Monthly Archives: June 2013

Sports Day, 1877

by bmcuser

Local sporting events of the past provide a rich seam of information about how the people of East Ayrshire enjoyed their leisure time. Thankfully lots of books, pamphlets, articles, songs and poems have been written about the area’s sports. Details of clubs and competitions in football, rugby, curling, bowling, cricket, the steeplechase, and many more, are contained in our collections.

The notice below for Kilmarnock Cricket Club’s Grand Promenade and Amateur Athletics Sports day on Saturday 21st April, 1877, shows the kind of events that local clubs organised for the public to enjoy, often with involvement of the Town Council.

Amateur Athletic Sports Notice 1877

The report of the event, in the Kilmarnock Standard the following Saturday, states that the weather was poor and the ground soft, but up to 1400 people attended to see the races. One gentleman won 5 first prizes, but “the shoes in which he competed are said not to be in accordance with the rules, and [...] the committee feel themselves constrained to refer the matter for the opinion of the editor of Bell’s Life.” Clearly a serious matter – Bell’s Life was the leading sports newspaper of Victorian Britain.

The Standard article also lists the prize-winners. Prizes included cups, flasks, a silver inkstand, cigar case, a knife, a pipe, and for the winner of the Dribbling Race, an umbrella. The best prize appears to have gone to the winner of the Sack Race – a writing desk!

Kilmarnock Phenomenology?

by bmcuser

We recently mentioned a puzzling pamphlet called A Concise View of the Inductive Mode of Investigation, and of the Phenomena and Efficiency of Mind in Reference to Matter: with an Appropriate Engraving, for Illustration by John Lawrie, Kilmarnock. It was published and sold in Kilmarnock by Robert Nelson, 18 King Street, and printed by J. Paterson in Kilmarnock, which would date it as c1830. (It was also sold by booksellers in Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, Irvine and Ayr.)

Copy of A Concise View of the Inductive Mode of Investigation

We know very little about this pamphlet or the author. The only record that we’re aware of is on the library catalogue of Yale University, where there is a copy bound with other volumes under the subject of phenomenology. It is extremely unusual in our collection of pamphlets and books printed in the town at that time, which usually contain poetry, sermons, or accounts of some local events.

We’d love to know more about the pamphlet and the author. We have a record of a John Lawrie in the 1833 Post Office Directory, listed as ‘Residenter, 47 High Street’. We are also aware of a John Lawrie born in Newmilns in 1810, who may have held a non-conformist congregation in Kilmarnock during the 1830s. He later moved to SW Australia and played a role in the emerging Baptist church of that region.

The most striking feature of the pamphlet is the engraving which folds out from the first page, which as the author states “represents the aspect and operation of anger” and is “an exact portrait of the mode which individual thought, in its physical results, always exhibits.”

Engraving from A Concise View of the Inductive Mode of Investigation etc by John Lawrie c1830s

The author gives an explanation of the engraving -

The circle A represents the head of a person; all the space within it is called the seat of the mind, or locality of the thinking principle; all that is within the circle B is denominated the image of the attractive object, displaying itself in the character of subjection, and in the attitude of universal expansion. The white bosom included within the figure D represents the human head or physiognomy. All the red surface included within the circle C, part of which encircles what denotes the head, and the rest mingles with its interior, we designate the attractive object.

And finally, our favourite part -

The exterior chain of attractive likeness which encircles the whole, is merely ornamental.

If anyone can tell us more about this pamphlet or the author we’d be delighted to hear about it. Just email us at .

 

An Evening of Crime

by bmcuser

As part of Crime Writing Month, there is a very special Evening of Crime at the Dick Institute on Wednesday 19th June. Bestselling author Aline Templeton, creator of DI Marjory Fleming, will talk about her latest book Cradle to Grave.

See the poster below for more details (tickets only £2!!!).

crime-evening-email

Discovering odd new treasures

by bmcuser

This Saturday we’re hosting Scottish Book Trust’s Treasures workshop, with author Ewan Morrison. Ewan’s Treasures story Smells Like Bat Table is online now.

At the Burns Monument Centre we deal with treasures every day – old books, maps, letters, family history records, even treasure chests! Our current favourite box of treasures contains a variety of pamphlets from the collections and press of Kilmarnock publisher James McKie (this is distinct from the official McKie Collection - a treasure-trove of Burnsiana originally housed in the Burns Monument museum). The pamphlets range from local poetry and sermons to school books and travel writing. Also in the collection are some of the odd jobs that McKie printed, for example this Guidebook to Kelsall’s Crystal Palace Exhibition, and Royal Collection of Moving Wax Models.

Copy of Pamphlet title pages 036

Quite why James McKie printed this guidebook is unknown. We can’t find any mention of Kelsall’s Exhibition in the reports of Kilmarnock’s fairs of the 1870s and 80s. The Kilmarnock Standard regularly reports on the fairs and shows of the town at this time, with great detail of the peculiar exhibits: The World in Miniature, Hengler’s Circus, The Living Menagerie, Lilliputian Circus, Auld Ord the Great Equestrian, Mr Biddall’s Ghost Illusion, Whatman’s Marionettes, Carloman’s Living Curiosities, Purchase’s Waxwork and Mandor’s Maxwork.

Kelsall’s may have visited Glasgow or one of the coastal towns. Whatever McKie’s reasons for printing this, we liked it so much we digitised it! Click on the image below to open up the digital version, and zoom in to see more detail.

ENSPIRE and Ideas from Kilmarnock’s Past

by bmcuser

ENSPIRE, Kilmarnock’s first Festival of Ideas, will take place this Sunday at St Joseph’s Academy, 11 – 4. The event has been organised by St Joseph’s pupils and features a cast of speakers covering architecture, culture and creativity, science, disability and education. Here’s the poster -

Enspire poster

Here at the Burns Monument Centre we’re interested in the local history of ideas and how they can be relevant today. Our collections of Kilmarnock’s printed heritage give us an insight into the ideas that shaped the town in the past. Poetic, religious, political and philosophical musings were often published in cheap pamphlet editions for local booksellers to punt for a shilling or sixpence. There were numerous printers, booksellers and stationers in business in the town throughout the 19th century. 

Some pamphlets have had a lasting significance, for example this account of the ‘Public Meeting held at Kilmarnock, on the 7th December 1816′. The pamphlet records the speeches of local people who wanted parliamentary reform. At the time only one person in all of Kilmarnock was eligble to vote.

Copy of Pamphlet title pages 007

Two of the men involved in the meeting and in the printing of the pamphlet, Alexander McLaren and Thomas Baird, were arrested and accused of “wickedly and feloniously printing, selling, publishing and circulating the said tract or statement.” They were imprisoned in the Tollbooth in Edinburgh for 6 months and both died soon after their release. These events and the people involved are remembered at the Reformer’s Monument in the Kay Park.

Other pamphlets have become (almost) lost in obscurity. We know very little about the pamphlet below, written by ‘John Lawrie, Kilmarnock’ and printed and sold in Kilmarnock, Glasgow, Edinburgh and London in the 1830s. The only other record we can find of this pamphlet’s existence is at Yale Universtiy in their holdings on phenomenology. We’d love to know more about the author.

Copy of A Concise View of the Inductive Mode of Investigation

Hopefully the ENSPIRE festival will be spoken of in 200 years time. In the meantime, we’ll keep a copy of the poster in the archive!