Subscription library: only for "respectable inhabitants"

"Nothing more is known of George Green's life for certain until he reached the age of thirty and became a member of the Nottingham Subscription Library. No other serious library facilities existed in Nottingham at this period, but the Subscription Library was in effect a gentlemen's club, housed in the elegant Georgian Bromley House in the Market Square. The members owned the property, purchased books according to their taste, and confined their numbers to prosperous and 'respectable inhabitants of the town' drawn from the professional classes, the gentry, and successful men of business".

Quelle: D. M. Cannell: "George Green: An Enigmatic Mathematician". In: The American Mathematical Monthly 106 (1999) 2, S. 136-151