The Library tower after the first air raid, 19 September
1940. |
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The Inn had a library by the time of Henry VII,
and the original building (in existence by 1506) joined the east
end of the old hall, close to where it still is. It soon acquired
some notable treasures. In 1514 Thomas Jakes directed that Frowyk
C.J.'s illuminated statutes and 'great book of entries' should go
to the Library, and in the 1550s Sir John Baker presented a remarkable
year book with civilian glosses by Richard de Winchedon. None of
these important early gifts survived; security was a constant problem,
which even chaining the books apparently did not solve. A munificent
gift which does survive intact, however, is the collection of historical
manuscripts bequeathed by William Petyt (d. 1707). The manuscripts
of the Hon. Daines Barrington (d. 1800) include an early copy of
Littleton and a brief for the prosecution of Mary, Queen of Scots.
The accommodation for the Library has had a chequered
history. The old building used by Coke and Selden was burned down
in the Great Fire of 1666, and its replacement was blown up in 1678
in an endeavour to stop the spread of another fire. There was another
rebuilding, this time in gothic style, in 1835. The Victorian building
(1870), designed by Smirke in the same perpendicular style as the
hall, was remarkable for its distinctive clock-tower surmounted
by a pegasus weather-vane. That building was destroyed in 1941,
with the loss of about 40,000 volumes, though the manuscripts and
rarest books had been removed to the country and saved. A temporary
Library was soon established in No. 1, King's Bench Walk, and the
new library was opened in 1958. The present Library houses over
100,000 volumes, and grows at the rate of over 1,000 volumes a year.
Tanfield Court, looking south. Drawn by Henry Hodge, 1880. |
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Among the treasures now kept in the Library (besides
the printed and manuscript books) are four superb painted
miniatures showing the courts in Westminster Hall in around
1460; the gold collar of SS. worn from 1824 to 1844 by Chief Baron
Alexander and Lord Abinger; a collection of serjeants' rings started
by Sir Harry Poland; and a triptych containing the old statutes
of Clifford's Inn on vellum. The Inn also has an extensive collection
of domestic archives, including acts of the Inn's parliament (from
1505), admissions (from 1547), account books (from 1606), chambers
records (from 1615), and bench table orders (from 1668).
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