This seems a very British sort of thing, a multivolume encyclopedia of sporting activities, only somewhat smaller than the entire Britannica, which came out just earlier and was intended to cover all human knowledge.
For example: Volume 30: Rowing & Punting (1898, Rowing by Reginald Percy Pfeiffer
Rowe and Charles Murray Pitman with contributions by C. P. Serocold, F.
C. Begg & S. Le B. Smith, Punting by Peter Wyatt Squire) The names seem about perfect, staright out of Wodehouse.
Even more British are the author and character under "In Fiction" in the Wiki article.
"The name 'Badminton Library' was derived from that of Duke of Beaufort's principal country house, Badminton in Gloucestershire. There is no volume in the series on the sport of Badminton, named after the same house."
ReplyDeleteSo a game I was taught in my youth was named after his "principal" country house, but he didn't put it in the library also named after his house -- presumably because of modesty? Very British indeed.