Overview

This magazine was produced by a mutual improvement class based at Eastville Free Methodist Church, which was located on Fishponds Road in Eastville (northeast of Bristol). (For a brief history of this church see ‘Eastville Methodist Church (now Pentecostal City Mission), Eastville, Fishponds‘ on the Places of Worship Database website.) The lists of members at the front of the extant 1893 and 1894 issues have 26 and 24 names respectively. It was a mixed-gender class with perhaps a fairly equal number of men and women (there are several names on these lists where only the surname is given). No addresses are given after these names, but these can be found by consulting the entries for the parents in the church register, also available in the archives. The group members were pro-temperance, and two pieces by different authors in their magazine mention attending a Band of Hope meeting. (For more information about the Band of Hope, see the article, ‘Band of Hope‘ on the Spartacus Educational website.)

There are only two extant issues of the manuscript magazine that this class produced. These are roughly A5 in size, with a brown paper cover and are hand-stitched. It is unclear if there was a set production date for each issue (e.g. monthly, bi-monthly, etc.), but it might have been tied to the semester schedule. The format of the contributions vary: some are written solely on one side of the paper, whilst others are on both front and back, which is a bit usual for these magazines. All the contributions — the majority of which are essays on a variety of topics — are in the authors’ own handwriting. With few exceptions, all of the contributors and reviewers use their own initials. There is no original poetry and no illustrations or artwork in either issue. Readers were allowed one week to view the magazine.

The issues are compact not only in size but in the number of contributions: there are 68 pages (unpaginated) in total in the 1893 issue with 7 contributions followed by four readers’ responses over 10 pages in the ‘Notes and Comments’ section, and 30 pages with 5 contributions in the 1894 issue. Interestingly, whilst there are also a number of blank pages left for readers to provide their responses in the ‘Notes and Comments’ section in the later issue, none of the readers chose to use this space.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Eastville Free Methodist Mutual Improvement Class

Date of Existence

1894?-1895?

Date of Magazine

No. 1, October 1893 and No. 5, October 1894

Number of Issues

2 (extant)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Annotations; Articles (non-fiction); Circulation Lists; Editorials; Essays; Extracts of published works; Letters to Editor; Magazine Rules; Poems (republished material); Readers’ Criticisms; Serial articles/stories; Tables of Contents;  Title pages

Repository

Bristol Archives & Record Office

Reference

40836/EP/95-96

The mutual improvement group that produced this magazine was based at River Terrace Church (River Terrace was later renamed Colebrooke Row), Islington, London. The church was built in 1834 for its Scottish congregation. The River Terrace Young Men’s Association later became The River Terrace Bible Class, before changing again to the Islington Presbyterian Church Young Men’s Association in 1862.

There are two minute books (also housed in the London Metropolitan Archives) and three extant volumes of a manuscript magazine from this later group (see also LMA catalogue for the records of the earlier River Terrace groups). From these, we know that the association was made up of young Scottish men that met weekly at the church between December and June, a session that was a bit unusual for this type of society.  The object of the association was the ‘moral, intellectual and religious improvement of the Young men connected with the church’. Women were allowed to join as full members in January 1891. Four years after its founding, the group started its own manuscript magazine for its members.

In 1866, the first issue of The Aemulus was produced. The contributions to the issue were previously read aloud at the society’s ‘Magazine Nights’. ‘Magazine Evenings’ or ‘Magazine Nights’ were meetings that were devoted to the reading of original essays (or occasionally poems) written by group members that were submitted to the Magazine Editor beforehand. The Editor would be responsible for collecting, occasionally selecting, and reading the pieces aloud to the group (more rarely this was done by the contributor him/herself) on the appointed night. This would be followed by ‘criticism’ — or discussion on the piece’s positive and negative points — by the group members.

After the meetings, these contributions were sometimes bound and saved in the society’s library (if they had one) or would be kept by one of the office bearers. In these cases, it was intended that the magazine was to be preserved and that group members would have access to it at a later date. It is of note that literary and mutual improvement groups used the term ‘magazine’ to refer to the oral as well as the material medium.

The 1866 volume serves as a ‘typical’ example of the later volumes. There are 35 prose pieces, 14 poems (of which two that are listed as such in the front ‘Index’ are acrostics), one musical score for piano and one voice, three illustrations, and six photographs of Office Bearers. According to the ‘Preface’, the pieces were produced over the course of one year, and nineteen members and two non-members contributed.

