof the the Garden Garden A verse provides a trenchant commentary on this destruction. Cascade ‘The worm that knaw’d my Drumlanrig The date of the cascade’s construction is not known but it was established before 1732. Although a ’caskade’ is bonnie trees That reptile recorded in the late 17th century, this may have been an wears a ducal crown!’ original natural feature. The 18th-century cascade was a remarkable construction, supplied by a two-mile long By the time the garden was regenerated in aqueduct from the Marr Burn. It had considerable the 19th century fashion had changed and the problems and could be used only for a few months in present extensive grounds, part of the Buccleuch the summer, to avoid flooding. The aqueduct can still be estates, owe more to this informal later period, traced in the woodland today. although the layout of the formal garden plots, 1739 beside the house, remains. The parterres and woodland are again well managed today. John (or Jean) Rocque and his brother rumlanrig is an outstanding garden Bartholomew were French Huguenot immigrants and landscape of national in the early 18th century. Initially John and importance surrounding Drumlanrig Bartholomew, a landscape gardener, worked DCastle, 17 miles north of Dumfries. This glorious together, but by the time this plan was published plan of Drumlanrig was published in 1739, in John was well established in London as a volume 4 of Vitruvius Britannicus, a collection of surveyor and mapmaker. His nephew, also architectural views and plans, and was recently Bartholomew, was the engraver, and the drafting John Rocque (d. 1762) spotted and purchased from an American Development continued under James Douglas, These include: the general boundaries of style reflects their French origins nls dealer’s website. The gardens have absorbed Second Duke (1662-1711), also a notable Inscription reads: present-day woodland planting, Druid Loch numerous stylistic influences over the centuries Scottish political figure, who was highly A plan of ye garden (subsequently modified), various man-made early plantation of Drumlangrig but retain many elements of their 17th-18th influential during the Union of Parliaments in 18th-century viewpoints and eminences (now [sic] in Scotland, the seat century grandeur. 1707. He enlarged the 17th-century terraces, Sources of his Grace the Duke of sites of two surviving 19th-century heather huts), 1 In the period after the Civil War, William formed new parterres, and opened up vistas, by Queensburry.To the most several vistas and rides and other features. Drumlanrig Castle Gardens: historical development Douglas, First Duke of Queensberry (1637-1695), lowering the walls, and cutting vast rides noble Prince Charles Further research is still required. research report; commissioned by the Earl of Dalkeith rose to high office as a politician, privy through the plantations. His scheme also Duke of Queensburry & and The Buccleuch Heritage Trust; produced by councillor, Justice-General, and High Treasurer, included a dramatic cascade and fountains, and Dover &c. this plan is Fiona M. Jamieson, July 1997. xiii, 202 p. We are grateful most humbly inscribed rebuilding national and family fortunes. He built statues in stone and lead. to Fiona Jamieson for making this unpublished report by his Graces most available. a palatial mansion at Drumlanrig (near Thornhill, The Third Duke, Charles Douglas humble servant in Dumfriesshire), largely completed by 1689, (1698-1778), made further changes, lowering J. Rocque. Scale (1:3,200). Discover more with gardens in the formal French style, but more walls, replacing them with sloping banks, (London:T Badeslade, 1739). also influenced by Dutch fashion following the and creating a canal and bowling green. This ‘John Rocque d.1762’, in Map Forum.com, 1(5). accession of William and Mary of Orange. He plan, by John Rocque, published in 1739, reflects www.mapforum.com/05/may may also have absorbed ideas from the Low the garden and landscape midway through the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Countries during his exile in Antwerp at the Third Duke’s improvements, by which time the www.oxforddnb.com time of the Commonwealth. The formal terraced elaborate parterres had become grass in response gardens were enclosed by high stone walls to the evolving, more natural landscape style. This plan can be consulted at the Map Library at and the six garden pavilions, some shown on According to a recent unpublished report on the Salisbury Place, on production of identification, this plan, were probably constructed around history of the gardens, a number of elements of Drumlanrig required for all pre-1850 material. this time. Rocque’s survey plan still survive. Shelfmark: EMS.s.789

