Inns. Such a committee might be formed on the model of the Council of Legal Education, or perhaps more simply by empowering that body to deal with the matter, and for that special purpose to add to its number.

5. I purposely abstain from considering the administration of the several libraries, the position of the librarians, and the like. I will only venture to observe that technical work of other kinds is not commonly found to be in the long run improved by the constant interference of a fluctuating committee, however learned and eminent the individual members of such a committee may be; and that a librarian who has not some discretion in details and some real voice in general direction is in truth, whatever he may be called, and whatever he might in other conditions be capable of, not a librarian but at best a chief assistant.1

When I began to put on paper the remarks I have brought before you, I thought I should only set down a few stray notes. My excuse for troubling you thus far must be that the subject has been on my mind for a long time; and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

1 It is proper to state that at Gray's Inn things are otherwise and better ordered.

XI

THE LIBRARY OF THE ALPINE CLUB

1

A NOT uncommon belief about the Alpine Club is that it consists of a number of persons who regard mountains merely as objects of athletic ambition, and for whom the historical, scientific, and artistic interest of the Alps is non-existent or secondary. It is needless to refute this error here. Certainly we are a society primarily of mountaineers, not of antiquaries, or artists, or men of science. But to say that we ignore all interests but the gymnastic one, that in our collective capacity we treat the Alps as "greased poles," is not even a legitimate caricature. Differing in many respects from the most familiar types of literary and social clubs on the one hand, and athletic or sporting clubs on the other, the Alpine Club approaches the literary and social type in that it possesses a certain number of books. It has therefore seemed good to the Club to discover among its members one accustomed to reading and writing, and whose mountaineering youth is past, and to constitute him its harmless necessary bookworm, or in official

1 Read before the Library Association at Plymouth in 1885, and afterwards before the Alpine Club.

terms its honorary librarian. That bookworm now proposes to render to the Club a short account of his stewardship.

not return.

It is unfortunate that no systematic attention was paid to the formation of a library when the Club was first established. So far as can now be guessed, it would have been easy to secure at comparatively little expense the nucleus of a collection of Alpine literature which by this time would be unsurpassed, if not unique. But opportunities of this kind once lost do As things are we can only say that we have a sufficient working library of reference on mountain travelling and allied subjects, fair specimens of the older and more curious works, and a fair number of modern Continental publications (periodicals, pamphlets, and what not), of which not many copies can be accessible in England. There is to my certain knowledge one private collection-probably enough there are several-with which we cannot compete in books out of the common run. For about twenty years, in fact, the Club library existed rather by accident than on purpose. Books were presented by members and by the authors, English and foreign. As Alpine Clubs were formed on the Continent their periodicals were sent in exchange for the Alpine Journal. These objects occupied space and had to be put on shelves. This was done, and little or nothing more. Every member had access to the Club rooms and to all that was therein; at certain times the meetings of other social clubs were held there (I need not remind the Club that this

arrangement is no longer in force), and the shelves were equally open in fact, though not of right, to all persons present at those meetings. There was not much to prevent any one from obtaining access at other times who chose to represent himself as a member of the Alpine Club. The rules did not allow books to be taken away, but there was no explicit prohibition. Under such conditions it is more to be wondered at that any of the books were left than that some were missing.

Some half-dozen years ago the Committee resolved to take better order in the matter. My predecessor in office, Mr. C. C. Tucker, performed the first indispensable task of making a catalogue. It is dated 1880. Since that time the number and character of the additions is such that a new issue of the catalogue seems already called for.1 Adding that, without the aid of Mr. Tucker's work, I could not even have begun mine, I proceed to my own experience.

The most pressing question was the safe keeping of the books. Permanent attendance was out of the question, as the rooms are not laid out for permanent occupation, and a special attendant would have nothing to do for days or weeks together. Attendance at stated days and hours was thought of, and possibly may be thought of again; but for the present a simpler plan has been adopted. The books are in locked cases; the working catalogue lies on the Secretary's table. A member wishing to use the library obtains

1 A new catalogue was printed in 1888. It is accessible at the British Museum, the Bodleian, and the Cambridge University Library.

the key of the cases from the housekeeper on writing his name in a book kept for that purpose. The Committee can give leave to take out books on good cause shown. Perhaps these precautions do not come up to the mark of what judicial authorities have described as consummate care," but so far they have been found in the main sufficient. No light has been thrown, however, on the mysterious character of the former losses. One could understand that a costly or rare Alpine book should disappear if there was nothing but the conscience of book-hunters to prevent it. But my chief troubles were not with works of this kind. The missing items were more apt to be little catchpenny books and, what is stranger, odd numbers of foreign journals. Who can the people be that want to convert to their own use a number here and a number there of those vexatious publications, long-winded of name, flapping of texture, and inconvenient of size, which appear in "zwanglos erscheinenden Heften?" I do not know-only they exist, for this kind of thing gave me, for a while, more to do than all the rest of the affairs of the library. [The mystery remains, in 1890, as much a mystery as ever.]

The next business was to provide for the continuance and gradual improvement of our collection. Even in proportion to our modest scale the administrative means were small. I could not devote any certain or considerable amount of time to keeping up the library. Practically, therefore, I had to devise a routine that should be, as near as might be, self-acting. New English books pretty well take care of themselves.