The Banstead Image Library
'A Lecture on Wit, Humour, and Pathos'
This curious little book, published in 1861 and running to 50 pages, is a verbatim account of “A Lecture on Wit, Humour, and Pathos, delivered at Banstead by Benjamin Lambert, Esq”.
Benjamin Lambert (1817-90) was a member of the Lambert family that had been associated with Banstead since the Middle Ages. He was born in Banstead, and in 1858 he inherited Well House from his father Daniel.
He delivered the lecture at the Banstead Reading Rooms – which, according to the Morning Advertiser newspaper at the time, were “provided by Public Subscriptions, to which rich and poor were alike invited, mainly for the benefit of the working classes”.
The book was published in London by Henry James Tresidder of 18 Ave Maria Lane, Paternoster Row, and printed by M.S. Rickerby, Hand Court, Upper Thames Street, E.C. in 1861.
Picture added on 04 March 2022 at 17:54
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James Crouch of the BHRG has established that the Reading Rooms in the Village were opposite the Woolpack pub, and at one time they were school rooms before the arrival of the Village School in Avenue Road. There was another reading room at Burgh Heath.
These rooms were common throughout England in the mid- and late 19th century, and were provided and funded by the gentry not only to benefit and educate working class men, but also to try and keep them out of pubs. In Banstead’s case, siting such a room opposite the Woolpack might seem something of a lost cause!
We now know that for whatever reason, both the Banstead and Burgh Heath reading rooms were poorly patronised, and in the end they closed down.
An article about this interesting subject will appear on the BHRG website in due course – and we will, of course, provide a link to it. Meanwhile, if you have any information, do please post it here.