A selection of 2,762 volumes of printed books and pamphlets from the 5th Earl of Rosebery's library at The Durdans, Epsom, Surrey. The 5th Earl (1847-1929) purchased the house as a young man in 1872, due to its proximity to Epsom racecourse, which meant he could indulge his passion for horse racing. It became his main home once he launched his political career in London. When he became Prime Minister (1894-1895) he would often travel down from Downing Street just to spend the night there. The collection reflects the general country house character of the library at The Durdans and the Earl's personal interests, its main strengths being historical memoirs and pamphlets on British and European history of the 18th and the 19th century, particularly the lives and times of William Pitt and Napoleon. It complements the collection of Scottish material he presented to the Library in 1927 (see Rosebery Collection).

There are examples of key works in French and English literature, including an uncensored copy of the first edition of Baudelaire's 'Les Fleurs du Mal' (Paris, 1857) containing the six suppressed poems which were later extracted from unsold copies. The collection also includes a rare 1761 edition of 'Harris's list of Covent-Garden ladies', an annual directory of prostitutes working in Georgian London. There are also works on English topography, in particular relating to Epsom and Surrey, privately printed volumes of memoirs and poetry, dictionaries of slang, cant, and proverbs, and religious works including material relating to Cardinal Newman. However, the collection is perhaps richest in works on all aspects of horse-racing and breeding and field sports in general. Horses owned by Rosebery won eleven classics, including the Derby, held at Epsom, three times. Books on the subject range from early lists of horse-races and manuals of horsemanship and veterinary science, to long runs of sporting journals, including a complete run of 'The Sporting Magazine' (London, 1792-1870). There is also a copy of Eadweard Muybridge's photographically illustrated book 'The attitudes of animals in motion' (San Francisco, 1881), which used stop-motion photographs to capture animals, in particular horses, in motion. The collection includes a number of fine bindings and contains many books from the Beckford library, some with annotations both by Beckford and the Earl of Rosebery.

Organisation

The books have been catalogued individually and have the shelfmark 'Dur.'.

Acquisition

A large part of the Durdans library was sold at auction by Sotheby's in 1933. This selection from the remaining books was received by the Library in 1956 through the bequest of Lady Sybil Grant (1879-1955), eldest daughter of the 5th Earl, who inherited The Durdans after he died and made it her home.

Related collections

25 manuscript volumes were also received as part of the bequest and are held at MSS.10217-10241. They are described and indexed in volume 8 of the Library's Catalogue of manuscripts.