 | a bibliographical newsletter Issue 19 January 2021  |
Welcome to the New Year
... and to the new decade with a little New Year's Gift.
Since then twelve score years have passed byAnd 2021 is nigh.No wars in Europe, only Brexit,Our feeling of great gloom reflects it,But as for plagues and sickness, CovidDeserves the pen of poet OvidWho sings of metamorphosesBut still a better world foresees.So, this Exonian newsboy cheers:Good riddance 2020's tiers!
While this broadsheet is in the Westcountry Studies Library's ephemera collections it should not strictly feature in the Devon bibliography, being published in Sherborne, Dorset. Sherborne, a day's journey from London became an important printing centre serving the whole of the south west of England during the 18th century. The Sherborne mercury and the Sherborne journal were delivered by post-boys travelling on horseback as far as Land's End. In the account books of the naturalist and antiquary William Borlase, rector of Ludgvan, fifteen miles from Land's End, we read an entry in the 1760s:
The New Year and new decade means that I have opened a page for 2021 on the Devon bibliography website and also a new spreadsheet for the new decade in the working files where the records are held and archived. The British national bibliography has received a cursory check up to the end of last year but a check for 2021 publications on Amazon has been less productive than previous years, a reflection of Covid, perhaps. The pages for 2020, 2019 and 2018 have also been updated and there are plans to work backwards through the decade during 2021. I have also continued to update the list of bulletins for Devon County Council's Coronavirus response updates, which provide an excellent week by week summary of the County Council's response to the pandemic and I have recently located URLs for similar bulletins for East Devon and Teignbridge.
To Frank the Sherborn, New Year's gift 5 shillingsa generous amount, perhaps as much as £50 in today's money. No doubt post-boys carrying Exeter papers were armed with similar broadsheets but none have survived, so this will sneak in as a regional representative of a class of literature which has completely disappeared for Devon - unless any of you know better.
The New Year and new decade means that I have opened a page for 2021 on the Devon bibliography website and also a new spreadsheet for the new decade in the working files where the records are held and archived. The British national bibliography has received a cursory check up to the end of last year but a check for 2021 publications on Amazon has been less productive than previous years, a reflection of Covid, perhaps. The pages for 2020, 2019 and 2018 have also been updated and there are plans to work backwards through the decade during 2021. I have also continued to update the list of bulletins for Devon County Council's Coronavirus response updates, which provide an excellent week by week summary of the County Council's response to the pandemic and I have recently located URLs for similar bulletins for East Devon and Teignbridge.
Devon historian
Congratulations to the Devon History Society for producing another excellent issue of their journal in such testing times. I have prepared bibliographical records for the articles to show the range of topics discussed and the current relevance they may have, for example John Bradbeer's article in the light of shipping problems currently faced following Brexit, Sarah Child's article in the light of today's epidemic and Peter Wingfield-Digby's article in the light of "black lives matter" - the Lousadas were prominent slave owners.
Copies: WSL: PER/DEV ; BAR: 050/B/DEV ; DEI ; EUL ; PLY ; TOR. —
Subjects: Devon. North Devon. Shipping. 1566-1577. -
Dutton, Ed. The family background and youth of Devonshire Restoration playwright, lyriciast and wit Thomas D'Urfey (1653-1723) / Ed Dutton. - In: Devon historian ; 90, 2020. — Pages 17-26 : portrait. - ISSN 0305-8549. —
Copies: WSL: PER/DEV ; BAR: 050/B/DEV ; DEI ; EUL ; PLY ; TOR. —
Subjects: Devon. Exeter. Writers. D'Urfey, Thomas. Youth. 1653-1723. -
Wingfield-Digby, Peter. The Lousadas of Sidmouth / Peter Wingfield-Digby. - In: Devon historian ; 90, 2020. — Pages 27-36 : genealogical table. - ISSN 0305-8549. —
Copies: WSL: PER/DEV ; BAR: 050/B/DEV ; DEI ; EUL ; PLY ; TOR. —
Subjects: Devon. Sidmouth. Families. Lousada family. 1793-1890. -
Child, Sarah. A village epidemic in 1731 : smallpox in Rackenfield / Sarah Child. - In: Devon historian ; 90, 2020. — Pages 37-44 : tables. - ISSN 0305-8549. —
Copies: WSL: PER/DEV ; BAR: 050/B/DEV ; DEI ; EUL ; PLY ; TOR. —
Subjects: Devon. Rackenford. Smallpox. Epidemics. 1731. -
Jones, Andrew. Church fees in the first half of the nineteenth century / Andrew Jones. - In: Devon historian ; 90, 2020. — Pages 45-51. - ISSN 0305-8549. —
Copies: WSL: PER/DEV ; BAR: 050/B/DEV ; DEI ; EUL ; PLY ; TOR. —
Subjects: Devon. Church of England. Fees. 1787-1836. -
Bayer, Penny. The contribution of NUWSS organisers in Devon to the campaign for women's suffrage 1907-1914 / Penny Bayer. - In: Devon historian ; 90, 2020. — Pages 53-67 : tables. - ISSN 0305-8549. —
Copies: WSL: PER/DEV ; BAR: 050/B/DEV ; DEI ; EUL ; PLY ; TOR. —
Subjects: Devon. Suffrage organisations. National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. Campaigns. 1907-1914. -
Auchterlonie, Paul. A whole-hogger in Honiton : how Clive Morrison-Bell became a member of Parliament in 1910 / Paul Auchterlonie. - In: Devon historian ; 90, 2020. — Pages 69-81. - ISSN 0305-8549. —
Copies: WSL: PER/DEV ; BAR: 050/B/DEV ; DEI ; EUL ; PLY ; TOR. —
Subjects: Devon. Honiton. Members of Parliament. Morrison-Bell, Clive. Elections. 1910. -
Apart from these seven articles on a range of topics, there are fifteen publications reviewed, thirteen for 2019 and two for 2020. Of these the Devon bibliography had picked up a mere seven and the Westcountry Studies Library only five. Since those responsible for the journal's reviews have close links to the Devon and Exeter Institution it is a safe bet that DEI has picked up most of these items for the library, so they are twice as good as WSL and DB in covering current historical writings relating to the county. Not only that, but the reviews provided links to another ten or so publications by the Abbotskerswell local history group AbbPast and a series of maps of north Devon in 1840 by the cartographer Martin Ebdon at a scale of 1:16,000. These had not been picked up by the Devon bibliography and do not appear in the on-line catalogue of the Westcountry Studies Library. So, full marks to the DEI - it does make a difference to have specialist librarians to hand.
