‘Store their Minds with Much Valuable Knowledge’: Agricultural Improvement at the Selkirk Subscription Library, 1799-1814

Towsey, Mark ORCID: 0000-0003-3966-9812 (2015) ‘Store their Minds with Much Valuable Knowledge’: Agricultural Improvement at the Selkirk Subscription Library, 1799-1814. Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 38 (4). pp. 569-584.

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Abstract

This article investigates the reception of agricultural improvement in the Scottish Borders, arguing that useful books and improving socialisation were mutually reinforcing in the Selkirk Subscription Library. Agricultural books were borrowed by farmers, clergymen, lawyers and medical men, who collaborated to found local debating societies and sponsor the production of improving literature. Their commitment to agricultural improvement is shown to have been one of several cultures of improvement in circulation at Selkirk, some dedicated to practical works of moral improvement and the cultivation of politeness in young minds, some to the patronage of local writers, local history and local traditions.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	history of reading, subsciption libraries, Selkirk, Statistical Account of Scotland, agricultural improvement, Scottish Enlightenment, clubs and societies, Scottish Borders, The Farmer's Magazine
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	09 May 2016 10:00
Last Modified:	19 Jan 2023 07:37
DOI:	10.1111/1754-0208.12349
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3001131