Inside Downton Abbey’s Library

Highclere’s library was part of Barry’s original design, but it was Sir Thomas Allom who completed it after Barry’s death. The library’s collection has been built up by all of the earls and countesses who have lived there to its present 5,650 titles covering subjects ranging from history and politics to travel and religion. 

Upon entering the room, one is greeted by Stephen Hyde Cassan’s Lives of the Bishops of Winchester, Lives of the Bishops of Sherbourne and Salisbury, Lives of the Bishops of Bath and Wells, et al., which are shelved to the right of the library door. The Bishops of Winchester, incidentally, owned this estate from the eighth century and had their medieval palace on the grounds, after which another house was built on its foundations. The original Highclere site was recorded in the Domesday Book, the great survey of much of England and Wales conducted in 1086. Everything fell to rack and ruin after the death of Bishop William of Wykeham in 1404, and the lands were leased for farming. The Carnarvon family acquired it in 1679. 

“Highclere Castle was never burnt down,” said the countess, Fiona Aitken Carnarvon, author of Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey, and the present mistress of Highclere. “It has merely adapted and transformed … Its traditional library [catalogued by the Dewey Decimal System] is one that began with my husband’s direct ancestor in 1679.”

A quick peruse of the shelves reveals an interest in travel narratives, including Travels in Asia Minor and Greece (1825) by Richard Chandler, The Parks, Promenades and Gardens of Paris (1869) by William Robinson, and volumes I and II of Memorials of the Discovery and Early Settlement of the Bermudas… (1877) by J. H. Lefroy. Volumes displayed to the left of the fireplace in the library’s second room reflect one forebear’s fascination with Egypt and archaeology. The 5th Earl of Carnarvon, who lived at Highclere a hundred years ago, famously discovered the tomb of the Egyptian boy pharaoh Tutankhamun in 1922 with his archaeological colleague, Howard Carter. (Visitors are welcome to see a related exhibition of Egyptian antiquities in the castle cellars on public opening days.)

One of the favored objects in the library is not a book at all but a small desk, believed to have been used by Napoléon Bonaparte. The desk retains a slit in its top for mail to be slipped through for franking (castles posted their own mail). “I visited here as a child and always remember this desk in the library,” said tour guide Lizzy Howard.

The two rooms comprising the library are useful spaces for the current countess and earl. “A library is for reading, research, and conversation … rooms with cozy corners and different conversations,” Lady Carnarvon said. “I might wish to show a bishop the books about various predecessors in the North Library whilst my husband is holding forth in the other end!”

When asked about her favorite scenes from Downton Abbey, Lady Carnarvon replied, “We live here and don’t think of those things.”

Highclere Castle’s three floors comprise eleven functioning bedrooms and more than twenty bathrooms. “Even Lady Carnarvon is not sure of the exact number of rooms in the castle,” according to Candice Bauval, assistant to the countess, because many, many rooms have been turned into offices or storage spaces or are in the process of being restored. “When the public visit, they get to see all of the rooms that are used by the family with the exception of the offices and the private bedrooms on the third floor.”

Approximately twelve to fourteen staff members live on the Highclere estate in various properties. “The world of Highclere still exists with its own community of chefs, gardeners and housekeepers, Colin the butler and Jo the groom as well as all the other people who make the ‘Real Downton Abbey’ a welcoming place for visitors today,” Lady Carnarvon wrote on her blog. She and her husband also lend Highclere as a site for charity events, such as a ten-kilometer run last fall in aid of multiple sclerosis. “Far removed from the decorous characters elegantly reclining on the sofas of Downton Abbey, weekends at the castle tend to be a whirlwind of activity, rushing around madly in several directions all at once.”

Highclere’s vast gardens and grounds, while sometimes forming a backdrop for Downton’s cast, present a special opportunity for the Carnarvons during 2016, the tercentennial of the birth of Capability Brown, the renowned eighteenth-century designer of landscapes on a grand scale. His passion for the beauty of landscape is evident in the gardens and park at Highclere; the brochure language aptly describes “gently rolling lawns, precisely planted cedars and stands of deciduous trees that lead the eye to grand perspectives.” Exclusive Capability Brown tours will take place in May and October, with each day structured around a morning lecture, tours of the house and grounds, and refreshments. 

