The Bottom Line
Christmas! A time to reflect on the past year and plan the next. A time when there is time (hopefully) to sit back and relax. What better than to immerse yourself in a good book by a log fire and escape the outside world.
Books have been part of human culture for thousands of years -The Greeks (biblos in Greek), The Romans (liber in Latin) way before the inhabitants of our islands . William Caxton brought European influence to England with the printing press in 1476 and thereafter the educated influenced the value of reading and knowledge to the entire population.
I know books, like everything else, are superseded with technology where everything is on a screen but you cannot beat the feel of a real book, the smell of a library and the atmosphere of peace they create. Life and the pace at which we live it may have evolved out of all recognition but knowledge and history is the key to advancement.
Period country houses were built with libraries and their owners passionate about the collections they created -first editions, fiction, reference books (we instantly google everything now but there is still pleasure in sourcing information in hardback). There is still a place for books in a house - for children to feel, to touch, to learn, to read and fire the imagination. Parents and grandparents will read bedtime stories and show children the illustrations and with their own reading matter create their own visuals.
Every house, however small, has a place for books -a few shelves here and there -can be a permanent source of entertainment and reference. Visually they add a dimension to a house that in itself has a value so for those looking to sell it is worth dedicating an area to books.
The School House at Leusdon, high on Dartmoor, is a three bedroom cottage with a former Victorian school house, as yet untouched -the perfect library, music room and studio – a creative opportunity to bring to a life a former seat of learning. Strutt and Parker (01392 215631). On a significantly grander scale Knight Frank (01392 423111) are selling The Chanters House in Ottery St. Mary -a grand country house of 21,000 square feet and 21 acres of parkland. With an illustrious history the library dominates the accommodation being a double height room seventy feet in length. Another stunning opportunity to take a page of history into the 21st century.
Georgian and Victorian rectories would have a gracious study where the incumbent would receive parishioners and his books of learning were often lent to interested people in the days before public libraries were accessible to all. The Old Rectory in Christow for sale with Jackson Stops (01392 214222) is a classic example of a village rectory of the era.
Despite the technology a fireside read with family over Christmas can never be replaced - “it’s all about coming home”.
Happy Christmas Reading.