History of the Town Library
rather limited appeal, but as in other places a pattern of varied lectures, interspersed with concerts, developed after mid-century and was one of the main attractions in the town in the winter. From the 1870s the Institution was a natural home for Extension lecturers from Cambridge, and from the 1890s classes in shorthand, cookery and bookkeeping were being offered. Nevertheless the library was one of the Institution's chief assets.
There were several commercial lending libraries in the town in the nineteenth century and one or two book clubs, but given the chronically unsatisfied Victorian demand for literature, the SWSLI was unlikely to be killed by competition. Indeed the library occupied a central place in the intellectual pursuits of the town, and to find scholarly collections automatically open to anybody (Cambridge University Library being open only to members of the university) it was necessary to travel to London and read in the British Museum Library, whose stock could not be taken out, or to borrow from the London Library in St James's Square after paying the subscription.
The catalogues of the original holdings of the Town
Library may give an impression of somewhat random acquisitions, but the Town Library's purchases in this or that area of knowledge often met the special interests of members by providing books not readily available.
From the first, purchases were supplemented by gifts. Thus the first annual report records the donation of Newton's Opticks, The Life of Alexander the Great, and
