was hardly conscious of the stirrings of that new life which,
in the course of twenty years, was to transform the town. In those days
a traveller descending the slope of the Banwell Hills sought out the
slim spire of Polterham parish church amid a tract of woodland, mead
and tillage; now the site of the thriving little borough was but too
distinctly marked by trails of smoke from several gaunt chimneys--that
of Messrs. Dimes & Nevison's blanket-factory, that of Quarrier & Son's
sugar-refinery, and, higher still (said, indeed, to be one of the
tallest chimneys in England), that of Thomas & Liversedge's soap-works.
With the character of Polterham itself, the Literary Institute had
suffered a noteworthy change. Ostensibly it remained non-political: a
library, reading-room and lecture-hall, for the benefit of all the
townsfolk; but by a subtle process the executive authority had passed
into the hands of new men with new ideas. A mere enumeration of the
committee sufficed to frighten away all who held by Church, State, and
Mr. Welwyn-Baker: the Institute was no longer an Institute, but a
"hot-bed."
How could respectable people make use of a library which admitted works
of irreligious and immoral tendency? It was an undoubted fact (the
_Mercury_ made it known) that of late there had been added to the
catalogue not only the "Essays of David Hume" and that notorious book
Buckle's "History of Civilization," but even a large collection of the
writings of George Sand and Balzac--these latter in the original
tongue; for who, indeed, would ever venture to publish an English
translation? As for the reading-room, was it not characterization
enough to state that two Sunday newspapers, reeking fresh from Fleet
Street, regularly appeared on the tables? What possibility of perusing
the _Standard_ or the _Spectator_ in such an atmosphere? It was clear
that the supporters of law and decency must bestir themselves to
establish a new Society. Mr. Mumbray, long prominent in the municipal
and political life of the town, had already made the generous offer of
a large house at a low rental--one of the ancient buildings which had
been spoilt for family residence by the erection of a mill close by.
The revered Member for the borough was willing to start the new library
with a gift of one hundred volumes of "sterling literature." With
dissolution of Parliament in view, not a day should be lost in
establishing this centre of intellectual life for r
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