Portrait of an Obsession
The Life of Sir Thomas Phillipps, the world’s greatest book collector, adapted by Nicolas Barker from the five volumes of Phillipps studies. London, Constable. 1967.. © Sheila Munby, and reproduced with her kind permission.

[We give next a short passage which illuminates the extent to which Phillipps's book-collecting dominated his life, particularly his domestic arrangements. Madden was the Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum, a bitter and vain man, but who kept up a friendship of rivals through Phillipps's life]
The state to which Middle Hill, by no means a large house, was reduced by these gigantic accessions can be readily imagined. Writing to Edward Edwards in 1856, Phillipps estimated that he owned about 20,000 manuscripts and 30,000 printed books. Many rooms became almost solid book-stacks, and the piles of rough packing-cases which filled the corridors took a heavy toll of the crinolines of Lady Phillipps's visiting friends.
I do not see why you cannot come to Middle Hill with Mrs. Curzon [wrote Phillipps to his old friend on 11 December 1860], except that there is hardly room for you! ! ! You who have travelled and lodged in Greek monasteries might know how to put up with the inconveniences of Middle Hill but I should fear Mrs. Curzon would feel wretched among them. We have no room to dine in except the Housekeeper's Room!... Our Drawing Room & Sitting Room is Lady Phillipps's Boudoir! ! ! ! If Mrs. Curzon could put up with all this we should be most happy to see her with you.
Under these cramped conditions it is not surprising that the system of arrangement became chaotic. During Phillipps's absences in Wales and in London, sometimes for months on end, the stream of fresh parcels and crates never slackened. Unopened boxes were walled in, and could only be reached after the removal of later arrivals.
My gout is now leaving me [wrote Phillipps to J. C. Hotten on 16 February 1862] & l am able to look after the Books of numerous Booksellers that I employ whose Boxes are still unpacked. One of them of years date is now being examined, and I trust you will think that a preference ought to be given to him. Another is of one years date & I ought to take him next, but as you seem by your letter to be bordering upon bankruptcy I will open yours next.

Among parcels which got buried and lost was one containing a presentation copy of Robert Curzon's privately printed catalogue of his manuscripts,' and it was a much mortified Phillipps who wrote five years later to acknowledge the gift and to explain the reasons for the delay. Curzon, needless to say, took the incident in good part, though he found puzzling the Baronet's tardiness in dealing with his accessions.
I really cannot understand your having boxes of MSS. which you have not opened, that seems impossible to me [he wrote on 11 January 1861]. Why when I get a new book, (or rather an old one,) I never stop looking at it, inside & out, right side uppermost, & upside down and I torment all the other old volumes, by shoving the new one between them, on the shelf Heavy broad-backed old MSS. are disturbed, routed out and pushed about, woke up from their slumbers, & poked in the ribs, by the new arrival, till I have found a snug place for him, between 2 other old fellows about his size more or less, & then I pat him on the back & let him alone for a while, but I could never let him remain in the box for ½ an hour after I get him, even under the most desperate circumstances.
Madden paid his last visit to Middle Hill in 1854, and from his journal we get a vivid picture of its condition during the last decade of Phillipps's occupancy. He arrived on 13 July, accompanied by his son George, and noted that the condition of the drive was worse than ever. Sir Thomas was waiting at the front door to receive them and introduce them to his other guests, Major Somerset, son of Lord William Somerset, who had married a sister of Phillipps's first wife, and his small daughter.
The house looks more miserable and dilapidated every time I visit it, and there is not a room now that is not crowded with large boxes full of MSS. The state of things is really inconceivable! Lady P. is absent, and were I in her place, I would never return to so wretched an abode . . . My sleeping room is the miserable dark green furniture apartment I occupied on my first visit, some twenty years ago, & nothing has changed in it, except that a piece of Carpet has been nailed along one side of the wall to hide the torn mouldy papering, and no less than 64 huge boxes, filled with MSS. are piled up to the ceiling at the four corners of the room!

The following day was very wet and Madden spent his time examining and making notes on various manuscripts. On Saturday the 15th the weather improved and he went for a long walk with his son, during which they climbed Broadway Tower together.
16th Sunday . . . Sir T. then took me over the house the former dining room, another room adjoining, the billiard room above, and the four or five bedrooms, including his own. I never saw such a state of things! Every room filled with heaps of papers, MSS., books, charters, packages, & other things, lying in heaps under your feet; piled up on tables, beds, chairs, ladders, &c. &c. and in every room, piles of huge boxes, up to the ceiling, containing the more valuable volumes! It is quite sickening! I asked him why he did not clear away the piles of papers &c. from the floor, so as to allow a path to be kept, but he only laughed and said I was not used to it as he was! His own bedroom is much more filled up with books & boxes than when I last saw it, and how it is possible for any lady to sleep or dress herself in such a room, I am at a loss to imagine! In a small room adjoining this are kept all the Meerman MSS. in boxes piled one above the other. These boxes, however, throughout the house, are so constructed that the lids fall down in front, and the MSS. stand in a row, as on shelves. In this room I remained with Sir T. (much to his satisfaction) for above three hours, taking down one volume after another, & giving my opinion of its age, value &c. I was at last fairly tired out, and requested we might go down to dinner, as it was seven o'clock. Sir T. would have stayed here till midnight, without flagging! I looked at many fine books, a few of which were of the 8th and 9th centuries, and others of the 10th, 11th & 12th cents. Some of them are very valuable, but when one reflects at what sacrifice they have been obtained & are kept together, it quite makes me loathe the sight of them. . .
17th. Rain again all day. The windows of the house are never opened, and the close confined air and smell of the papers & MSS. is almost unbearable. It is a complete literary charnelhouse!

18th. In the evening about ten o'clock a person came unexpectedly from London, on law business of a private nature, so that, as there was no other room to retire to, I took my candle & went off to bed. I afterwards heard that Sir T. P. had been subpoenaed by a lawyer named Walker, a charge of perjury, & it was to avert this, that his own lawyer had sent down the chief clerk at such an unseasonable hour! What a dreadful life Sir T. P. leads! Always in hot water about money matters! He does not, however, seem to feel the disgrace that public opinion attaches to such proceedings! On the morning following, 19 July, Sir Thomas had disappeared with the lawyer's clerk, and Madden seized the opportunity to take another walk in the country with George. It was not until half-past six in the evening that his host returned, and he made no reference to his absence or to the circumstance which had caused it.
..In the evening he showed me his collection of Monastic Cartularies, contained in two large boxes. They are about twenty-five in number. I only trust, that these and the other treasures here will not be utterly consumed by fire some night. I never sleep comfortably, for fear of such an accident. Sir Thos. still reads in bed with a candle by him, and is so careless in other respects (although touchy to excess on the subject) that it will be a miracle if the house escapes destruction. I found a bundle of wax taper matches strewed on the floor behind one of the cases in the sitting room. If a spark were to fall, the whole mass of papers, piles of boxes, and other inflammable materials would blaze up in an incredibly short space of time! The house, too, is absolutely falling down, and in the very room where we dined, the table from the sinking of the floor, was much higher on one side than the other. But Sir T. heeds it not.
On 20 July Madden again spent the day at work on the manuscripts, and took his leave on the following morning.