Kit Baston

Centre for Robert Burns Studies Conference Logos for the National Trust for Scotland and the University of Glasgow Image shows the head of Robert Burns in stained glass

Centre for Robert Burns Studies Conference
17 Jan @uofglasgow.bsky.social

@glasgowburns.bsky.social’s conference exploring the life, work, & legacy of Robert Burns. This year’s theme is the Burns Supper, a global phenomenon marking its 225th anniversary in 2026
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/centre-for...

Definitely of interest! Thank you!

Benjamin Bell.

The transcription of Edinburgh University Library’s Receipt Book for the Book Borrowing Surgeons project is well underway. Kit Baston gives an update on her project, funded by an OEC Jean Guild Grant. #edinburghsurgeons #edinburghuniversitylibrary #RCSEd

oldedinburghclub.org.uk/kit-baston-t...

An update on my 'Book Borrowing Surgeons' project, funded by an @oldedinburghclub.bsky.social Jean Guild Grant. You can see the Receipt Book I'm working on in digital form here: borrowing.stir.ac.uk/library/edin...

BSECS Conference Registration Registration for the BSECS Annual Conference is now open. Please use the form below to register for the conference.

DON'T FORGET to register for #BSECS2026 @pembrokeoxford.bsky.social, 7-9 January 2026.
Early bird rates apply until tomorrow (Saturday 15 November 2025)
#skystorians #18thC 🗃️
www.bsecs.org.uk/conferences/...

Excited to be speaking in Dunblane on 15 Nov for the Leighton Library. I'll be sharing findings from my PhD and the @books-borrowing.bsky.social project.

Do come along to hear more about Enlightenment and conspiracy in the reading habits of Leighton members!

The front cover of November 2025's Who Do You Think You Are magazine showing two children leaning against a tree.

The BBC's "Who Do You Think You Are" Magazine new November 2025 issue's "Gem from the Archive" features the Signet Library's @oldedinburghclub.bsky.social funded project on the records of John Watson's Institution, research undertaken by @kgbaston.bsky.social @johockey.bsky.social

Join the OEC - The Old Edinburgh Club Find out how to join the Old Edinburgh Club and gain the benefits of membership

Well, as they say, the nights are fairly drawing in & if you want something to do and are interested in Edinburgh History, why not join the Old Edinburgh Club? Alternatively, you can now give a Gift Membership to someone else. All details are on our website.

Q&A with Paul du Plessis on Henry Maine’s Ancient Law My monograph aims to revisit the book with the central question: what did Maine believe he was doing when he wrote Ancient Law? 

✒️ New on the blog

@sententiaepauli.bsky.social chats to EUP about his new book: Henry Maine’s Ancient Law as an Expression of Victorian Humanism.

Read the post:

Join us for this event on Friday. Hybrid.

www.law.ed.ac.uk/news-events/...

Tonight!

Pictures of historical kitchens. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002jsc2

Love a historical kitchen? Tune into #AHistoryOfEnglandIn25Poems on Radio 4 tomorrow to go 'below stairs' in an eighteenth-century country house. Our guide is Mary Leapor, a labouring class poet who worked in domestic service. Beneath the worlds of Bridgerton & Jane Austen - who did the washing up?

SAVE THE DATE! The Stair Society AGM and Annual Lecture will be taking place on Saturday 15 November 2025 in Edinburgh. More details to follow, but we are pleased to announce that Professor Julian Goodare, University of Edinburgh, will be delivering a talk on ‘Witchcraft and Scots Law’.

Looking forward to this launch of @drmirandakaufmann.bsky.social's Heiresses: Marriage, Inheritance, and Slavery in the Caribbean at The Georgian House.

Date: 2 Oct • 18:30

Location: 7 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, EH2 4DR

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/heiresses-...

Lothian Health Services Archive Cataloguer: elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

despite everything going on, I'm so happy to be able to keep creating jobs in the heritage sector, check out the following listings for: Assistant Musical Instruments Curator:
elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

“THE INHERITANCE is, then, a novel concerned with questions of morality and education, but also national identity, the differences between Scottish and English cultures… It is also very funny”

—Books & Borrowing, 1750–1830 on Susan Ferrier’s THE INHERITANCE
7/8
borrowing.stir.ac.uk/forgotten-be...

Marriage: A Novel, by Susan Ferrier - Vol. 1 Ch. 1 Chapter 1 of Susan Ferrier's Marriage – a witty and satirical examination of female lives in the Regency

We republished Susan Ferrier’s MARRIAGE in 2020—using the text of the acid-sharp 1819 2nd edition rather than the sentimentalised Victorian 4th edition of 1841. You can read the first chapter online here:
3/8
www.yumpu.com/en/document/...

Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.

Also www.theatlantic.com/technology/a... (good info on Scots law and witchcraft in this one).

I've made nothing (and won't) from publishing my book - included in LibGen (www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...). 😠The Anthropic Piracy Lawsuit form is now available to authors outwith the US: www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-au... ✔️✒️(On a lighter note 'outwith' is now definitely in the AI realm.)

24 month, 0.16 post at Glasgow University to cover my teaching while I'm leading a Leverhulme Project Grant. Desirable: Up-to-date knowledge and specialist understanding in science fiction, literature and medicine, and/or post-war literature.
www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/lecturer...

Unzoomed Identify cities using satellite images in this daily puzzle game, where each guess zooms out for enhanced clues.

Unzoomed #584 3/6 🔴🟡🟢⚪️⚪️⚪️
unzoomed.com Happy with that.

The British Association for Romantic Studies Biennal International Conference 2026 - Romantic Retrospection
In-person: Wednesday 29th–Friday 31st July 2026
Online Conference: Thursday 6th August 2026

Updates & CfP announced:

www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/arts-...

[Image: Birmingham Museums Trust]

View of beamed medieval hall with guild banners and oil paintings.

Lovely visit to @merchantshallyork.org this morning - cafe and Hall both on great form! 🤩

Happy International Cat Day! 🐾

Have you visited Whittington: The Man, The Myth, and The Cat yet?

Don’t miss it — closing 21 August 2025!

Collecting The Most Beautiful Books - August Talk Join us on Friday 22nd August for an incredible evening delving into the Bute Collection at Mount Stuart's rare collection of bookbindings!

Collecting The Most Beautiful Books
22 Aug, Rothesay – £8.50–£11

Kelsey Jackson Williams explores armorial bookbindings in the Bute Collection & tells the story of an exceptional but unknown assemblage of book-art in the Mount Stuart libraries
#BookHistory
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/collecting...

New History Book Series Call for Proposals: Routledge Studies in Eighteenth- Century Cultures and Societies - BSECS Series Editors: Elaine Chalus, University of Liverpool, UK and Deborah Simonton, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark Routledge Editor: Max Novick The long eighteenth century sits as a pivotal poin...

***CALL FOR PROPOSALS***
Routledge Studies in #18thC Cultures & Societies (eds. @profelainechalus.bsky.social & Deborah Simonton) seeks proposals for book-length studies on aspects of British, European, or transnational culture and society c.1680-1850. Full details: www.bsecs.org.uk/news-and-eve...

Books on display in a case at The Georgian House's 'West End Girls' exhibition: H. B. Farnie's 'Pet Marjorie' and a transcription of Marjory Fleming's writings from the 1930s; Catherine Sinclair's 'Holiday House' (copy from 1844); Elizabeth Grant, 'Memoirs of a Highland Lady' (1st edition of 1898).

Display of white feathers, a lace fan, and a small Bible along with two books by Catherine Sinclair in modern reprints ('Modern Society' and 'Modern Accomplishments' on a table beneath a panel about the accomplishments late Georgian young ladies were expected to attain, including how to be have when presented at court during King George IV's visit to Scotland in 1822.

An introductory to the 'West End Girls' exhibition giving brief biographies of Elizabeth Grant, Catherine Sinclair, and Marjory Fleming. Each of these authors has an avatar that enables visitors to follow them through the exhibition. The panel is also illustrated with two of Sinclair's watercolour paintings depicting incidents in her book for children, 'Holiday House'. The exhibition focuses on what it was like to be a girl in the late Georgian era. All three girls had connections to Charlotte Square.

Anne Young's 'Musical Games' for which she was granted a royal patent in 1801. Young was a music teacher who designed the games playable with this set to reduce the drudgery of learning - and teaching - music. The game comprises an oblong box, a printed keyboard, moveable pegs, ivory counters, and dice. The set is incredibly rare: this is the first time it has been displayed at The Georgian House.

I finally got around to taking some photos of the 'West End Girls' Exhibition at The Georgian House:

Monochrome illustration of a huge, split yew tree, with two leafy outgrowths on each side of a rent and serrated trunk. Subtitled "Yew tree at Fortingal".

In a new entry on our research blog, Glasgow's Alex Deans reflects on how Thomas Pennant's tours of Scotland are haunted by absent, ancient trees - and the possibility of enlightened reforestation

curioustravellers.ac.uk/thomas-penna...

The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh announces the launch of a new website, The People’s Dispensary featuring a digitised and transcribed collection of 18th century case notes of the Edinburgh Public Dispensary from its foundation in 1776.
buff.ly/UzShOzg