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Displays in the barrel vaults, just past the security area in the the entrance hall of our George IV Bridge building, offer a May June New Scots NEWSCOTS snapshot of the breadth and depth of Library collections. Until 22 May 2006 Look out for the following in the coming months: Celebrate the New Scots The Return to Darien Scottish and Asian communities and cultures converge in 10 May 2006 at 7pm The Road to 1707 Series this celebration of modern-day multi-culturalism. Scottish and Asian cultures combine for an evening of 7 June 2006 at 7pm Photographs by Herman Rodrigues are complemented by May photography, poetry, music and dance, with Herman Rodrigues, In August 2005 Nat Edwards represented NLS on an printed material from the Library’s own collections, Bashabi Fraser and Bani and Indrani Bhattacharya. expedition to Darien, on the north coast of Panama to received by legal deposit. Hugh Sharp accompany historical documents associated with New Scots Family Day Scotland’s brief, tragic and remarkable dalliance with Birds of a Feather: Audubon’s Highlights of the Hugh Sharp 13 May 2006 at 2-4pm colonialism. The trip, organised jointly with the National Adventures in Edinburgh collection, ranging from Archives of Scotland, was made to escort letters written treasures such as his splendid Family activities in celebration of multi-cultural Scotland, from 4 July – 15 October 2006 by Darien colonist Gorge Douglas in 1699 for loan to an copy of the first complete Indian Tabla drumming to Japanese Calligraphy. As one of the world’s greatest wildlife artists, John James exhibition on the Darien settlement at the Museo del edition of Chaucer's Works Audubon is forever linked to the National Audubon Canal Interoceanico de Panama (the Interoceanic Canal (1532) to signed modern first Society, an environmental organisation in the USA Museum in Panama). editions. Besides these dedicated to the conservation of birds and other wildlife. book lover's delights, there will be material highlighting The role Scotland played in shaping his work and sealing Hugh Sharp's personal interests: mountaineering, golf, his reputation is perhaps less well known and forms the nonsense verse and early and contemporary basis of our summer exhibition.The production of his Americana. most famous book, Birds of America, began in Edinburgh, aided by the city's leading June lights in science and literature. The exhibition Keep It Clean charts the relationships Material on the subject of sanitation, from our among this circle of brilliant collections of Official Publications. Keep It Clean will men, offers a glimpse of how bring together materials from domestic and foreign The Darien affair was one of the key events that shaped his magnificent books were collections on all matters malodorous, from the Photographs by Herman Rodrigues, featured in Scotland's Union with England in 1707. Nat Edwards’ talk made and showcases plates the New Scots exhibition everyday stenches of Victorian Britain to waste will explore Scotland’s ill-fated Central American colonial from Birds of America, one of disposal policy in colonial Bombay. There will be a The Witch Hunt in the Lothians adventure, share some of his experiences of the area as it the world’s most valuable particular focus on material from the impressive 17 May 2006 at 7pm is today and throw new light on its fascinating Scottish books, alongside a complete India Papers collection. connection. The talk is part of our short series of events volume on display. Writer Roy Pugh on the terrifying history of witchcraft, from examining the Act of Union:The Road to 1707. early times to the Reformation. July Right: Hugh Sharp and Hill of Tarvit Journey into Africa: Keith Johnston An engraving of passenger Sanskrit Cartographer and Explorer pigeons (now extinct) from 24 May 2006 at 7pm Audubon’s Birds of America. A selection from the 14 June 2006 at 7pm Library's Sanskrit collections, Dr Murray Simpson outlines the collection of book-lover Author James McCarthy discusses the life and travels of displayed to coincide with Hugh Sharp, while the National Trust’s Ian Gow discusses the All events and exhibitions are free and open to anyone. African explorer Keith Johnston and his attempt to trace the 13th World Sanskrit Sharp family home, the Hill of Tarvit Mansionhouse. Space at events are often limited. Please phone the Johnston’s grave. Conference, held in Events Line in advance to book a place on 0131 623 3845. Edinburgh from 10-14 July. Tw entieth-Century Scottish Poetry A number of Sanskrit Exhibitions are open: 28 June 2006 at 7pm Monday – Saturday 10am – 5pm manuscripts will be featured, Prominent poets discuss their work and read from the Sunday 2pm – 5pm mostly collected by the Edinburgh Book of Twentieth-Century Scottish Poetry. We also run a programme of free events, workshops Advocates Library from Scots who were in India in and educational activities for schools, colleges and the 18th century. Also included will be works on Women in the John Murray Archive community groups. Please contact Laura Murphy, Sanskrit from the India Papers collection and early 13 July 2006 at 7pm Education and Outreach Officer on 0131 623 3841 works on Sanskrit language and literature, as well as or [email protected] Ruth Boreham profiles 19th-century explorer Isabella current works from the Library's general collections. All activities are held in our George IV Bridge building Bird and mathematician Mary Somerville, among other unless otherwise stated. heroines of the Archive.

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Dr Anette Hagan, Rare Books Curator, reports back on a trip to a medieval monastery in written for the most part in Regensburg c.1080 by the exhibition took place in the freezing cold Bavaria to accompany precious items loaned for an exhibition celebrating Gaelic culture. Marianus, who had been the founder of the Scots Scots Monastery itself. It was conducted by two Monastery. The Codex Marianus, as the bishops, Gerhard Ludwig Müller of Regensburg Regensburgers lovingly called it, took pride of and Peter Moran of Aberdeen, as well as place in the treasury room of the exhibition. In Archbishop Mario Conti of Glasgow, and lasted fact, I even saw the director of the diocesan for an hour and a half. archives and library, Monsignor Doctor Mai, bow The remainder of our stay at Regensburg in reverence to it! Four printed books were also was spent visiting the diocesan archives and Have rare books selected for their provenance: they all have library, which still holds the rest of the 20,000 handwritten inscriptions marking them as volumes Dom Anselm Robertson could not fit coming from the library of ‘Monasterij S.Jacobi into his cart, the diocesan museum with the Scotorum Ratisbonae’. cathedral treasure, and the private library of the Gordon and I set off with our valuable load Prince of Thurn and Taxis, which houses around and manuscripts, packed safely into two large, black cases, which we 1,500 books printed before 1501. A reception never let out of our sight, apart from their spell in was held in the town hall with the Lord Mayor the overhead lockers. After a rather tiring journey (admittedly in honour of the Scottish bishops from Edinburgh via Frankfurt to Munich we were rather than us!) and there was a farewell dinner will travel! picked up by Dr Reidel, the very amiable director at the former bishop’s palace, which is now a of the diocesan museum, and driven at 100 miles chic restaurant. Here the Regensburg curators an hour to the priests’ seminary in Regensburg. We told the story of Dom Anselm Robertson and his lodged in the guest wing in great comfort and were horse-drawn cart; impressed by the breadth of wonderfully looked after by the seminary’s local historical knowledge they displayed, hen a rebellious monk stowed valuable tomes as it could carry and smuggled principal, Mr Dachauer. Archbishop Mario Conti mischievously said: away with priceless volumes from a them out of Germany, depositing them with the The next morning we put our loans in the Scots monastery in Regensburg in Lovat family in Scotland. When St. Benedict’s display cases in the treasury, with Gordon ‘I bet they even know the 1860, he could have scarcely guessed Abbey was founded on the shores of Loch Ness making sure not only that they were installed name of that horse!’ W safely and in adequate environmental conditions, that custodians of our national collections would in 1876, the volumes from Regensburg were make it a round-trip, more than 150 years later. added to the new Abbey’s library. After its but also strapped properly onto cradles made The exhibition attracted well over 5000 visitors. Our especially for them. The Pontifical Mass to open exhibits are now safely back on the shelves of the November 2005, Regensburg, Germany: the dissolution in 1999, the National Library National Library. exhibition ‘Scoti Peregrini in St James: 800 Years purchased 13 manuscripts and 759 printed of Irish-Scottish Culture in Regensburg’ is to be volumes from the Fort Augustus library, opened with a Pontifical Mass in the Scots including all the books known to have been Monastery. This was as much as I knew before carried on that cart from Regensburg. conservator Gordon Yeoman and I set off with A delegation from the diocese of Regensburg The full Regensburg one of the National Library’s oldest manuscripts came to NLS in summer 2005 to select exhibits congregation, with and some rare books to loan to this exhibition. from this Fort Augustus Collection. They chose a Anette Hagan fourth Why would the Regensburgers want volume of texts on the early church fathers from left. to borrow exhibits from the National Library?

