A VILLAGE LIBRARY.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Mr. F. D. Perrott's letter in your issue of November 30th, in which he asks if your readers have any books suitable for a village library to spare, to send them to him, as those he already has have been read two or three times over by his people, has recalled to my mind a plan I have long thought might be adopted with advantage.
It is simply this. Get, say, a dozen villages at no great. distance from each other to join together, and interchange the books each is possessed of from time to time.
Say village A sent to the adjoining village B twenty volumes, and received from B twenty volumes in return ; B would in due course send A's books, when read, on to C, and so on. Of course, there would have to be proper regulations to ensure due care being taken of the books, and as to the time they were to be kept, &e.; but with a very moderate addition of books occasionally, a great deal might be done to meet a most crying want amongst our young men and lads who have just. left school, who do not know what to do with themselves these long winter evenings, as I can testify, from having lived in this village the last twenty-five years. Some of the adjacent town libraries might also be disposed to help.
I should like to hear what some of your readers think of this, if you can find space for this letter—I am, Sir, &c.,
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