The intense recent interest in English manor houses and gardens, particularly from abroad, is referred to as the “Downton effect.” Not only has Highclere become a tourist attraction, but the quaint market town of Bampton, where village scenes in Downton Abbey were filmed, also draws Downton buffs. Town guide Robin Shuckburgh said, “We’re being told to expect fifteen years of the ‘Downton effect.’” The ancient village nestled in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds (which is, in reality, about thirty miles away from Highclere) looks forward to using its newfound tourism dollars to help repair its church and archive building. St. Mary the Virgin church—renamed St. Michael and All Angels in the television series—has hosted a number of dramatic Downton events including weddings, funerals, christenings, and even a jilting at the altar. 

Shuckburgh said he is asked daily where to find the grave of “Cousin Matthew.” “I had to tell visitors the production people bring the headstone back each time they’re filming here, but now that the series has finished filming, I talked the company into giving it to us so we can use it for tourism purposes. Churchgate House, the Bampton rectory, features prominently in the series as Isobel Crawley’s house. The old grammar school building, which now houses the Bampton Community Archive/gift shop, served as Downton’s hospital. 

US tour companies, such as Sterling Silver Tours, which conveys sightseers from London to Highclere and Bampton, are continuing trips to the area at least through 2016. “We’ve seen increased interest,” said Suzzanne Lacey, owner of Sterling Silver Tours. “A lot of fans are well aware that the themed travel for their favorite show is coming to an end. They want to inhale every last bit of Downton.”

The Books of Downton Abbey

Bibliophiles and book collectors have admired the Crawley family’s wonderful library for years. However, serious collectors weren’t very impressed when Robert revealed that they have a Gutenberg Bible but he didn’t know where it was! Imagine owning one of the forty-nine known surviving copies of one of the world’s rarest books (even fewer at the time the show is set) and not knowing where to find it. The best most of us can hope for is to own a facsimile edition. But, sadly, the Crawley family is not known for its intellectual curiosity (except for Isobel’s shining example, of course).

Carson the butler would fully approve of a purchase of any edition of a peerage guide, such as Debrett’s or Burke’s, two longtime guides to who’s-who among the British nobility. When Matthew Crawley, an obscure third cousin, was revealed to be the new heir to the lands and titles of the Earl of Grantham, family members were chagrined. But Robert took it in his stride and commented that they should simply check DeBrett’s, one of several guides to the peerage that are continually referenced in the series, as if that should settle matters. If this unknown lawyer from Manchester was listed in DeBrett’s, it was unassailable proof of his membership in the aristocracy—whether the Dowager Countess liked it or not. Later, Carson did not approve of Matthew’s new fiancée, Lavinia Swire, because she was “not to be found in Burke’s Peerage, or even Burke’s Landed Gentry!” 

Perhaps the most prominent book to feature in Downton in recent seasons is Marie Stopes’ pioneering work on contraception and pregnancy, Married Love. Stopes had finished her manuscript in late 1915, but every publisher in London turned it down because of the certain controversy. It was finally published in 1918 and was an instant cause célèbre, selling out five printings in the first year alone. Mrs. Hughes used the mere presence of the book to undermine Edna’s plan to seduce Tom Branson, and the book resurfaced to cause trouble between Anna and Bates in season five.

In season two, when Mr. Molesly was attempting to court Anna, he loaned her a copy of Elizabeth Von Arnim’s Elizabeth and Her German Garden as an icebreaker. Although first published (anonymously) in 1898, Elizabeth and Her German Garden was a hugely popular book in the early decades of the twentieth century. (*For more on Von Arnim, see: http://bit.ly/Elizabeth-vonArnim.) 

Many books are said to have inspired Downton Abbey, but most are merely classics of British fiction that focus on the aristocracy. One novel that Julian Fellowes has acknowledged partially inspired his script for the film Gosford Park—a kind of dress rehearsal for Downton Abbey—is Isabel Colegate’s 1980 novel, The Shooting Party. 

Other books mentioned or appearing in the series include: The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Gunga Din by Rudyard Kipling, and The Time Machine by H. G. Wells. –Rich Rennicks