Today we are going to look at a selection of books from the library and I am taking them in chronological order. Of course the books were not bought like that. Those belonging to the first Lucy’s may well have been, but later the library grew by absorbing others In 1697 George Lucy married Mary Bohun who had inherited her Father’s (John Bohun of Finham) library and brought it with her. She died in 1708 and in 1712 George married her cousin Jane but they were profligate and lost a lot of money in the South Sea Bubble scam and that was the start of books being sold from the library. Batchelor George was not particularly interested in books but he was succeeded by John Hammond who moved into Charlecote with his library. The 1669 Paradise Lost we will see later came from his library. George Hammond Lucy and Mary Elizabeth set about bringing Charlecote up-to-date and built the present library. For appearances sake a lot of old books were rebound and then the shelves had to be filled. The second folio Shakespeare was a gift but George bought other books from the antiquarian dealer William Pickering. Whilst George brought books primarily for how they would look in his new library Pickering made sure they were suitable and the result was that Charlecote acquired many fine editions. It was the ladies that maintained the library after that; Mary Elizabeth, Christina Cameron Campbell, Ada Christina and Lady Alice.