The Library
The double library conveys an atmosphere of comfort, opulence and masculinity. It is no accident that the feel of the room
is of a gentlemen's club in London. Sir Charles Barry also designed the Reform Club library using the same dark mahogany-painted double
columns, gilded bookcases and rich red curtains.
Barry's detailed plans for this room were actually carried out after his death by Thomas Allom. During the construction of the Castle it was
used as the stonemason's workshop, and it was in this room that the masonry embellishments for the great tower were prepared in 1842.
The Castle was in its political heyday during the late Victorian period. At this time, the library was used by the 4th Earl of Carnarvon as a
"withdrawing" room. The Earl was an active Tory in Parliament, a member of Disraeli's Cabinet in the 1860s and 1870s. Here he could discuss
politics with friends or retire in peace.
War Service
During the First World War, when the Castle was turned into a military hospital, the library served both as a dayroom and dining room for convalescent officers.
During the Second World War, Highclere Castle housed evacuees from a school in Willesden, North London, and when air raids made it too dangerous for them to
sleep on the top floor of the Castle, the younger children's cots were lined up in the library. A teacher here at the time recalled the "wooden framework covered
in hessian protecting the priceless books".
Royal Visitors
The room has also welcomed various royal visitors over the years. In December 1895, according to the Sketch, the library hosted "brilliant theatricals" in
honour of the visit of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII 1902-1910).
More recent visitors, as the family photographs show, have included HM the Queen and Prince Philip, Princess Margaret and the Prince and Princess of Wales.
The present (8th) Earl of Carnarvon is HM the Queen's godson, and from 1969 to 1973 was her Page of Honour.
A Library of Books
The Library contains 5650 volumes, many of them collected by the 4th Earl and reflecting his interests in history, politics and travel. One of the
oldest volumes in the library is the Italian writer Ariosto's Comedia: La Cessaria, dating from 1538. Many of the books on religious subjects belonged to the 4th Earl's
tutor and long-standing friend John Kent, who had retired to Madeira but donated the contents of his own library (in thirteen large packing cases!) to Highclere, in 1885.
Several books written by the 4th Earl are bound in distinctive cloth and white vellum known as "Carnarvon" bindings.
