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Monday 23 December 2013

The answers to my Regency quiz - name that place

Here are the answers to my Georgian places quiz. I have mentioned one Georgian link for each, but I am sure there are more!

1.
Close-up picture of a golden lion on a gate with an elegant building behind

The gate outside Kensington Palace




Kensington Palace, London.
George III's coronation robes are on display here.




2.
Close-up of a Georgian pillar with the word "and" and the edge of a black sign

The entrance to the Pump Room, Bath





The Pump Room, Bath. Jane Austen lived in Bath 1800-1806 and the Pump Room is mentioned in two of her novels - Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. 






3.
A golden ball and cross on top of an elaborate tower

Top of St Paul's Cathedral, London.






Top of St Paul's Cathedral, London.
A thanksgiving service for the recovery of George III from his recent debilitating illness was held here on 23 April 1789.






4.
The Great Court at Trinity College, Cambridge.

The Great Court at Trinity College, Cambridge.
Lord Byron and William John Bankes both attended this college.


5.
The rear view of Buckingham Palace

This is the rear view of Buckingham Palace which you can only see from inside the Palace gates. After becoming King, Buckingham Palace became George IV's new architectural project.

6.
The Osmington white horse

The Osmington white horse, depicting George III on horseback, is on the hillside overlooking Weymouth bay where he spent so many holidays.

7.

Chatsworth House

The clue is in the word Cavendo. This is Chatsworth House, home of the Cavendish family, William Cavendish, Duke of Devonshire, and his wife Georgiana.

8.
Close-up of an elaborate clock face

The clock at Hampton Court Palace



The clock at Hampton Court Palace. Beau Brummell's father was granted a grace-and-favour tenancy in "the Silver Stick Gallery" at Hampton Court in 1782.





9.
 The Royal Crescent, Bath

The Royal Crescent, Bath. Richard Brinsley Sheridan eloped with Elizabeth Linley from her father's house at 11, Royal Crescent, on 18 March 1772.

10.
A white onion-shaped roof

Brighton Pavilion


Brighton Pavilion - George IV's seaside palace.






11.
A black angel riding four black horses

The Wellington Arch




The Angel of Peace descending on the quadriga of war - the sculpture on top of the Wellington Arch opposite Apsley House in London, home of the Duke of Wellington.





12.
A white triangular piece of stonework with classical figures on it

The British Museum


The British Museum, London, founded in 1753.






13.
Twin brick towers with a clock in the centre on a diamond-shaped background

St James' Palace, London




St James' Palace, London, where George IV was born on 12 August 1762.





14.
 The Eneceladus fountain in the gardens at the Palace of Versailles

The Eneceladus fountain in the gardens at the Palace of Versailles, home of the fated French King, Louis XVI and his wife, Marie-Antoinette.

All photographs by Andrew Knowles - www.flickr.com/photos/dragontomato

Thursday 19 December 2013

Frances Bankes's ball at Kingston Lacy 19 December 1791

Kingston Lacy from the garden
Kingston Lacy from the garden
On 19 December 1791, Frances Bankes held a ball at Kingston Hall to celebrate the completion of the alterations to the house which had been going on since her marriage to Henry in 1784. It was also Henry Bankes's birthday.

The alterations

Henry Bankes had completely remodelled Kingston Hall. The principal rooms had been enlarged and new sash windows had been installed nearly everywhere. The entrance was moved from the north side to the east side where visitors now entered under an Ionic porch. A new flight of stone stairs led from the entrance up into the centre of the newly designed house. At the top of the stairs you could turn left into the library or right into the north parlour or go straight ahead into the ballroom which had been created out of the old entrance hall.

Plan of the first floor at Kingston Hall in December 1791
Plan of the first floor at Kingston Hall in December 1791
On display at ball re-enactment (Nov 2013)
 The ball

The ballroom was lit by huge numbers of candles with a splendid chandelier hanging down in the centre. The prospect was so dazzling that one guest declared it was like Aladdin's palace. There were around 140 guests with up to 36 couples dancing. The musicians had travelled from Salisbury to play for the ball. The dancing began at 9pm and continued until 7am in the morning, only stopping for supper at 1am.

The ballroom at the re-enactment  of Frances Bankes' ball (Nov 2013)
The ballroom at the re-enactment
of Frances Bankes' ball (Nov 2013)
In a letter to her mother-in-law, Frances expressed her satisfaction:
We had a much greater number of young Men than young Ladies by which means even the ugliest women in the room were sure to dance every dance unless they preferred sitting still which kept them all in good humour.1
Refreshments

Throughout the evening, guests could partake of refreshments: tea, red and white wine, negus (hot sweetened wine and water) and orgeat (a cooling drink made from barley or almonds and orange flower water) and a steady supply of cakes.

