liv. WIMBORNE, BADBURY, AND KINGSTON MEETING. 



ceiling picture, painted in fresco, representing Day and Night as colossal figures 

 divided by Twilight, was by Guido Reni, and came from the Zampieri Palace at 

 Bologna. It was notable as being the first picture on which was ever tried the 

 experiment of transferring fresco to canvas. 



Leading the party from the library into the drawing-room, Mr. Albert Bankes 

 observed that they would notice on the upper cornice the motto of the Bankes 

 family, Yelle quod vult Dem " Wish what God wishes." The picture he first 

 called special attention to was the full-length portrait of his grandmother by 

 Romney. Periodically it was taken up to London and lent to the Exhibition of 

 Old Masters at Burlington House. The portrait of Mrs. Woodley, mother of 

 Mrs. Bankes, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, was deservedly admired. ^ He also pointed 

 to the portraits by Van Dyck of Sir John and Lady Borlase. Sir John Borlase, 

 one of the Lords Justices of Ireland, was M.P. for Corfe Castle in 1641, and Lady 

 Borlase was the eldest daughter of Sir John Bankes. The portraits of Mrs. 

 Ridclell and the Countess of Falmouth were by Sir Thomas Lawrence. He called 

 especial attention to the collection of miniature portraits of Queen Elizabeth and 

 the principal members of her Court, enamelled on copper by the celebrated artist, 

 Henry Bone, R.A. By this means the figures and features of the individual 

 characters would be preserved and handed down to future ages when the canvases 

 from which they had been copied should long have perished. 



Conducting the party next to the great dining-room, Mr. Bankes pointed first 

 to the organ, and drew attention to the doors made of boxwood by a celebrated 

 carver at Siena in 1854. Under the carpets was marked the spot where formerly 

 stood the bed on which the illustrious James, Duke of Ormond, breathed his last 

 in 1688. Mr. Bankes added the interesting statement that Sir Ralph Bankes, 

 who was knighted at Canterbury in 1660, married the daughter of John Brune, 

 of Athelhampton. He died in 1679, and during the minority of his son, John, 

 the Duke of Ormond rented Kingston Lacy until his death in 1688. As to the 

 pictures adorning the walls, Mr. Bankes first drew attention to the unfinished 

 picture of " The Judgment of Solomon," by Giorgone. Dr. Waagen, the 

 eminent German art critic and author of " Art Treasures in England," said he 

 considered this to be the most important of the whole collection. It was 

 purchased by the speaker's uncle, the late Mr. W. J. Bankes, M.P., by the 

 advice of Lord Byron, his most intimate college friend. Lord Byron considered 

 the face of the pleading mother in this picture to be the perfection of female 

 loveliness. The party admired the wonderful drawing of the four subjects from 

 Ovid's " Metamorphoses." These pictures, as Mr. Bankes observed, k>ok like 

 tapestry, but are simply painted on canvas. 



The party were next shown into the smaller dining-room, which, from its 

 pictures and from the Spanish leather on the walls, has always been known as 

 the Spanish Room. Mr. Baukes quoted the words of Dr. Waagen from his 

 work already mentioned, " I know of no other collection in England containing 

 so many valuable pictures of the Spanish school." The author also called 

 particular attention to the gilt and crimson leather wall hangings. The glorious 

 painted ceiling, by Paul Veronese, was brought whole, as it now appears, from 



