Record Number: 7944

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

[Smith joins a reading group of seven with a view to self-improvement] 'We got a good room, with such attendance as we required, at the sum above named; and thus, for sixpence a week each, with an additional three-halfpence in winter time for firing, we had an imperfect, it is true, but still an efficient means of improvement at our command. Here we met nearly three hundred nights in the year, and talked, read, disputed and wrote "de omnibus rebus et quibusdam aliis" until the clock struck eleven.'

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Between 1 Jan 1824 and 31 Dec 1824

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

county: Devon
other location: room at a public house

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

---

Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Charles Manby Smith

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

1804

Socio-Economic Group:

Labourer (non-agricultural)

Occupation:

Apprentice printer

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

Reading group

Additional Comments:

n/a

---

Text Being Read:

Author:

[unknown]

Title:

[various]

Genre:

Unknown

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

reading group

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

7944

Source:

Print

Author:

Charles Manby Smith

Editor:

n/a

Title:

Working man's way into the world

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1857

Vol:

n/a

Page:

14

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Charles Manby Smith, Working man's way into the world, (London, 1857), p. 14, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=7944, accessed: 16 March 2025

---

Additional Comments:

None