The Libraries of the National Trust

Were the contents of the houses in the ownership of the National Trust to be combined in one place there is no doubt that they would form a museum and art gallery certainly equalling, perhaps surpassing, many national collections. This new museum would have attached to it a rather remarkable library, not as considerable in size as some in this country, but surely richer in particular areas than many. It is, in fact, difficult to produce any precise figures for the number of volumes in National Trust houses but there must certainly be several hundred thousand altogether. If there were this number of main entries in any complete catalogue that were compiled, incunables would not contribute 200, the sixteenth century five, but probably not ten, thousand. Seventeenth-century books on the other hand are much more numerous: there are perhaps 30,000 of them. But most of the works in National Trust libraries were published after 1700 — a good 100,000 in the eighteenth century, as many again in the nineteenth and twentieth. But counting books is difficult — numbers of volumes are different from numbers of works: one tract volume might contain 40 pieces, but the collected edition of Sam Johnson in twelve volumes is only one work. Numbers of volumes may give some rough idea of the bulk of a library, but in intellectual terms works, and more important, what they are, is clearly of chief significance. The extent and nature of the book collections in libraries belonging to properties in the ownership of the National Trust are outlined. The problems of identifying and displaying these collections to visitors to the properties in relation to conservation and security of the books are examined. The identification and availability of individual works to scholars are discussed and longer-term union cataloguing projects mentioned.