In 1074 the Benedictine monk Marianus founded Bishop Gerhard Muller the Scottish Abbey of St. James at Ratisbon, the of Regensburg, Scots Monastery in Regensburg. It had its ups Archbishop Mario Conti and downs and was finally dissolved in 1862. of Glasgow and Bishop Peter Moran The period 1074 to 1862 covers the 800 years of Aberdeen pore over alluded to in the exhibition title. The history of the Letters of the monastery itself is fascinating, but its library James IV, James V and is the crucial factor here. By the 1860s, it housed Mary Stuart, printed in more than 20,000 volumes. However, there were Edinburgh from 1722-24. only two monks left: Dom Anselm Robertson of Fochabers, and Dom Placidus Boyhme. Rumour has it that Pope Pius IX was keen for the collection to be added to the Vatican Library, and that Anselm Robertson did not agree. Whether in defiance of the Pope or not, he loaded a horse-drawn cart with as many

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It emerged over a period of time that my By 1973 I had changed job, moved to friend had written novels, but he didn’t tell me Edinburgh and lost touch with him; and by 1975 George Friel their titles. It also emerged that he’d tried and he had succumbed to the lung cancer that A friend of blighted his final years. But many years later, in of George Friel failed to get Collins to publish his work. He Publisher and poet Gordon Jarvie reflects wasn’t bitter about their rejection, as far as I can 1990, and by then working as a freelance editor, on his acquaintance with the Glasgow recall; rather he seemed to be resigned to literary I was to revisit Friel’s fiction. Two friends were instrumental in this: the author Fred Urquhart, writer George Friel, whose manuscripts at neglect. But he appeared to be quite taken by the irony of our acquaintance: here we were, two who shared my view that Friel was a significant the Library provided material for an residents of Bishopbriggs enjoying a Guinness and neglected writer; and Martin Spencer, of anthology that raised a reputation. and a chat, himself the writer of several works of Edinburgh University Press. I don’t think Fred fiction over which publishers dithered and had been personally acquainted with Friel, but he procrastinated, and me employed as an editor for was a determined and long-time champion of George’s work, and I believe they corresponded bought my first house in 1971 at the ripe old just about the biggest British publisher, but quite for a while. In particular Fred drew my age of thirty, at Bishopbriggs, just north of unable to help him. As a mere textbook editor, I attention to George’s short stories, many dating Glasgow. It was in an extensive area of new, had few dealings with fiction; and indeed the back to the 1930s and the war years. He felt the affordable suburban housing, widely referred entire Collins fiction list was managed from the I London office. stories were more than strong enough to warrant to locally as Spam Valley. The house was a semi, a collection; and Martin Spencer, respectful of One evening in 1972 my friend had a present on Shiel Road, and it backed onto open, Fred Urquhart’s literary judgements on Scottish for me as we left Quin’s bar. It was a copy of common ground recently planted with a border writing, asked for first refusal to publish them. one of his books, just issued in paperback. of trees. The main attraction of the location for I set to work on the project, the first job Walking home that evening I opened up the me was that it was within walking distance of being to locate and then to read the stories. Friel’s packet and took out a copy of the new Pan my work. literary archive was held in the National Library edition of his novel, The Boy Who Wanted On decent summer evenings, after the frugal of Scotland, and his executor, a nephew, was Peace, which I noted from the front cover had bachelor meal, I explored the neighbourhood on living in London. We spoke on the phone, been compared critically with William Golding's foot, acquainting myself with its geography. In corresponded, and letters of authorisation were Lord of the Flies. Only then did I learn my those days there were two main pubs here, duly furnished to give me access to the material. Quin’s and the Crow. Quin’s, right at the friend’s name, and that night I started to become crossroads, was a fairly sedate, traditional acquainted with his fiction. Scottish howff, lounge to one side of the main I think we only met a couple of times after I gantry and public bar to the other; the Crow, Image taken from the learned George’s identity. I remember his delight about thirty yards up the main road towards book jacket of when I commented on his work’s Joycean echoes Canongate’s edition of Glasgow, was a bigger, busier and brasher set-up. and told him about my bibliographical work on The Glasgow Trilogy, James Joyce in the USA; he was fascinated to Quin’s became my local port of call in the model unknown. course of these week-night walks. At that time I learn that I had studied Joyce manuscripts and was a Guinness drinker, and Quin’s indubitably archives at Buffalo. I recall our shared lack of pulled the better pint. Also, you could sit there in enthusiasm for ‘literary society’. We were firmly solitary silence, maybe reading a book or agreed that life was much more interesting than newspaper without drawing attention to writing about it. yourself; my kind of place. Within a year of reading The Boy Who Over the months I got on nodding Wanted Peace, I had read all four of his acquaintance with a few of the regulars. After a then-published novels, and realised that his was a while I began to converse with one man, of my remarkable contemporary oeuvre. I was also father's generation. Like me he would arrive on struck by the apparent total lack of interest in it. his own, buy and consume his pint of Guinness, Only The Boy Who Wanted Peace was available read his paper and go on his way. Eventually we in paperback, the other three books being were nodding to one another, and exchanging cheaply produced, badly proof-read hardbacks of little snippets of information with each other: I inferior design. I had to resort to the learned that he lived across the road from me, Inter-Library Loan Scheme (then as now a and that he was a teacher. For his part he wonderful and praiseworthy facility) to read two seemed hugely interested to know that I worked of the books, and I vividly remember that they for Collins, in those days still a Glasgow head- came from public libraries in Northampton and quartered public company, and one of Britain’s Darlington. Truly, Friel appeared to be quite biggest and most successful book publishers. without honour in his own country.

