Kingston Lacy House ~ 1

Built in 1663-65. Home to the Bankes family for more than 300 years, Kingston Lacy is an elegant mansion of sumptuous interiors filled with the oldest established gentry collection of paintings in Britain. Traceable back to lists compiled in 1650s, the collection includes works by Rubens, Van Dyck, Titian and Tintoretto, with the largest private collection of Egyptian artefacts in the UK. The magnificent family library, one of the Trust's largest early collections includes roughly 1450 pre-1801 books, including the magnificent Jean de Planche binding for Sir Nicholas Bacon (1510-79) which is one of the Trust's most iconic books.