Overview

George Tawse, one of the founding Literary and Scientific Institute members, wrote a light-hearted and affectionate recollection of the society’s early days in 1846, in which he depicted its humble beginnings as eight or ten “mere lads”, meeting on Monday evenings in a “mere garret – and a very poor garret – as garrets go[.]” This garret was the attic of the Cramb family house, shoemakers “of a political and intellectual cast, as shoemakers often are,” and was located at the east end of Dundee High Street (barely five minutes’ walk from Lamb’s Coffee House in the Murraygate, where the Dundee Literary Society met).

Their first concerns were in discussing literary and scientific affairs, but their minds soon turned to the prospect of a manuscript magazine, as a way to ‘vent’ their energy and intelligence. As well as Tawse and two brothers from the Cramb family, the original members included geologist and journalist James Adie, who emigrated to Canada around four years after the society’s foundation. At the time, Adie was known among his friends for his love of verse, ‘if in rhyme,’ and his recitations of poems by Scott, Byron, and in particular James Hogg, from which he gained the nickname ‘Kilmeny.’

An earlier recollection of the beginnings of the Literary and Scientific Institute was written by James Barnet, mostly in memory of Adie, and appeared in the periodical The Scottish American in 1890. He describes himself and three other boys ‘just in their teens,’ including Adie, who “took it into their heads that they would form a mutual improvement society.” At the time of publication, Barnet said this took place ‘around fifty years ago,’ placing the events described around 1840.

Their meetings took place domestically at first, in Barnet’s house and then in Adie’s, before the “first mutual improvement society in town” grew from the small group. If Barnet joined the group for the transition to Cramb’s garret, Tawse does not seem to remember him. Similarly to the Literary Institute, the young members of this group took turns at presenting an essay each meeting, but in the early days this did not have to be original work. Barnet, when nominated for the first essay, found a story about Genghis Khan in the Chartist Circular to read, despite a total prior lack of knowledge on the subject.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Dundee Literary and Scientific Institute

Date of Existence

1844 -1848

Date of Magazine

1844-1847 (or possibly 1855?), Vol. 1?-Vol. 2

Number of Issues

2

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Articles (non-fiction); Editorial; Essays; Letter to ‘Critic’; Letter to Editor; Magazine Rules; Poems (original); Title page

Repository

Dundee District Central Library, The Wellgate

Reference

D22022, Lamb Collection, 265(17)

Additional Notes

See also Dundee Natural History and Literary Magazine.

These magazines were collected in the 1860s by A.C. Lamb, a Dundee temperance hotelier. Many of the societies represented met on premises owned by either himself or, in earlier decades, in his father Thomas’ coffee house. Lamb was often involved in society life himself, and his collection of over 450 boxes covers a wide range of material relating to literature, poetry, culture and politics in Victorian Dundee. For more information on this material, please contact local.history@leisureandculturedundee.com.

Overview

The Attic Journal, launched in 1848, while not explicitly affiliated with a particular society, was edited by Peter Begg, who was also a member of other literary societies in Dundee. Its readers included John Sime and two members of the Scrymgeour family, also familiar names; as well as a Gow, who may be poet James Gow, and unusually for Dundee manuscript magazines, two women, Miss Cook and Miss Cooper.

Peter Begg was a temperance activist and political campaigner. His convictions are evident in the magazine’s editorial, which was more explicitly class-conscious than many of the other MS magazines in Dundee. The editorial reflects on a sense that that existing magazines’ focus was too narrow both in subject matter and in function, only aiming to improve their own contributors while ‘millions of souls’ existed in ignorance of their own value and with little control over their lives:

“We know that the Journal will not circulate among the class on whose behalf it is originated, but we wish to create a sympathy among our own readers on behalf of their own less fortunate fellow mortals, and this sympathy once established, will extend itself and make its influence felt. […] We chiefly desire to assert the dignity and claim the rights and privileges of man – to reach the hearts of the ignorant and degraded many by homely appeals, rather than captivate, by splendid literary productions, the souls of the intellectual few.”

The Attic Journal is also a particularly good example of how conflict could occur within literary societies, and the ways people reacted to it. They republished a long letter sent by someone writing as “Abillimo” (potentially Begg himself) to the Dundee Natural History and Literary Magazine, defending Begg’s poem “The Bonnie Woods of Luthrie” after it met with harsh criticism there. The ‘hurried and thoughtless’ criticism, Abillimo suspects, must originate from “the debilitating influence of some secret antipathy towards the poet himself. Such ought not to be!” Later, Abillimo makes more general comments on criticism in Dundee literary societies: “Criticism, in M.S. magazines, does no good. It has just now created divisions, and strife in the Lochee Literary Society, and the horrible scenes that took place on magazine criticism night, at the Literary Institute, are beyond description. Believe me, it does no good.” It is likely the strife between Dundee societies was made worse by the fact that so many of them were operating within a very small central area at the same time, probably competing for writers and attention.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

(Currently unknown) (Dundee)

Date of Existence

1848?-?

Date of Magazine

Vol. I, No. 1, January 1848

Number of Issues

1

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Editorial; Essays; Letter to ‘Critic’; Poems (original); Title page

Repository

Dundee District Central Library, The Wellgate

Reference

266(1), Lamb Collection

Additional Notes

These magazines were collected in the 1860s by A.C. Lamb, a Dundee temperance hotelier. Many of the societies represented met on premises owned by either himself or, in earlier decades, in his father Thomas’ coffee house. Lamb was often involved in society life himself, and his collection of over 450 boxes covers a wide range of material relating to literature, poetry, culture and politics in Victorian Dundee. For more information on this material, please contact local.history@leisureandculturedundee.com.

Overview

Dundee Literary Society’s decision to launch a magazine in December 1846 was mainly focused on extending the reach of its influence, meaning that those who could not attend meetings because of time or location could share in some of the benefits. Perhaps some of those who benefited from the magazine were prevented from attending meetings due to age or gender restrictions too, but this is not clear from the readers’ list. The wider circulation was also intended to make make authors try harder in their work, especially with the potential for scrutiny by a “higher class of readers than was to be found in the society itself.”

The magazine was published monthly between October 1846 and June 1848, at which point “several factors […] obstructed its progress.” The editor gives no more detail than this, though lack of enough regular contributions seems a likely reason. The magazine’s revival, in January 1849, went ahead despite some opposition from members. The latest surviving issue is from 1852, although this does not necessarily mean publication ceased after that year.

On more than one occasion, the magazines were used to reflect upon the benefits of the societies themselves, either in editorials or submitted essays. In 1851, Dundee Literary Society’s magazine included a piece entitled “On the Influence of Literary Societies on Particular Aspects of the Character.”  The author notes the volume of recent public discussion on the benefits of literary societies – reinforcing their popularity – and reiterates the argument that these societies are good for improving members’ natural “vigour of mind” and instilling modesty, particularly through the active habit of practicing virtue.

The benefit of the friendly rivalry which these societies can foster is also presented as a benefit (a more formalised version of the Republic of Letters’ weekly competitions, see ‘Additional Notes’ below), as the sense of rivalry was considered to only emerge among equals: “[the] peasant does not envy his wealthy master, yet in the rustic game he will do his utmost to excel.” The society was an equaliser on intellectual terms, encouraging members to apply themselves until they were a match for their most accomplished colleagues.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Dundee Literary Society

Date of Existence

31 Jan. 1845-?

Date of Magazine

1847-1854 (Vol. 1, 1847; Vol. 1, Nos. 1-6, 1849; Vol. 3, Nos. 13-18, 1850; Vol. 4, Nos. 19-24, 1850; various unbound copies, 1851-1854 (Incomplete))

Number of Issues

6 vols.* (*while the 1850 Contents lists 6 issues, there are only 5, the last one not included) = 45 issues

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Articles (non-fiction); Editorial; Essays; Letter to ‘Critic’; Letter to Editor; Magazine Rules; Poems (original); Table of Contents

Repository

Dundee District Central Library, The Wellgate

Reference

D22021, Lamb Collection

Additional Notes

See also Dundee Natural History and Literary Society Magazine for more information about The Republic of Letters, and Dundee Literary and Scientific Institute Magazine.

These magazines were collected in the 1860s by A.C. Lamb, a Dundee temperance hotelier. Many of the societies represented met on premises owned by either himself or, in earlier decades, in his father Thomas’ coffee house. Lamb was often involved in society life himself, and his collection of over 450 boxes covers a wide range of material relating to literature, poetry, culture and politics in Victorian Dundee. For more information on this material, please contact local.history@leisureandculturedundee.com.

On Overview

A summary of the history of the Wellpark Free Church Literary Society is available on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds (see ‘Additional Notes’ below).

There are three extant issues of this magazine, which together contain an eclectic mixture of prose and poetry, original artwork (pencil, pen-and-ink, and watercolour being the most popular media), along with original music compositions.

The 1883-84 issue has 153 pages with 21 contributions. After each piece, there are readers’ ‘criticisms’, or discussions on the work’s positive and negative points that were written on the blank sheets of paper that were left for this purpose. On pages 146-51 there can be found the society’s syllabus, Constitution, programmes for various meetings and musical evenings, and a notice for a local Parliamentary election.  Contributors — which included men and women, members and non-members — used their own names or pen-names to sign their pieces. At the very back there is an index. The later 1887-88 and 1888 magazines are similar in also being miscellanies that include readers’ criticisms, with 203 pages and twenty contributions in the former, and 201 pages and sixteen contributions in the latter.

In each of the issues, there is a list of ‘Readers’ along with their respective addresses. There are 34 readers in the 1883-84 issue, 32 in the 1887-88 number, and 29 listed in the 1888 issue, which means that this group was of a relatively modest size and fairly stable in its membership, if these years can be said to be representative.

A full case study of this society and its magazine was published by Lauren Weiss in 2016 (see Lauren Weiss, ‘The Manuscript Magazines of the Wellpark Free Church Young Men’s Literary Society’, in Media and Print Culture Consumption in Nineteenth-Century Britain: The Victorian Reading Experience, ed. by Paul Raphael Rooney and Anna Gasperini (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), pp. 53-73).

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Wellpark Free Church Young Men’s Literary Society (Glasgow)

Date of Existence

1883?-1888?

Dates of Magazine

Vol. II, No. 1 (1883-84); Vol. II, No. 1 (1887-88); 1888

Number of Issues

3 (extant)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Art/Illustrations (original); Articles (non-fiction); Circulation Lists; Constitution; Editorials; Essays; Fiction/Narratives; Frontispiece; Index; Letter to ‘Critic’; Letters to Editor; Magazine Rules; Maps; Music; Notice (printed); Poems (original); Programme; Readers’ criticisms; Sketches; Syllabus; Table of Contents; Title page

Repository

Mitchell Library Special Collections

Reference

1. Mitchell (AL) 428697 (1883-84 magazine);

2. Mitchell (AL), 428698-99 (1887-1888, and 1888 magazines) (Note: there are three manuscript magazines but only two separate listings in the online catalogue)

Additional Notes

See also entry for Wellpark Free Church Literary Society on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds.