Resource

The Mechanics’ Institution faces nearly the west entrance of St. Paul’s Church. The building is spacious and convenient, though it was erected on too expensive a plan, which has kept the society shackled with debt for many years. There are several thousand volumes of books in all departments of literature. Latterly novels have been introduced in a certain proportion. The utility of the society is much increassd by courses of lectures. There is a museum, to which the Duke of Northumberland has just given a great many stuffed birds, which have made a great improvement. The apartments on the ground floor are oceupied by the librarian, Mr. George Lingwood, a man of great intelligence and of a literary turn. He can write good poetry sometimes, and has published several pieces in the Alnwick Mereury, under the signature of “ Aln Brae.” The following is a specimen, and I like it very much :—