146 EXCURSION TO EASTBURY AND BRISTOL IN 1767. 



j 9 . Went this morn to Kinston Hall in the Vale of 

 Winbourne, to see M r Banks,* my namesake, an old Batchelor 

 of 70 and more. His house is an exceeding good one, but 

 quite of the last age, as there is not one sash in the whole. Its 

 furniture, however, of Pictures is very Capital ; a Collection of 

 S r Peter Lellys portraits very fine ; two Spanish boys eating fruit 

 by Morellio [Murillo], a Lanscape by Bergem, a copy or original 

 of Rembrants Rabbi. But four pictures are Remarkably 

 Capital, perhaps Guido : they represent Pope Gregory the Great, 

 the Great St. Augustine and two more of the fathers : but 

 M r Banks has no Catalogue and knows very little about them. 

 In returning home this Morn, just at Blanford Horse Course, 

 saw two Remarkable Birds seeming to be of the genus of 

 Chcradrias. Some Shepherds informed me that they came here 

 to breed but are exceeding difficult to shoot. I could make no 

 particular observation but that they were near as large again as 

 grey Plover,f had a white spot in each wing and whistled 

 exceedinly shrill, not unlike a man : the shepherds also informed 

 me that they Laid 2 eggs. I had almost omitted that we saw 

 near M r Banks's, upon the top of a hill, a regular entrenchment, 

 consisting of three Banks raisd one above the other : had not 

 an opportunity of going near it, but at a distance it much 

 resembled one of those famous ones at Whitnam J near Dor- 

 chester in Oxfordshire. 



20. Went to visit M r Stert at Critchill, who carried us to 

 another house he has at Horton about two miles beyond it, 



* Mr. BANKS, of Kinston Hall. This was John Bankes, Esq., of Kingston 

 Hall, who died in 1772. 



t OBEY PLOVER. These birds were probably Norfolk Plovers which are still 

 summer visitors to Salisbury Plain. [ED.] 



J ENTRENCHMENTS AT WHITNAM. I am informed that this passage refers to 

 the well-known Sinodun or Dorchester Clumps, on the opposite side of the 

 Thames to Dorchester (Co Oxon.), and above the village of Long Wittenham ; 

 visible on the left, just after passing Didcot Station, on the way to London. 



$ Mr. STBET. This was Humphry Sturt, Esq., of Crichel. Henry Gerard 

 Sturt, created a Baron in 1876 with the title of Lord Alington, is now the head 

 of the family. Seat at Crichel. 



