We realise we start every update like this, but … unpacking continues! The end of the Cheshunt Room is in sight, and we have reached the call numbers beginning 124. The last call numbers intended for the Cheshunt Room begin with 133, so we are very nearly there. We have only one and a half rolling stack units to go, which will not take us long at our current speed of unpacking.

We have unpacked some more gems, of course (unpacking the library is very much like Christmas: you never quite know what you’re going to get!). Perhaps our most impressive find so far has been a copy of R.C. Trench’s On the authorized version of the New Testament … (London: 1859), given by David Livingstone to his father-in-law, missionary Robert Moffat, aboard the SS Thule in 1866. Livingstone arrived in Zanzibar on 28 January 1866, disembarking from SS Thule, “one of Captain Sherard Osborne’s late Chinese fleet”. This was the beginning of Livingstone’s last trip to Africa, which ended with his death in 1873. The library contains several books belonging to the Rev. Robert Moffat donated by his daughter, but this is the only one we have found so far with Livingstone’s signature in it.

CL 117.4.18: a collection of pamphlets on the Chinese language dated 1847-1851	CL 117.4.17: Walter Henry Medhurst, Ancient China, The Shoo-King, or, the historical classic … (Shanghai, 1846)	CL 117.4.13: William J. Boone, The notions of the Chinese concerning God and spirits … (Hong Kong, 1852)

Other books we have found include a series of mid-19^th century books with elegantly marbled covers in all sorts of designs. They are very https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_marblingpretty to look at, although very fragile, as most mid-19th century books are.

Also of note was this hand-coloured frontispiece to a 1761 edition of William Dodd’s An account of the rise, progress, and present state of the Magdalen Charity. The Magdalen Hospital, as it was later named, was established in 1758 in London to provide shelter for, and help rehabilitate, women and girls who had for a variety of reasons fallen into prostitution and who wished to reform their lives. Now the Magdalen Hospital Trust, which still helps vulnerable young people, the charity’s website says the Hospital helped more than 19,000 women before it closed its doors in 1967. We have several copies and editions of this book, which describes the establishment of the charity in the mid-18^th century.

Finally, we have a copy of John B. Gough’s memoir, Sunlight and shadow (1881) — not an especially exciting copy, perhaps, but we loved the depiction of a bat on the front cover.

If you wish to see these books or use any other part of our collections, let us know so we can book you into our reading room and order your items for you. Our catalogue is available online. If you need more information about us or about the activities of the Congregational Memorial Hall Trust more generally, please visit our website – and of course follow us on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.

See you next month!