Wealth and Property: An Inventory for Westhill

Description:Accompanying the will is ‘An Inventory of the Library of Books, Collection of pictures and Prints on the Premises Melrose Hall West Hill Wandsworth Surry, the Property of His Grace the Duke of Sutherland’ made in January 1834.

The substantial size of the Duke’s library at Westhill, the family's house in Wandsworth, is reflected in the many titles listed in the inventory, which included books in English, foreign texts and numerous contemporary Journals. Journals such as the ‘Foreign Quarterly Review’, the ‘Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal’ and the ‘Edinburgh Review’ demonstrate the Duke’s wide reading. The Library inventory also tells us about the Duke’s interests. The Books listed include ‘Buchanan’s Memoirs of Painting’, ‘Booth’s account of The Liverpool & Manchester Railway’, ‘Bosworth’s Elements of Saxon Grammar’ and ‘Loudon’s Encyclopaedia of Gardening’ and ‘Agriculture’.

The Inventory for Westhill lists ‘Pictures & Prints’ housed in the property. In the ‘Duke’s Room’ was Vandyke’s ‘Portrait of a Gentleman. Other rooms displayed works by Rubens, Vangoyen and Turner, amongst many others.

For the purposes of ‘paying the Legacy Duty’, the Inventory calculates the value of ‘the Library of Books Collection of Paintings and Prints enumerated in this Inventory’. The items listed ‘are valued at the sum of Two Thousand three hundred and thirty nine pounds and one shilling’.