www.nls.uk discovernls issue 1 2006 18 nlsfeature nlsnews 19 Competition In all, I selected thirteen stories published between Scotland’s Secret War on 1933 and 1976, mainly in long-defunct little Lending network goes magazines; and eight unpublished stories from a Savour the New Scots the march corpus of more than thirty items. I wrote an If you’ve visited the New Scots exhibition, you will Our partnership with Aberdeen Public Libraries began with a nationwide introduction for the collection and submitted it to already have had a taste of the melding of Scottish-Asian flurry of outreach activity in March.The touring version of The first national network for resource sharing and Edinburgh University Press. Chapman magazine flavours – now here’s your chance to actually taste printed one of the eight unpublished stories (‘Quoth Scotland’s Secret War, the Library’s successful summer 2005 interlibrary lending has been unveiled, bringing together the Budgie’, in Chapman 65, Summer 1991) as a sort them! When he is not capturing the lives and cultures of exhibition, hit the road as part of the Aberdeen Storytelling and the union catalogues of the combined regions (the South of trailer for the forthcoming collection, and George Scottish Asians on film for our exhibition, Herman Theatre Festival, in tandem with a host of NLS-organised West, North West, East Midlands and North East of Friel’s A Friend of Humanity and Other Stories duly Rodrigues also runs Edinburgh’s two Suruchi restaurants, schools’ workshops and family-orientated events. England and Scotland) and LinkUK under the one banner appeared from Polygon in 1992, some seventeen years which serve up authentic Indian cuisine with a modern The exhibition is devised around a cunningly disguised set of for the first time in the UK. UnityUK is the new name after the author’s death. It had been my intention to Scottish twist. Herman has generously offered a free filing cabinets, constructed to open out and display their secret for next generation resource sharing, drawing on meal for two at either of his restaurants to the first dedicate the collection to Fred Urquhart, who had contents to inquisitive visitors. It is currently installed at Cove technology from world leaders OCLC PICA who will reader who can answer this question: championed it for so long, but somehow the Library, near Aberdeen, before plans to billet it overseas in May host and manage the new service. The full service dedication failed to make its appearance in the The Fife town of St Andrews is famous as the to the North Sea Traffic Museum at Televaag, near Bergen in launches in May after regional pilots, and will allow printed work. home of golf, but what links the town with a Norway. Ann Stephen, Children’s Services Librarian at Aberdeen customers nationwide to request a greater choice of A Friend of Humanity was well received region of India, more famously associated with a Central library remarked: material from their local library. critically. Following this success, I had the great certain Indian dish? pleasure and privilege of editing and introducing two ‘We were delighted with the exhibition and Spy School If you haven’t yet seen the New Scots exhibition, which further George Friel publications. Exactly a quarter of activities. The teachers were all very pleased with the visit and closes on 22 May, you may find a quick trip around it will a century after its original appearance, Polygon finally felt that the children got a great deal out of the event. We thank give you a clue... issued a paperback of The Bank of Time in 1994; this Laura Murphy and her colleagues very much for all the hard Talent abounds was George’s first published novel, issued by Answers to: work involved in helping to make our Storytelling and Theatre International bookbinders scooped prizes for their work in Hutchinson in 1959, and long out of print. Then, in [email protected] Festival a success this year.’ January at the 2006 Elizabeth Soutar Bookbinding Competition, 1999, A Glasgow Trilogy appeared as a Canongate Discover Competition The exhibition, which uncovers some of the hidden stories of the Library’s prestigious annual award for craft bookbinding. Classic, comprising The Boy Who Wanted Peace, National Library of Scotland Scotland’s involvement with World War II, also reveals the history Julia van Mechelen (below) from Belgium won the overall award Grace and Miss Partridge, and Mr Alfred MA George IV Bridge of wartime Scottish-Norwegian links, including the fascinating (arguably George’s three greatest fictions). By that for her goatskin binding of Over Boeken, while German Clara Edinburgh EHI 1EW story of the Shetland Bus, the ferry service that shuttled point I was beginning to feel that justice was at last Schmidt took the student prize. The closing date for submissions servicemen and their families to safety across the North Sea. being done for the old man with the pebble glasses to the 2007 award is 26 September. and the bad cough who had drunk a few beers with Top: Pupils in Aberdeen share war secrets See www.nls.uk/news/awards for full details or to download my younger self so long ago: he had entered the canon Bottom: Laura Murphy and Derek Oliver install the travelling exhibition an entry form. and was acquiring some honour in his own country. Apart from being a pleasure and an education, meeting George Friel was one of the serendipitous events in my life nls

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George Friel (1910-1975) was born in Glasgow and educated at St Mungo’s Academy and the University of Glasgow. He worked as a teacher in Glasgow until his retirement in 1973. He published five novels: The Bank of Time (London: New Authors, 1959) The Boy Who Wanted Peace (London: John Calder, 1964) Grace and Miss Partridge (London: Calder and Boyars, 1969) Mr Alfred M.A. (London: Calder and Boyars, 1972) An Empty House (London: Calder and Boyars, 1974) His work is characterised by gritty portrayals of working-class life in post-war Glasgow. While overlooked in his lifetime, he is often associated with the Scottish literary renaissance of recent years. The papers of George Friel, 1931-1975, and the papers of his wife, Isobel, 1975-1985, which concern his writing and literary estate, can be found in the Library’s Manuscript Suruchi Suruchi Too Collections. 0131 556 6583 0131 554 3268 Shelfmark Acc. 8797.

