Collector

Lord Warwick was also a prolific contributor to the improvements of Warwick Castle during the nineteenth century. Alongside his artistic wife, Anne Charteris 4th Countess of Warwick, he oversaw the redecoration of the castle's Great Hall and domestic apartments after the fire of 1871. The celebrated architect Anthony Salvin was employed to rebuild the hall in the typical Victorian 'Gothic' taste, embellished with stained glass to achieve the effect of a medieval baronial hall. The domestic apartments were also redesigned, with each room assigned a different 'historical' style, typical of the nineteenth century interest in the 'Romantic Interior'.

Known as a prolific collector of books, Lord Warwick established a Shakespeare Library at Warwick Castle with the help of James Halliwell-Phillipps during the years 1852–1870. The entire contents of the library was sold after his death in 1897 to the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.^[4]

Lord Warwick was also a great collector of arms and armour, most of which was purchased through the legendary New Bond Street dealer and forger Samuel Luke Pratt (1805–1878). Many of the greatest pieces were acquired by Pratt from the dispersed collection of Samuel Rush Meyrick and later sold to Greville. Alongside original pieces Pratt sold the Earl several Victorian forgeries, a practice that was fairly common place of dealers in Antique furniture and arms and armour at the time.^[5]