Supper

Supper was served at 1am when “the Eating Room and North Parlour Doors were opened, and displayed a very handsome Supper.”2 Long tables were laid out to accommodate all one hundred and forty guests at one sitting.

Frances wrote:
We borrowed all the men servants out of livery in the neighbourhood who were particularly clever and attentive in waiting, and I really believe that not a single Creature had occasion to call twice for any one thing, which is a great deal to say in so large a Company.2
The ballroom at the re-enactment  of Frances Bankes' ball (Nov 2013)
The ballroom at the re-enactment
of Frances Bankes' ball (Nov 2013)
Breakfast

Dancing continued from after supper until breakfast was served around 7am. When breakfast was over, the guests staying at the Hall retired and the other guests left. By 11am, the servants had cleared up the mess and were ready to serve a second breakfast for the guests who had stayed over.

A great success

Frances Bankes was delighted with the evening. She wrote to her mother-in-law that:
I was perfectly satisfied from beginning to end, you know I am very difficult, but every Creature appeared in high good humour.1
Frances Woodley by George Romney (1780-1)
Frances Woodley by George Romney (1780-1)
In the drawing room at Kingston Lacy
A local newspaper report said:
In a word if elegant hospitality and the most attention on the part of the donors, and an assemblage of fashion and beauty seldom seen together, with the utmost good humour and satisfaction pervading the hall, have any merit in entertainments of this kind we may venture to pronounce that this never was or ever will be exceeded.3

Headshot of Rachel Knowles author with sea in background(2021)
Rachel Knowles writes faith-based Regency romance and historical non-fiction. She has been sharing her research on this blog since 2011. Rachel lives in the beautiful Georgian seaside town of Weymouth, Dorset, on the south coast of England, with her husband, Andrew.

Find out more about Rachel's books and sign up for her newsletter here.

If you have enjoyed this blog and want to encourage us and help us to keep making our research freely available, please buy us a virtual cup of coffee by clicking the button below.

 
Notes
1. In a letter from Frances to her mother-in-law quoted in the Ring of Eight leaflet.
2. In a letter from Frances to her mother-in-law quoted in the Kingston Lacy guidebook.
3. From the Ring of Eight leaflet.

Sources used include:
The National Trust, Kingston Lacy (guidebook) (1994)
Leaflets by the Ring of Eight group for the re-enactment of Frances Bankes' ball (Nov 2013)
 
All photos © RegencyHistory.net

Tuesday 17 December 2013

A Regency quiz - name that place

I love quizzes. Every Christmas, I create a new quiz or two for my family and friends to attempt at our Christmas party. This year, I thought I would let my readers share the fun, so here is a Regency quiz for you. Here are 14 pictures of places with a Georgian connection. Where are they?

You can find all the answers here.

1.
Close-up picture of a golden lion on a gate with an elegant building behind


2.
Close-up of a Georgian pillar with the word "and" and the edge of a black sign


3.
A golden ball and cross on top of an elaborate tower


4.
A courtyard with old buildings around it including a clock tower


5.
A building made of Bath-coloured stone with a semi-circle of Georgian pillars


6.
A man riding a horse imprinted in the hillside


7.
An elegant building with the words "Cavendo tutus" on it and fountains in front


8.
Close-up of an elaborate clock face


9.
 A curved line of Georgian pillars with railings in front


10.
A white onion-shaped roof


11.
A black angel riding four black horses


12.
A white triangular piece of stonework with classical figures on it


13.
Twin brick towers with a clock in the centre on a diamond-shaped background



14.
 A funnel of water coming out of a bronze-coloured man's head with long hair and beard


Click here to discover the answers.

All photographs by Andrew Knowles - www.flickr.com/photos/dragontomato

Thursday 12 December 2013

William John Bankes (1786-1855) - Egyptologist and friend of Lord Byron

William John Bankes  - portrait in the Spanish Room, Kingston Lacy
William John Bankes
- portrait in the Spanish Room, Kingston Lacy (2013)
Profile 

William Bankes (11 December 1786 - 15 April 1855) was an antiquarian and Egyptologist and the owner of the Kingston Lacy and Corfe Castle estates in Dorset.

Family

William John Bankes was born on 11 December 1786, the son of Henry Bankes, a wealthy Dorset landowner and politician, and Frances Woodley, a celebrated beauty, who was the daughter of the governor of the Leeward Islands. The Bankes estates included the family seat of Kingston Lacy, Corfe Castle, Studland and the Purbeck hills.