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Poetry awards: Building technology saves Come aboard with our expert curators as they trawl our collections for fascinating but little-known treasures call for entries energy and money The National Poetry Competition, the longest running poetry Advanced energy saving measures have been introduced in Library Community care in benevolent Beith competition in the UK, calls for 2006 entries. All entries are buildings, thanks to an innovative water chilling system instigated judged anonymously and past winners include both published by NLS’ Estates Division, as part of major plant replacement works and previously unknown poets.The three prizes for the in our Causewayside Building, at Salisbury Place. Rare Books Curator, Helen Vincent,uncovers the key principles of Scottish Enlightenment competition range from £500 to £5000, plus the opportunity to The system works by using cold air from outside to provide thought. As the Articles and Regulations of the read at the Ledbury Poetry Festival, in Herefordshire. To enter, chilled water instead of running on electricity. This provides the hidden social history of a small Scottish Friendly Association in Beith explain, send a stamped addressed envelope to Competition Organiser reductions of up to 30% in CO2 emissions, helping to reduce the town, whose people guarded against coffin ‘man is formed for Society, and stands (NLS) 22 Betterton Street, London,WC2H 9BX or visit Library’s overall environmental footprint. The system benefits the robbers and provided for the hard-working in need of its aid … And as Society www.poetrysociety.org.uk for full details. public purse too, with electricity consumption down 19% in the in hard times. is the main support of human The closing date is 31 October. building, helping to offset rapidly-increasing energy costs. happiness, so the more friendly and any of the most exciting items in social any Society is, the greater NLS collections are the least degree of happiness its Members Treasures across the sea Sound archive wins EU funding interesting at first glance - small, may expect to enjoy’. NLS has been flying the flag for Scotland’s collections in The EASAIER project (Enabling Access to Sound Archives through M plainly bound books with no From these pamphlets, we learn New York by participating with annual celebrations for Integration, Enrichment and Retrieval) has successfully attracted pictures to catch the eye. This collection of that men were considered past their pamphlets from Beith in North Ayrshire is one Tar tan Week, which took literature as its theme this year. EU funding. EASAIER will investigate new ways of accessing sound prime at forty (the usual cut-off age for such book within whose unprepossessing covers Beith Director of Collection Development, Cate Newton, archives through online information retrieval. NLS will provide joining any Benevolent Society), and lies the hidden social history of one small visited the city in early April to give a talk outlining the content from its music collections for research purposes, and will that they were concerned only to reward Scottish town in the years between the French treasures of the newly acquired John Murray Archive at take part in the evaluation of the project and the new tools it ‘the Industrious Poor’ and not ‘those Revolution and the ascension of Queen Victoria. New York Public Library. The visit is part of the Library’s creates. Head of Music Collections, Almut Boehme, has been whose trouble is … the result of vicious Beith is a small textile town near Paisley, international strategy, which aims to raise awareness of invited to join the Expert User Advisory Board for the project, practices’. with a fascinating hidden history documented in NLS overseas. The event took place alongside Tartan Bites, which gets underway in May. We see how these organisations were a set of 25 pamphlets, published between 1772 a programme of talks and readings in venues across New conducted, with their formal structures of preses, and 1846. These pamphlets contain the rules, York and Washington DC, organised by The Scottish Book or Presidents, (allowed to sit ‘with his head regulations and reports from some 21 local Trust to showcase Scottish literary and publishing talent. covered, if he chuses’ in meetings), committees Items disbursed by the Military map research project societies, ranging from the Beith St. Salem and meetings. We can also sympathise with their Beith Female Benevolent gets go – ahead Encampment of Knights Templers Harmonic rules against ‘sub-committees in whispering Society, 1817-1821 Society to the Beith Benevolent Coffin Society. A collaborative postgraduate research studentship on Most of these societies were ‘benevolent 18th-century military maps of Scotland has been awarded funding societies’, where groups of working people by the Arts & Humanities Research Council. The award will fund a clubbed together and paid in money while they three-year PhD studentship to study military maps, focusing not were well, to receive benefits if they became too only on the NLS’ Board of Ordnance and Wade collections, but ill to work. Far from being a dry assembly of also on related maps and archival materials in other repositories, facts and figures, or a depressing picture of including the British Library and The National Archives. The poverty, these documents give us a picture of a research will be managed and organised by Edinburgh University small community (Beith’s population grew from Institute of Geography, and the NLS Map Library. For further 2872 in 1792 to 5119 in 1831) living out one of information please contact Professor Charles Withers at [email protected] or Chris Fleet at [email protected]. Make a noise in the Library! Advertising in Discover NLS Do you have a burning issue to raise, a question for our We hope readers appreciate the investment we have made in expert staff to answer or a relevant library-related topic our new publication. In order to continually develop Discover you’re keen to discuss? We plan to run a regular readers’ NLS,we would be interested to hear from an individual or letters section, so please do drop us a line. small Scottish agency capable of generating and managing Either email [email protected] or write in to: advertising revenue on a quarterly basis. Applicants should be committed, service-orientated, mature and able to Julian Stone, Editor, Discover NLS demonstrate an interest in and knowledge of library or National Library of Scotland cultural issues. To express an interest or learn more, please George IV Bridge write to or email the Editor, Julian Stone at [email protected] in Edinburgh EHI 1EW the first instance.

