In the late eighteenth century, Peterkin observed the library had "as many valuable books as might be expected to be chosen by promiscuous readers"; he found its members to be "the best informed, and therefore the most reasonable common people that I know" (1799, p. 99); and, in 1823, "J", observing that "every miner can read, and most of them can write tolerably well", noted the library had around 1,200 volumes, all of which "have been entirely chosen by members themselves", and that: