In December 1936, the Signet Library paid 3/- for a 1758 copy of the Edinburgh Almanac, bound in vellum and small enough to fit a gentleman's pocket. Its blank pages were written out as a meteorological and personal diary by an anonymous author in which people were identified only by their initials.
Extensive research by conservator Jo Hockey has revealed the author as Writer to the Signet James Carmichael of Hailes (1716-1781), the owner of the Easter Hailes estate near Colinton. Marriage to Jennet, the daughter of Sir John Clerk of Penicuik (1676-1755) would tie Carmichael into a brilliant circle that included the geologist James Hutton, the engraver John Clerk of Eldin and, beyond them, most of the great names of the Scottish Enlightenment.
Much has been made of the urban origins of the Scottish Enlightenment, but politics was dominated by the great landowners and their rural familial seats with much of the new thinking of the time orientated to the countryside. James Hutton was one of many eighteenth century figures seeking to "improve" agriculture: he also took an interest in mining practice. John Clerk of Eldin accompanied Hutton and drew for him on his epochal journey through Glen Tilt. Carmichael had the management of the estate at Easter Hailes in his aegis and was interested enough in mining to journey to the Isle of Man in 1758 to visit James Lowther's 'coall works'.
The Upper West Library exhibition for September reflects these interests in the lives and works of Carmichael, his circle and other reforming thinkers and workers of this crucial period. It includes the WS Society’s own record of James Hutton’s WS apprenticeship, examples of eighteenth century mining maps by major cartographers and engravers of the day, an album of John Clerk of Eldin’s artworks and examples from Signet Library collections of the literature of agricultural improvement.
