Show old public libraries though it Is the popular idea that public libraries are of modern origin there Is proof that the anglo saxon kings of england were disposed to erect them and works were brought from ireland where sciences bad had been much earlier cultivated than in great britain but the invasion of the I 1 isor or mans stopped the spread of libraries and the first la 14 england after the con quest was estabi shed at oxford in durham now trinity college in the thirteenth century by richard de bury who purchased from thirty to forty volume volumes of the abbot of st albana albans for fifty pounds weight of silver be for that time bool s were kept in chests and not in a room styled a library at the end of the seventeenth century there were only six public libraries in great britain tie TI e first circulating library 1 nas v as founded by allan ramsay in 1725 whence he diffused phys and worl s of fiction among the people of edinburg so successful were ram say s efforts that it la Is said that within seventy years nearly every eiery town and large village possessed a library ibe ahe first in london ws started by botho a bookseller in 1740 B harn ob talked its first circulating cire library ary I 1 in n 1751 the nest next step was the tree free 11 arary Aran manchester chester possessing the first in 1850 being quickly followed by liv birminghan Birmin ghai ind othel large towns chicago nen nei s |