Marsh's Library

Description:

• This caged library, founded in 1701, is the real thing. Unlike Trinity College's Long Room, which is largely for show these days, Marsh's Library is still functioning. Its walls are lined with scholarly volumes, chiefly on theology, medicine, ancient history, maps, and Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and French literature. Wire cages, in which readers would be locked in with the more valuable tomes, still stand anachronistically. The interior -- a magnificent example of a 17th-century scholar's library -- has remained much the same for 3 centuries. The excellent collection of books by and about Jonathan Swift includes books with his editing comments in the borders.

• © Frommer's 2012