Canons Ashby House is a Grade I listed Elizabethan manor house (List Entry Number: 1075304
Link Historic England). Originally a farmhouse, it was built in ca1550 although it was subsequently extended and altered with additions in the 1590s, in the 1630s and 1710.
The house has been owned by the National Trust since 1981 when the then-decaying building was transferred to the National Trust after a public appeal. It is open to visitors and its rooms are presented as they would have looked during the time of Sir Henry Edward Leigh Dryden (1818–1899), a Victorian antiquary with an interest in history (
Link National Trust). Apparently, he disliked the term "library" and referred to this as his "book room".