www.nls.uk discovernls issue 1 2006 22 nlsdiscovery nlsfeature 23 Reader Offer and keeping up trifling chat’, and their insistence that anyone receiving aid should not be the subject of derogatory gossip. Exclusive Reader Offer: We also learn that the people of Beith were Setting Scott worried about grave robbers, hence the 2 for1 Admission to s the principal centre of Walter Scott formation of the Society for Protecting the Dead, scholarship, the National Library whose rules insisted that members should refrain Hill of Tarvit Mansionhouse acquires and makes available a wide from ‘boasting, cursing, and blasphemy’and Discover NLS is pleased to support the centenary of the range of documents relating to the ‘clubbing for Ardent spirits’ while on watch. We National Trust’s Hill of Tarvit Mansionhouse, the family in Stone A writer, his circle and his world. The manuscript discover that orphans were supported only until home of revered book collector Hugh Sharp, with an collections include thousands of letters to and the age of fourteen - ‘or sooner, if they be exclusive offer of 2 for 1 admission to all readers, from Scott. Why, then, should the addition of yet thought to be capable of gaining their own Abbotsford and Melrose eligible throughout 2006. Read the feature on pages one more - physically small and textually brief - maintenance by their own industry’. And we 26-27 for more details about the house or visit be an event worth celebrating? The answer lies in witness the slightly different ways in which in miniature www.nts.org.uk for opening times and further what happened to a trifling note in Scott’s hand women and men, and different social classes, information on their events programme. Dr Iain Gordon Brown, Principal Curator of Manuscripts, relating to a lunch party at Abbotsford that dealt with charitable aid, from the Female Simply present this coupon on arrival. never, in fact, took place. The small piece of Benevolent Society run by the ladies of the parish uncovers an evocative piece of Walter Scott memorabilia paper was subsequently transformed. It became a to the Female Friendly Society organised by from our collections. ‘canvas’ on which a distinguished contemporary working women - (the only one in this artist managed to unite the celebrity of Scott, as collection to consider providing an allowance exemplified originally by his autograph, with the to women after childbirth). attraction and historic associations of his country ‘…to secure support to the house, as captured in evocative little sketches illustrating Scott’s own Borders realm. The unfortunate, who may be resulting literary and artistic ensemble epitomises reduced to necessitous something of the magic that the very names of Scott and Abbotsford conveyed to admirers circumstances without any across the world, then and long fault of their own; but by no afterwards. In 1823 Scott invited his neighbour in means to give any Edinburgh’s Castle Street, Hugh William ‘Grecian’ Williams, and a fellow artist, William encouragement to Idleness Scrope, to Abbotsford when they were staying or Extravagances…’ locally. The two painters could not, however, avail themselves of the opportunity. Scrope was a From the Articles and Regulations of the Beith Merchant and sporting artist admired by Scott. Williams was an Farmer Society, 1772 important figure in the development of the cult Discovering items like this, which allow us to of the picturesque in Scotland. A pupil of hear ordinary people of the past discussing the Alexander Nasmyth, the father of Scottish way they went about their daily lives, is one of landscape painting, he had made his name and a the greatest pleasures of delving into our 2for1 successful career with large-scale watercolours. collections. It is a magical experience to see a Admission to Topographical views on this scale - akin to collection of tiny texts conjure up a whole vignettes in size and feeling, as if intended for society as you read them, fleshing out the dry Hill of Tarvit House engraving - are much less common in bones of social history with fascinating details his oeuvre. until the friendly and benevolent citizens Name of pre-Victorian Beith spring to life before your eyes nls Address Letter, 1823, of Sir Walter Discover more Scott to William Scrope, This pamphlet volume is part of the Library’s general illustrated with pen and wash drawings of Abbotsford and collection of Rare Books, comprising early printed Email Melrose Abbey by books and other important items printed in Scotland Hugh William Williams. and elsewhere. Shelfmark: RB.s.927. Shelfmark: Acc. 12583

www.nls.uk discovernls issue 1 2006 24 nlsfeature 25 Competition Impressed by the charm of these delightful terms the building is also the key structure in the About Abbotsford drawings, the National Art Collections Fund was history of the revived Scottish Baronial style. Abbotsford is the house built for Sir Walter Scott persuaded to support the Library’s auction bid for Scott’s antiquarianism is apparent everywhere: for in 1824, in the heart of the Scottish Borders, on Win a Journey Into Africa! the illustrated letter, and we are pleased to example in the decorative details copied or the banks of the River Tweed. The house was Well, a copy of the excellent book by James McCarthy acknowledge once again the charity’s assistance. reproduced in the form of plaster-casts, from opened to the public in 1833, five months after and published by Whittles Publishing. We have Art Fund support confirms the status that this prototypes at the nearby romantic ruin of Scott’s death. Abbotsford contains an impressive copies of Journey Into Africa: The Life and Death of intriguing document has now assumed: what Melrose Abbey. The very name of the house was collection of historic relics, weapons and armour, Keith Johnston, Scottish Cartographer and Explorer to give began as a hurried and prosaic note, albeit one an invention intended to evoke a connection with and a library containing over 9,000 rare volumes. from the tireless pen of the greatest man of letters the medieval monastic community. Williams’s away to the first three people who can answer this of the age, was transformed into a most attractive choice of a view of Melrose was most appropriate question: and evocative miniature work of art. as a pendant to that of Scott’s modern mansion. Which famous explorer commented that Keith Katharine Thomson, the wife of another Abbotsford and Scott’s literary achievement Johnston probably knew more about Africa than Edinburgh acquaintance of ‘Grecian’ Williams, were intimately related. The profits from his himself? had also been invited but was unable to make the hugely successful narrative poems and his even journey. Williams brilliantly seized an opportunity more widely popular novels were lavished on the Answers to: to allow her, as it were, to have the pleasure of house. The prodigious expenditure would [email protected] meeting ‘the Great Unknown’ (as Scott was often contribute to his ruin. Scott called the place his Discover Competition called) and of ‘seeing’ his famous Abbotsford by ‘Dalilah’. It was natural that his admirers should National Library of Scotland way of compensation for her disappointment in want to see the man in his domestic setting, the George IV Bridge missing, what would doubtless have been a Wizard of the North in his den where so many Edinburgh memorable occasion for her. What might have works of romance were created. Williams Visitors to the house can see Scott's study, library, EHI 1EW been an actual pilgrimage to Abbotsford and its captures the essence of Abbotsford’s appeal in its drawing room, entrance hall, armouries and the surroundings was thus accomplished Tweedside setting. Fantastically turreted and dining room where he died on 21 September metaphorically, through the medium of Williams’s be-gabled, the house was instantly recognisable 1832. See www.scottsabbotsford.co.uk for full skilful brush, in sketches from nature done on the and immediately appealing. One recalls the details of opening hours or contact the house at: spot and on Scott’s own paper bearing his episode when the ailing Scott himself was distinctive scrawl. travelling back across Europe in 1832. In a Abbotsford, Melrose, Roxburghshire,TD6 9BQ Abbotsford was, even then, well on the way bookseller’s shop in Frankfurt the proprietor, 01896 752 043 to becoming the tourist draw that it has remained knowing only that the visitors were British, [email protected] ever since. Scott’s fantasy in stone and lime was, brought out of his stock something he knew within his own lifetime, established as one of the would appeal: it was a print of Abbotsford. Scott, most famous houses in the world. It has remained unrecognised, muttered only ‘I know that already, the archetype of the literary shrine. In architectural sir.’ He was going home to Abbotsford to die. nls

