In all, the Trust owns about 40 medieval manuscripts, and about 1200 later manuscripts.

Some manuscripts are of greater historical importance, while others are interesting but more trivial. Because such valuable books have always been prized, many were in fact sold from country houses in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Most of the Trust's libraries have lost at least one important manuscript. The greatest losses were two Anglo-Saxon manuscripts sold from Blickling Hall in Norfolk in 1932.

In all, the Trust owns about 40 medieval manuscripts, and about 1200 later manuscripts, some of them quite trivial, and others rather more important.

The medieval books fall into two categories: books which have been in their houses 'since the beginning' (or at least since the late Middle Ages), and books collected by connoisseurs in the 18th and 19th centuries. The post-medieval manuscripts are much more varied, and range from musical scores to school exercise books and a few literary autographs.

The historic archives of National Trust estates have almost all been deposited in local record offices, while major sets of literary papers tend to be on loan to university or national libraries.