The books, many rare or unique, and of extraordinary value,
comprised over 2000 volumes; there were hundreds of sketches and
water-colour drawings of buildings long since destroyed, and more than
1,500 engravings of various places in the county, among them being some
300 relating to Birmingham, 200 to Coventry, 200 to Warwick Castle, 200
to Kenilworth Castle, and more than 100 to Stratford-on-Avon. The
thousand portraits of Warwickshire Worthies, more rare and valuable
still, included no less than 267 distinct portraits of Shakespeare,
every one from a different block or plate. There was, in fact,
everything about Warwickshire which successive generations of learned
and generous collectors could secure. Among other treasures were
hundreds of Acts of Parliament, all pedigrees, pamphlets, &c., about the
Earls of Warwick and the town of Warwick; the original vellum volume
with the installation of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, to the Order
of St. Michael, with his own autograph; volumes of rare, curious
autographs of county interest; county poll books, newspapers and
magazines; all the rare Civil War pamphlets relating to the Warwickshire
incidents; ancient deeds, indulgences, charters, seals, rubbings of
brasses long lost or worn away, medals, coins, hundreds in number; and
rare and invaluable volumes, like the Duc de Nortombria's "Arcano de
Mare," and two fine copies of Dugdale's Warwickshire; besides hundreds
of books, engravings, caricatures, pamphlets and tracts.
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