Immediately below the light room of Scotland’s Bell Rock lighthouse was a library. Writer R.M. Ballantyne spent two weeks there in 1865:

[I]t is a most comfortable and elegant apartment. The other rooms of the lighthouse, although thoroughly substantial in their furniture and fittings, are quite plain and devoid of ornament, but the library, or ‘stranger’s room’, as it is sometimes called, being the guest-chamber, is fitted up in a style worthy of a lady’s boudoir, with a Turkey carpet, handsome chairs, and an elaborately carved oak table, supported appropriately by a centre stem of three twining dolphins. The dome of the ceiling is painted to represent stucco panelling, and the partition which cuts off the small segment of this circular room that is devoted to passage and staircase, is of panelled oak. The thickness of this partition is just sufficient to contain the bookcase; also a cleverly contrived bedstead, which can be folded up during the day out of sight. There is also a small cupboard of oak, which serves the double purpose of affording shelf accommodation and concealing the iron smoke-pipe which rises from the kitchen, and, passing through the several storeys, projects a few feet above the lantern. The centre window is ornamented with marble sides and top, and above it stands a marble bust of Robert Stevenson, the engineer of the building, with a marble slab below bearing testimony to the skill and energy with which he had planned and executed the work.

Stevenson, perhaps fittingly, was the grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson.

(From R.M. Ballantyne, The Lighthouse, 1865.)

Like many thinkers of his age, John Locke maintained a commonplace book, an intellectual scrapbook of ideas and quotations he’d found in his readings. In order to be useful, such a book needs an index, and Locke’s method is both concise (occupying only two pages) and flexible (accommodating new topics as they come up, without wasting pages in trying to anticipate them).

The index lists the letters of the alphabet, each accompanied by the five vowels. Then:

When I meet with any thing, that I think fit to put into my common-place-book, I first find a proper head. Suppose for example that the head be EPISTOLA. I look unto the index for the first letter and the following vowel which in this instance are E. i. If in the space marked E. i. there is any number that directs me to the page designed for words that begin with an E and whose first vowel after the initial letter is I, I must then write under the word Epistola in that page what I have to remark.

The result is a useful compromise: Each of the book’s pages is put to productive use without any need for an overarching plan, and the contents are kept accessible through a simple, expanding index that occupies only two pages. The whole project can grow in almost any direction, and when the pages are full then a new volume can be begun.

(Via the Public Domain Review.)

In 1895 French writer Georges Polti drew up a list of every dramatic situation that might arise in a story or performance, based on an earlier list drawn up by Venetian playwright Carlo Gozzi. They number only 36 — Polti listed the elements necessary for each:

1. Supplication (“a Persecutor, a Suppliant and a Power in authority, whose decision is doubtful”)
2. Deliverance (“an Unfortunate, a Threatener, a Rescuer”)
3. Crime Pursued by Vengeance (“an Avenger and a Criminal”)
4. Vengeance Taken for Kindred Upon Kindred (“Avenging Kinsman, Guilty Kinsman, Remembrance of the Victim, a Relative of Both”)
5. Pursuit (“Punishment and Fugitive”)
6. Disaster (“a Vanquished Power, a Victorious Enemy or a Messenger”)
7. Falling Prey to Cruelty or Misfortune (“an Unfortunate, a Master or a Misfortune”)
8. Revolt (“Tyrant and Conspirator”)
9. Daring Enterprise (“A Bold Leader, an Object, an Adversary”)
10. Abduction (“The Abductor, the Abducted; the Guardian”)
11. The Enigma (“Interrogator, Seeker and Problem”)
12. Obtaining (“A Solicitor and an Adversary Who Is Refusing, or an Arbitrator and Opposing Parties”)
13. Enmity of Kinsmen (“a Malevolent Kinsman; a Hated or Reciprocally Hating Kinsman”)
14. Rivalry of Kinsmen (“The Preferred Kinsman; the Rejected Kinsman; the Object”)
15. Murderous Adultery (“Two Adulterers; a Betrayed Husband or Wife”)
16. Madness (“Madman and Victim”)
17. Fatal Imprudence (“The Imprudent; the Victim or the Object Lost”)
18. Involuntary Crimes of Love (“The Lover; the Beloved; the Revealer”)
19. Slaying of a Kinsman Unrecognized (“The Slayer; the Unrecognized Victim”)
20. Self-Sacrifice for an Ideal (“The Hero; the Ideal; the ‘Creditor’ or the Person or Thing Sacrificed”)
21. Self-Sacrifice for Kindred (“The Hero; the Kinsman; the ‘Creditor’ or the Person or Thing Sacrificed”)
22. All Sacrificed for a Passion (“The Lover; the Object of the Fatal Passion; the Person or Thing Sacrificed”)
23. Necessity of Sacrificing Loved Ones (“The Hero; the Beloved Victim; the Necessity for the Sacrifice”)
24. Rivalry of Superior and Inferior (“The Superior Rival; the Inferior Rival; the Object”)
25. Adultery (“A Deceived Husband or Wife; Two Adulterers”)
26. Crimes of Love (“The Lover; the Beloved”)
27. Discovery of the Dishonor of a Loved One (“The Discoverer; the Guilty One”)
28. Obstacles to Love (“Two Lovers; an Obstacle”)
29. An Enemy Loved (“The Beloved Enemy; the Lover; the Hater”)
30. Ambition (“An Ambitious Person; a Thing Coveted; an Adversary”)
31. Conflict With a God (“A Mortal; an Immortal”)
32. Mistaken Jealousy (“The Jealous One; The Object of Whose Possession He Is Jealous; the Supposed Accomplice; the Cause or the Author of the Mistake”)
33. Erroneous Judgment (“The Mistaken One; the Victim of the Mistake; the Cause or Author of the Mistake; the Guilty Person”)
34. Remorse (“The Culprit; the Victim or the Sin; the Interrogator”)
35. Recovery of a Lost One (“The Seeker; the One Found”)
36. Loss of Loved Ones (“A Kinsman Slain; a Kinsman Spectator; an Executioner”)

Each situation has its variations; for example, The Count of Monte Cristo is a Revenge for a False Accusation, a variation on the Crime Pursued by Vengeance; and Great Expectations is a Life Sacrificed for the Happiness of a Relative or Loved One, a variation on Self-Sacrifice for Kindred.

The whole book is here.