Abbotsford

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NLS holds the pre-eminent collection of the literary manuscripts, papers and correspondence of Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). Our collections include manuscripts and page proofs of many of Scott’s greatest novels, poetry, non-fiction and biographies, alongside personal papers of every kind and some 10,000 letters to and from him. Readers will find an excellent introduction to our Scott holdings at www.nls.uk/catalogues/resources/scott/collection

www.nls.uk discovernls issue 1 2006 26 nlsfeature 27

industry from the beginning of the 18th century. At home with the Sharps Hugh’s grandfather, John, made a fortune from Hill of Tarvit, located two miles south of Cupar jute manufacturing and left the family £750,000 in Fife, celebrates its centenary this year. Hugh’s House for a book-lover: when he died in 1895, equivalent to nearly father, Frederick Sharp, himself a great collector, £60m today. bought the estate on the site of the previous The family business was continued by Wemyss Hall in 1904. Sir Robert Lorimer, a the life, home Frederick Sharp, Hugh’s father, who became a leading Scottish architect (who was later successful financier, offering venture capital for knighted for his work on the Thistle Chapel of pioneering investors in the American West, and St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh), was and collection who went on to play a key role in leading the commissioned to build a home capable of growth of Britain’s railways, with stints on the showcasing Sharp’s valuable collection of boards of both Caledonian and London, and European paintings, tapestries, French furniture of Hugh Sharp Midland and Scottish Railway companies. and Chinese porcelain. Names such as Raeburn The Sharp family and Ramsey are represented in the art collection, while furniture by Adam Weissweiler and Hugh was Frederick’s only son. After an Chippendale is also evident. Each room varies (1897-1937) education at the prestigious Rugby School, he depending on what it was intended to display, earned a distinction and three medals in the First with a drawing room housing French furniture World War, including the Military Cross. He Dundee is famous for its legacy of ‘the three amidst Rococo style plasterwork; while the enrolled at Oxford University after the war, but dining room with its English furniture is Js’ – jute, jam and journalism – the staples he left after a few terms, having succumbed to a complemented by the Georgian style plasterwork. upon which the city built its prosperity in glamorous life of international travel and The National Trust has put much work into the 19th century. Some of the city’s wealthy commerce. As the proliferation of sporting books the house’s centenary celebrations over recent in his collection demonstrates, Hugh relished and families gave back to the nation just as much months, in preparation for its re-opening to the excelled at most sports, but chief among his as they made. Julian Stone remembers the public at Easter. The first-floor corridor of the passions were golf and skiing. The Sharps were family of Hugh Sharp, a book-lover and jute house (whose rooms were used until the late ardent members of the Royal and Ancient Golf 1970s as a convalescent home for the Marie tycoon, whose collection of rare books Club in St Andrews and served on the Rules Curie Cancer Care charity) and Hugh Sharp’s remains one of our most cherished. Committee, while Hugh was an early champion bedroom have been opened to the public for the of skiing in the Highlands and was instrumental first time and many of the original features and in popularising the pastime in the area. contents of the house and its surrounding The Hugh Sharp Collection Hugh’s passion for adventure and the ardour gardens have been restored and recovered. There The collection comprises over 1200 books, many with which he pursued his hobbies perhaps stood is also a wide range of themed events planned in pristine condition, most notably numerous in the way of his settling down, but eventually he throughout the year, ranging from an Edwardian first editions of the majority of significant British delighted his family with the news of his fete and croquet days, to study days and outdoor and American authors from the 18th century and engagement, at the age of forty, to Mabel theatre productions.* early 20th century. Jane Austen, Milton, Charles Hogarth, the daughter of a prosperous shipping From the ornate opulence of their stately Dickens, Herman Melville, the Brontës and magnate from the West coast of Scotland. The home to the suppressed first edition copy of Mark Twain all feature prominently celebrations were short-lived however. On 10 Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, alongside writers from Sharp’s lifetime such as December 1937, only a week before his Above:The handsome the Sharps had much to enjoy in their lifetimes TS Eliot and Compton Mackenzie. bookplate designed by engagement party, he boarded a train at Dundee and gave us much to enjoy today. And to think EH Shepard, famous for his bound for Glasgow to meet his fiancé. Sharp Sharp’s collecting interests extended beyond that all this prosperity stems from the industry of illustrations of Winnie the would never arrive at his destination. An express the traditional literary canon however and within a man who judiciously sold sackcloth to both Pooh. The Sharp family from Edinburgh to Glasgow ploughed into his the collection you will also find the nonsense requested the plate to be sides of the American Civil War! stationary train at Castlecary near Falkirk, and nls verse of Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll, and inserted in each volume of books on American history, botanical reference his collection, as part of the Hugh died along with 34 others in the crash. To The property is open between 1-5pm,Thursday to and golf, alongside such bibliographical bequest. compound the tragedy, the Sharp family line Monday during April, May, September and October and splendours as the first edition of the King ended a mere nine years later, with the passing of 1-5pm all week from June-August. Left:The Dining Hall at Hill first his mother Beatrice in 1946, and finally his * Please call the property on 01334 653127 for a full James Bible. of Tarvit Mansionhouse. unmarried sister Elizabeth, who died of cancer list of events and opening times. The Sharp family two years later. Elizabeth Sharp bequeathed the The building of such an impressive collection majority of Hugh’s stunning collection of books Discover more obviously requires one to have substantial (over 1200 from a total collection of 1500) to the To learn more about both the Hugh Sharp collection National Library in 1938 while the family home, financial means at their disposal and and Hill of Tarvit House, come along to a free event at Hill of Tarvit Mansionhouse, was given over to unsurprisingly Sharp and his family wanted for the Library on 24 May and also peruse highlights from the National Trust in 1949. little in this respect. The Sharp family grew their the collection on display throughout the month. prosperity from the expansion of Dundee’s textile See page 12 for full details of both.

www.nls.uk discovernls issue 1 2006 28 mynls 29

The Library serves an increasingly wide variety of customers. Each issue we speak to an Football focus individual involved with NLS and find out what it means to them. Harry Hawthorne

Our man in the Morozovtsi Harry Hawthorne has been associated with the Library for half a century. Last year he The recent transfer of Hibernian FC striker Garry O’Connor to Top: Lockhart (centre) with the Charnock brothers donated his war diaries and personal papers Lokomotiv Moscow has re-ignited interest in the first Scot Side: Lockhart’s championship medal, one of the many unusual items to our manuscript collections and also gave a known to have played football in Russia - Sir Robert Hamilton in our collections Bruce Lockhart (1887-1970), whose Moscow league talk to a school group on his experiences of championship medal for 1912 is now held in the Library, to home crowds of up to 15,000. life in a German prisoner-of-war camp. along with personal papers and a Russian sporting periodical. Lockhart’s one season at Morozovtsi passed fairly Lockhart’s brief footballing career was in fact uneventfully, aside from unqualified rumours that he had played Q: How did you first discover NLS? kicked off by a case of mistaken identity. against the future Russian leader, Nikita Krushchev. Reflecting on A: I got involved when I returned from London He arrived in Moscow in 1912 on a his flirtation with the ‘beautiful game’, Lockhart commented in his in 1956. I had been working for the Labour diplomatic post, preceded by the biography, Memoirs of a British Agent, that,‘I have always counted Party, doing political research. Naturally I was reputation of his brother John, my football experiences with the Russian proletariat as a most acquainted with numerous politicians of the time a famous and accomplished valuable part of my Russian education.’ and it was George Willis, MP for East Edinburgh rugby footballer. Lockhart The medal and associated memorabilia are part of our Rare Book who referred me for a ticket, which was the was invited to play for the Collections. To consult any items in our collections, you will need to be system back then. After another break from Morozovtsi - the team of a registered reader: contact [email protected] or visit Edinburgh I returned in the late Sixties to work www.nls.uk/info/readerstickets for more details. in the Civil Service. In those days I used the a prosperous textile Library for all sorts of specialist research, into factory founded by British Harry at a recent public event things like the sympathies and attitudes of industrialists, the Charnocks, First football song ‘discovered’ Edinburgh people (trade unionists in particular) ‘as an antidote to vodka Media interest was also sparked by the discovery of a rare to the French Revolution. Q:What is the one thing you would like to drinking and political printed copy of The Dooley Fitba Club, the earliest known song Q: How do you get involved today? change about NLS? agitation’ - partly on the strength about football, documented in The Word on the Street, a A: I would like to encourage more people to of his redoubtable soccer skills, but A: I try to come to most of the Library events, collection of NLS web features highlighting ‘broadsides’ (early discover the Library for themselves. The equally due to his fraternal association. exhibitions and some of the workshops. I am street literature, the equivalent of today’s newspapers). such a regular at these things that I often find exhibitions and events give people a flavour of Lockhart certainly chose his side well - despite an entirely Written in the 1880s and attributed to James Currin, a leading myself helping out too! In more general terms, I the treasures which await to be discovered. The amateur team of ex-pats and factory workers, the Morozovtsi satirical songwriter of the day, the song was later adapted and do what I can to draw people’s attention to the fabulous displays also bring items from the were unbeaten in the league between 1910 and 1914 and played made famous by Jimmie Macgregor and Robin Hall’s Fitba Crazy Library, let them know about the range of collections to people’s attention, but of course in the 1960s. To read the lyrics and more information visit activities on offer and try and encourage them to you need a reader’s ticket to get beyond the www.nls.uk/broadsides/broadside.cfm/id/15078 come along and take part. As many of your barriers to view them*. I wonder also how many Fascinating football book speakers and panellists would testify, I also try to people realise that there are refreshment areas In other football-related news, the Library has loaned a NLS FC contribute as much as possible to the discussions, for readers? These could encourage people to rare book for a major exhibition to mark the 2006 ask questions of authors, that sort of thing. stay longer, if they have the incentive of a Football World Cup in Germany. Vocabula by David Continuing on the football theme, NLS’ own first XI swept to Q:What has been your favourite NLS tea-break to punctuate their long periods of Wedderburn (1709), a Latin textbook that contains the their second consecutive victory in March, with a 4-2 win over experience? arduous research in the reading rooms! nls the National Trust for Scotland. Previous opponents have first references to football as ‘a passing game’, will be A: Visiting the Scotland’s Secret War exhibition displayed at The Fascination of Football exhibition in included the National Museum, the Scottish Parliament and threw up some surprising revelations for me Hamburg. The book will be used in the exhibition to help Edinburgh City Libraries. Preparations are well underway for personally. I discovered that an MP I had worked NLS’ debut international fixture, as the side take themselves off present the claim that Scotland invented the modern for was later revealed to be a spy for the * Editor’s note game. The Fascination of Football opens at the to Dublin to take on Trinity College in July. If you’re part of an Russians! I helped elect Major Vernon after the Voelkerkunde Museum on 30 April. See organisation that might fancy a relatively gentle, mixed teams, war and it was a strange experience when I This is changing in the near future, with www.faszination-fussball.de for more details. friendly fixture against NLS, contact NLS FC ‘gaffer’, visited the exhibition and learned, for the first renovations to the entrance hall of our Rachel Edwards, at [email protected] time, that he was later exposed for his espionage. George IV Bridge building already underway.

www.nls.uk discovernls issue 1 2006 Birds of a Feather: Audubon’s

Discover the work and legacy Adventures in of one of the world’s greatest ever wildlife artists: John James Audubon. Edinburgh See for yourself why Audubon’s Birds of America is one of the Free Exhibition world’s most valuable books and learn how he has influenced wildlife conservation, from the 19th century 4 July-15 October until to the present day.

Opening Times: Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm (8pm during Edinburgh Festival) Sunday 2pm-5pm

0131 623 3700 [email protected] www.nls.uk

National Library of Scotland George IV Bridge Edinburgh EH1 1EW