They put up £17.7 million for the collection, but ‘experts’ have stated that this is the most important collection to be put on sale for over a century, including letters and works from William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Charles Darwin, JM Barrie, David Livingstone, Ernest Shackleton, and Sir Walter Scott. There are 150,000 letters and manuscripts from the John Murray publishing house covering archaeology, classical studies, bibliography, history and scholarship, art, architecture, art history and collecting, cookery, gardening, music, theatre and children’s books. More on the collection and the acquisition.