As the Editor, Thomas William Thacker, wrote at the beginning of the volume, ‘[t]his manuscript magazine was started to give the members of the Islington Presbyterian Church Young Men’s Association a means of committing to paper thoughts more or less matured. It is strictly anonymous: and few beyond the fellow members have seen the parts as they were issued month by month.’ While the group continued to meet until 1894 (at least), it is currently unknown if they continued to produce their magazine after 1878.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Islington Presbyterian Church Young Men’s Association (London)

Date of Existence

1862-1894?

Date of Magazine

Vol. I, ‘(Parts IX)’, 1866; Vol. III, 1868-1869; Vol. III [sic], 1878

Number of Issues

3

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Art/Illustrations (original); Articles (non-fiction); Editorials; Essays; Indexes; Lists of Office Bearers; Magazine Rules; Music; Photographs (members); Poems (original); Prefaces; Puzzles; Title pages

Repository

London Metropolitan Archives

Reference

LMA/4303/E/04/015;
LMA/4303/E/04/016;
LMA/4303/E/04/017

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.

Members of this literary club were enrolled at Edinburgh Collegiate College. Opened in 1868, the College was located at Nos. 27/28, Charlotte Square, Edinburgh. From a photograph of the group in the 1871 magazine, the club was quite small (if all members were indeed present), there being only five boys in the photo.

The number of contributions to this magazine is unusually large: there are 51 pieces, and 39 illustrations that are listed separately in the table of contents at the front. The entire issue has a hefty total of 694 pages, particularly considering that it only had 13 contributors that included non-members of the group (see below). It may be that the pieces were written over a number of months and were collected and bound into one volume for a Christmas number.

According to the magazine’s list of rules, contributors did not have to be a member of the club. Although anonymous contributions were permitted, many of the authors signed their names at the end of their pieces. The order of the contributions was determined by the date when they were received by the Editor, who could reject any unsuitable material. Swearing and ‘bad language’ was not allowed.

Further, the group voted for those who were allowed to contribute, and could democratically dismiss them as well. Contributors had to submit a piece of not less than four pages to every other issue of the magazine. The order of reading was determined by the order in which the contributions were received, and each reader only had 2 nights to keep the issue. Emphasis was placed on original stories and artwork. Interestingly, the group wished to underscore the seriousness of their endeavours and of their club’s rules by punishing transgressors: Rule XI states ‘That Punishment be determined by ballot.’

Perhaps not surprising for this age group, this magazine is more of a boys’ adventure magazine, with serial fictional stories by the contributors, with simple accompanying illustrations of ships, campfire scenes, or of imaginative exotic places, many of the stories even having their own illustrated title page at the start. Other contributions include filler materials like enigmas and riddles.

The next extant issue of The Edinburgh Collegiate Magazine dates from March 1890 and is a print magazine. According to the ‘Editorial’, the College magazine was being revived after lapsing around 1885. This is a slimmer volume with 12 contributions including the editorial, ‘Correspondence’ and ‘Notice to Contributors’ features. Primarily, it reports on the College’s activities and this issue focuses on the sports clubs. The next extant issue dates from February 1891 and also contains college news and sports, but includes articles on Emily Bronte and a couple of travel stories.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Edinburgh Collegiate Club

Date of Existence

1871?-1891?

Date of Magazine

Christmas 1871; No. 1, March 1890; Vol. II, No. 1, February 1891

Number of Issues

3 (extant)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript (Christmas 1871); Print (No. 1, March 1890; Vol. II, No. 1, February 1891)

Contents and Contributions

Art/Illustrations (original); Articles (non-fiction); Correspondence column; Editorials; Essays; Letter to Editor; List of contributors; Magazine Rules; Photograph (members); Poems (original); Puzzles; Riddles;  Serial articles/stories; Table of Contents; Title page

Repository

Edinburgh Central Library (ECL) (Christmas 1871; No. 1, March 1890; Vol. II, No. 1, February 1891)

National Library of Scotland (NLS) (Vol. II, No. 1, February 1891)

Reference

ECL reference for Christmas Number: Class No. YLF 1135 E23 C; Book No. C5564;

ECL reference for 1890-91 print magazines: Class No. qYLF 1135 E23 C; Book No. 21311

NLS reference for Vol. II, No. 1, February 1891: Q.50

Overview

Gems of Poesy is an MS magazine compiled by William Gardiner, who also compiled The Wreath of Wild Flowers. The two magazines had identical publication schedules and readers’ lists, so probably served as companion volumes. Each issue is numbered as the first volume of a new number (perhaps leaving open the possibility for further issues, should inspiration or time allow.)

Unlike The Wreath of Wild Flowers, this collection is of poems gleaned from other published sources: most issues feature work by Mrs Hemans, a favourite of Gardiner’s, as well as other well-known poets such as Lord Byron, Eliza Cook and Percy Shelley. They have all been copied out in Gardiner’s hand. Potentially, Gems of Poesy was intended as a companion volume to The Wreath of Wild Flowers, as they both circulated at similar times – a source of inspiration and examples of poetry for people who may not be able to access these poems elsewhere.

The value of copying out particularly interesting poems from printed sources for an audience was probably a response to the comparatively expensive price of periodicals prior to the repeal of stamp duty.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

(Currently unknown) (Dundee)

Date of Existence

1834?-1836?

Date of Magazine

1(1)-1(3), Mar. 1834-Mar. 1836 (produced yearly)

Number of Issues

3

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Poems (republished material); Magazine Rules; Title page

Repository

Dundee District Central Library, The Wellgate

Reference

D22012, 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

This literary group was a bit unusual in that the members formed solely for the purpose of producing a magazine of original works. While they referred to their group as an ‘Association’ and collected subscriptions, it appears that they did not hold any formal meetings. It started as a group of 10 young men (women were allowed later) that were initially asked to join by F. J. Osborn, who would act as the magazine’s Editor.

Osborn, in his ‘Editorial’ in the first number, explains his methods of persuasion to elicit contributions: after convincing one young man to contribute an article, he would then approach another acquaintance and tell him that ‘Fizgog’ has sent in his contribution. He would then go on to say it was such a poor production that surely he (the acquaintance) could produce something better. This ‘harmless subterfuge’ appears not to have been necessary after the launch of the first issue as contributors were more forthcoming thereafter.

According to the magazine’s rules in the first number, each member of the group was to aim for contributing an article every month, but was certainly to do so at least every three months. The magazine was to be kept for four days only (this would later change to 48 hours) and then passed on to the next member on the list or he would have to pay a fine of 1d per day. Friends were allowed to read the magazine, but the listed member was responsible for its condition. Later on, contributions were accepted from non-members. In the first issues, the Editor re-wrote each of the pieces submitted, and the authors’ artwork was cut and pasted in.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

(Currently unknown) (Hertford)

Date of Existence

1904?-1911?

Date of Magazine

March 1904 – May 1911

Number of Issues

70

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript and Typescript

Contents and Contributions

Advertisements (humorous); Art/Illustrations (original); Articles (non-fiction); Circulation Lists; Editorials; Essays; Fiction/Narratives; Jokes; Letters to Editor; Magazine Rules; Notices; Prefaces; Puzzles; Readers’ Criticisms; Sketches; Tables of Contents; Title pages

Repository

Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies (HALS) (Hertford)

Reference

DE/FJO/A11/1-70

Overview

A summary of the history of the Kent Road United Presbyterian Church Young Men’s Institute is available on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds (see ‘Additional Notes’ below).

The one extant issue of this magazine is a miscellany comprising 162 pages with 11 contributions being mostly prose essays and only two original poems. If we include the article entitled ‘Peasant Poet: Charles Davelin’, that includes extracts of his poems, the number of poetry contributions rises to three. (For a discussion of the work of Chartist poet Davelin (or Davlin), see Michael Sanders, The Poetry of Chartism: Aesthetics, Politics, History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009).) Outwith the illustration on the title page (shown in the accompanying photograph, which is a copy of the cover of The Sword and the Trowel, a Christian magazine founded in 1865), there is no artwork in this issue.

There are 35 listed readers in the circulation list at the front of the magazine. However, it was not unusual for these magazines to be passed among family and friends outwith the ‘official’ list of readers.

