Christine Penney
The Hurd Library, housed in the former Bishop's Palace at Hartlebury Castle, Worcestershire, is an outstanding survival of the Age of Enlightenment. Founded in 1782 by Richard Hurd, Bishop of Worcester from 1781-1808, it is the only example of an Anglican bishop's library remaining on its original shelves in the room built for it. It holds the collections of four men: Alexander Pope (1688-1744), Ralph Allen (1693-1764), William Warburton (1698-1779) and Hurd himself. The library’s varied contents provide much evidence of contemporary thinking and scholarship. The books range in date from the 15th - early 19th century. Along with thousands of volumes on topics ranging from religion to travel, the library also contains manuscript material, including the papers and correspondence of Hurd and scrapbooks compiled during the First World War, when the castle was a convalescent hospital.
Categories used most frequently by the blogger:
Hurd Library Bishop Richard Hurd hartlebury castle Hartlebury william warburton Richard Hurd jr alexander pope William Curtis Libraries Thomas Bewick Worcester richard hurd junior Richard Hurd James Ross books Thomas Sanders Treadway Nash Jonathan Swift marginalia william mason
27 January 2019
When we show books in the Hurd Library we usually tell visitors we can cover almost every subject -...
Dreaming of a white Christmas?
23 December 2018
It doesn’t look like snow this year -but nearly 102 years ago they had some at Hartlebury. What is...
18 November 2018
Just in time for the centenary of the Armistice Doug Smith’s book on the VAD convalescent hospital...
5 November 2018
When Penny Greenwood was looking at this book to see if it needed repairs she was struck by one of...