inspired by brass door handles

Whenever I see brass nobs or handles, I am tempted to ask if I can polish them. This particularly handsome pair are in Kendal Library.

We discovered the library on the day we came to live in Kendal. We were waiting for a phone-call to say that our Kendal solicitor had received the money for our new house from our Scottish solicitor. We found it to be a warm and welcoming place and have made good use of it ever since.

Opened in 1909, it is one of 308 libraries in Britain to benefit from the Carnegie Trust Fund. Andrew Carnegie (1835 - 1919) was a Scottish American who made a vast fortune investing in sleeping cars, oil, iron and steel. In 1870 he founded the Carnegie Steel Company. When he sold it in 1901, it was the largest and most profitable industrial enterprise in the world. He devoted the remainder of his life to large-scale philanthropy, with special emphasis on local libraries, world peace, education and scientific research. We have visited his birthplace in Dunfirmline. I remember the Carnegie Museum had a large number of elaborate keys which had been used to ceremoniously open buildings all over the world.

Thank you, Andrew Carnegie, and the present librarians, for creating such a welcoming and useful place.