The Editors’ ‘Notes to Readers’ at the front of the magazine acts as a list of rules for the submission of contributions. Also, it gives the length of time allowed for reading the magazine (two days), and adjures readers to promptly deliver the issue to the next person on the waiting list, a rule that was, apparently, routinely transgressed by several members previously. In addition, the Editors request that contributors and ‘critics’ (i.e. readers who wrote in their comments on the articles and/or the magazine after reading) use a pen-name. Critics were to use the blank pages provided at the back of the magazine for their ‘criticisms’, and these were to be not too lengthy. There are 20 pages of readers’ criticisms at the back of this issue.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Kent Road United Presbyterian Church Young Men’s Institute (Glasgow)

Date of Existence

1 November 1865-?

Date of Magazine

No. 2, Vol. 3 (1 April 1872)

Number of Issues

1 (extant)

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Annotation; Circulation List; Correspondence column; Editorial; Essays; Magazine Rules; Poems (original); Preface; Readers’ Criticisms; Serial article/story; Sketch; Table of Contents;  Title page

Repository

Mitchell Library Special Collections

Reference

725431

Additional Notes

See also entry for Kent Road U. P. [United Presbyterian] Church Young Men’s Institute on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds.

Overview

The only surviving manuscript magazine from an all-female society in Dundee. The Editorial Preface pre-empts criticism by giving a very modest account of the work: “However much ladies in general, are disposed to self delusion, we can not imagine that our book or magazine, which has nothing to recommend it, can be recommended by the editor’s preface.”

The magazine evidently had an interested readership awaiting it, though, as indicated by the inside cover bearing a warning that readers who keep the volume longer than two days will be fined. The contributions are very much in keeping with what other societies were producing at a comparable time, including essays, poetry, and short reflections on topics including Literature and Slavery. Like several other magazines, the entries have all been written out by an editor so the handwriting is consistent.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Diagnostic Society? (Note: it is currently unclear if this is the group that produced this magazine) (Dundee)

Date of Existence

1848?-?

Date of Magazine

Vol. I, No. 1, 1848

Number of Issues

1

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Articles (non-fiction); Editorial; Essays; Magazine Rules; Poems (original); Title page

Repository

Dundee District Central Library, The Wellgate

Reference

L266(2), 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

A summary of the history of the Pollokshields Literary and Art Circle is available on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds (see ‘Additional Notes’ below).

Only one issue of this society magazine, 106 pages long, has been located, though as earlier January and February issues are mentioned in members’ comments this is probably the third issue of a newly launched effort. The magazine includes a set of prescriptive rules. According to these rules, members had to contribute monthly or pay a 2d fine, and they could keep the magazine for only two days and would be fined 1d for every extra day. Members who failed to contribute for 3 months running would be assumed to have resigned from the society.

Of particular interest is the competitive nature of this magazine: each member had 5 votes and could give up to two of these to their favourite articles. A blank page was included beside each contribution where readers could register their votes, and the magazine also contained a ‘Suggestions’ page at the end, used for lively critical discussion. Vote tallies for the previous issue were announced in the issue following.

Writers could not contribute either articles or criticism anonymously but pseudonyms were permitted. Whether these rules were followed is doubtful, since the editor expresses disappointment that only 15 out of 30 contributors had submitted a piece for the first issue, and according to the dates recorded in the circulation list, almost no-one managed to pass on the magazine within their allotted two days. Thirteen out of the thirty listed members were women, so this is one of the magazines with the strongest representation from female authors.

As befits a magazine ‘of Literature and Art’, contributions included drawings, paintings and musical compositions as well as fiction, poetry and factual and descriptive articles. The criticisms under ‘Suggestions’ are the most engaging aspect of this issue. A number of these express disappointment with the quality of the work submitted and object to its language or form, as in a complaint that a sonnet by ‘Dagon’ contained twenty rather than fourteen lines. A leading contributor, ‘Hecla’, also felt that the ‘prose contributions savour too much of “Tit Bits” and “Child’s Advisor”’ – his/her own contribution consisted of a serialized historical religious novel, ‘Broken Bonds.’

This magazine contains poetry, fiction, artwork, musical compositions, informative articles on ‘Newspapers’ and ‘Balloons and Ballooning’, as well as art criticism.

Name of Club, Society or Group That Produced the Magazine

Pollokshields Literary and Art Circle (Glasgow)

Date of Existence

1890?-?

Date of Magazine

May 1890

Number of Issues

1

Manuscript/Published Magazine

Manuscript

Contents and Contributions

Art/Illustrations (original); Articles (non-fiction); Circulation List; Fiction/Narratives; Magazine Rules; Music; Poems (original); Readers’ Criticisms; Readers’ votes; Serial article/story

Repository

Mitchell Library Special Collections

Reference

891359

Additional Notes

See also entry for Pollokshields Literary and Art Circle on our sister website, Glasgow’s Literary Bonds.

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.