Improving Reading
The Cheap Magazine. Haddington: Printed and Published by George Miller and Son, 1813-4. 8vo (2 vols). half calf over marbled boards; woodcut vignettes to text; provenance: Compton Mackenzie (his bookplate to upper pastedowns).
A curious thing, being published for the stated aim of "Prevention of Crimes", apparently "By alluring the Young and Thoughtless to a taste for reading subjects of real utility". Evidently the publishers had been affected by the shocking scenes on the Edinburgh streets the previous year and hoped to help avoid such in future. In a refreshing turn, they blame the parents for neither demonstrating a proper interest in reading, nor encouraging the early development of literacy in their children, such that those children could take to reading instead of rampaging around the Tron Kirk mugging passers-by over Hogmanay. Mackenzie was an ardent Scottish nationalist, and as such this Lothian produced curio would seem entirely suited to his library.