Tom D'Urfey
An article in the Devon historian prompts me to resurrect a neglected Exonian writer on the occasion of the UNESCO city of literature project. Thomas D'Urfey (the apostrophe was introduced by him to claim French noble status) was probably born in Exeter in 1653, the son of Severinus Durfy an officer in Cromwell's New Model Army which was garrisoned here in the 1650s. He became a friend of Charles II and James II and was a prolific playwright and lyricist, involved in polemics and satirised for his stutter which he only lost when singing or swearing, two activities in which he habitually engaged. He first came to my attention through the six volumes of Pills to purge melancholy, a collection of often bawdy ballads and songs, many of which he wrote himself. Some have become folk songs or nursery rhymes, such as "Over the hills and far away", Lavender's green dilly dilly" and "Old Macdonald had a farm". The Westcountry Studies Library holds a good collection of his writings, but I have set myself the task of assessing just how complete local coverage is. Another Devon link with this Restoration wit is the fact the Sabine Baring-Gould referred to Pills to purge melancholy during his researches into folk songs and he included him in Devonshire characters and strange events.
Powerpoint versions of web pages
I have been occupying my time during lockdown #3 by preparing the following Powerpoint presentations for uploading onto Slideshare:
Devon book. D-12. The book in Saxon Devon.
Devon book. D-13. Exeter Cathedral Library: recreating a major medieval library through surviving documents.
Devon book. D-29a. Devon broadside ballads, 1547-1900.
Devon book. D-42. The changing view of Devon through topographical prints, 1656-1876.
Devon book. D-81. An historical bibliography of Devon, 1500-2020.
Devon book. D-82. A history of bibliographical work in Devon, 1070-2020.
Devon book. D-83. The importance and the future of bibliography in Devon.
World book. W-20. The printing revolution : Exeter Library's oldest book in context, 1450-1550.
The link should enable you to see the slides and directly related text but to hear the narration it will be necessary to download the file. You are free to use the presentations as you see fit, but I would be interested to hear if they are publicly presented.
In part they are preparing talks for Zoom meetings scheduled over the coming months (D-13 is due to be relayed through Crediton Library in March and another will be prepared for a conference on "Printing for tourism" in July for example), and in part they are produced as a contribution to the UNESCO city of literature project. They slot into a World Book Heritage initiative which aims to gather together my scattered researches over the past half century into something approaching a coherent whole. There are many gaps in coverage, particularly on literature outside western Europe and recent developments, and researchers in Exeter may wish to add contributions to highlight treasures in libraries in Exeter. Work has already been undertaken recently on medical literature and children's literature in conjunction with Exeter Library for example, and also on travel books in the Devon and Exeter Institution.
The UNESCO project has not endorsed this initiative but it is offered up as a possible framework for a collaborative project for the library, archive and museum world in Exeter. Hopefully too the UNESCO project will generate an atmosphere where libraries in Exeter can get their act together and take this bibliographical albatross off my shoulders, so that I can get a life.
Writing in 1960 W.G.Hoskins lamented in Two thousand years in Exeter:
Today the city library, burnt out nearly twenty years ago, is still a shambles. The failure to rebuild it is the greatest disgrace in the post-war history of this city. It is clear that books are not considered to be important in modern Exeter. [...] Somewhere between 1860 and now Exeter ceased to be a cultured city.
Much has improved over the half century since then. The library was finally rebuilt in 1965 and on local government reorganisation in 1975 Devon became the library authority for Exeter. The local studies library services and the record offices for city and county were merged in a heritage centre in the heart of Exeter. But what has happened to Devon's printed heritage over the past decade is nothing short of cultural vandalism. In 2011 austerity kicked in and local studies was the sacrificial lamb, its funding cut by perhaps 95%. The service that provided for Devon what the British Library provides for the nation was shipped out to a warehouse on a trading estate three miles from the city centre, without designated library staff or resource funding. Exeter's central library, a thriving community hub in the heart of the city, has a worse local studies collection than towns such as Barnstaple, Tiverton or Tavistock - let alone Plymouth. In fact, so far has the Westcountry Studies Library fallen below the horizon that when Literature Works put in the successful bid to become Britain's UNESCO city of literature, it did so without any mention of the region's largest local studies collection. This is not to criticise the South West Heritage Trust which now runs the service from Taunton. They have achieved much since being handed this poisoned chalice but, to mix metaphors, it is not possible to make bricks without straw. Let us hope that local studies and bibliography in Devon exits this decade in a better state than it enteredit. Let us hope too that it finds a secure place in the post-covid community that we will struggle to build over the coming years.