Education

William was educated at Westminster School and went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, in June 1803, where he became close friends with Lord Byron and gained a reputation for extravagance and wild living. Byron described William as his “collegiate pastor, and master, and patron” and “good-naturedly tolerant of my ferocities”. He declared that William “ruled the roast – or rather the roasting – and was father of all mischiefs.”1

Trinity College, Cambridge  from Memorials of Cambridge by CHCooper (1861)
Trinity College, Cambridge
from Memorials of Cambridge by CHCooper (1861)
Member of Parliament

Through the patronage of Lord Falmouth, who married his sister Ann, William became MP for Truro in 1810. He generally supported the government, but failed to shine in political circles and the speeches he made in parliament were unimpressive. He gave up his seat at the dissolution of 1812.

He later became Tory MP for the University of Cambridge (1822-6), Marlborough (1829-32), and then Dorset (1832-4).

Byron’s fashionable friend

Although only the second son, William became heir to his father in 1806 on the death of his elder brother, Henry, and was given an income of £8,000 a year. In 1815, he inherited Soughton Hall in Flintshire from his great grandfather.

During the season of 1812, William and Byron were central figures in society. Byron referred to William as one of his
...early friends. He is very clever, very original and has a fund of information: he is also very good-natured; but he is not much of a flatterer.2
Lord Byron from A Journal of the Conversations of Lord Byron with the Countess of Blessington (1893)
Lord Byron from A Journal of the Conversations
of Lord Byron with the Countess of Blessington
(1893)
William proposed to the bluestocking heiress Annabella Milbanke, but was refused. She later married Byron.
Lady Byron, from The Ladies' Monthly Museum (1816)
Lady Byron, from The Ladies' Monthly Museum (1816)
The Grand Tour

After his rejection, William followed in Byron’s footsteps and set out on his own Grand Tour. He followed Wellington’s army through Spain and Portugal, purchasing paintings during the disruption of the Peninsula War.

Over the next eight years, William travelled extensively in Italy, Syria and Egypt. He stayed on Mount Lebanon, crossed the desert to Palmyra, travelled up the Nile, explored to the east of the Dead Sea and became one of the first Europeans to reach Petra. Byron nicknamed him the Nubian Explorer or Discoverer.

He employed an Italian, Giovanni Finati, as his interpreter and guide. Later on, he was accompanied by another Italian, the archaeologist, Giovanni Belzoni.

William the archaeologist

The importance of William’s archaeological work has tended to be undervalued because he published very little apart from Finati’s memoirs. He and his team made detailed plans of various sites including the temple at Luxor which are a very important source for Egyptologists as they are not merely artistic impressions, but accurate records accompanied by careful transcriptions.

A stone slab of hieroglyphics in William Bankes' Egyptian collections at Kingston Lacy
From William Bankes' Egyptian collections at Kingston Lacy (2013)
William visited the temple of Rameses II and copied all the wall paintings by candlelight and recorded many objects which have since been lost or destroyed. He carried out excavations at El-Sebua in Nubia and at Abydos, where he found the table of the kings, which is now in the British Museum.

The Philae obelisk

William amassed a collection of Egyptian artefacts many of which are on display in the billiards room at Kingston Lacy. But his most impressive artefact is the Philae obelisk which has sat in the garden at Kingston Lacy since 1839. William employed Belzoni to bring the obelisk to England and it took him twenty years to do it! On the first attempt to move it, it ended up on the river bed. William produced lithographs of the bilingual inscriptions on the obelisk which were a valuable aid to understanding hieroglyphics.


An Egyptian sarcophagus and the Philae obelisk  in the gardens of Kingston Lacy
An Egyptian sarcophagus and the Philae obelisk
in the gardens of Kingston Lacy (2013)
Architectural projects

When he returned to England in 1820, William rebuilt Soughton Hall according to his own design, aided by the architect Charles Barry, whom he had met on his travels. Barry later designed the new building for the Travellers Club to which William belonged and the Houses of Parliament.

As soon as he inherited Kingston Hall in 1834, William started to remodel it with Barry’s help. He moved the entrance back to the north front and dug down to create a new basement entrance where visitors could alight from their carriages out of the rain. He created a Loggia and put in a marble staircase.3 He created a new, bigger dining room and the Spanish Room in which to display his Spanish paintings.
 
Artefacts from the Egyptian collections at Kingston Lacy
From the Egyptian collections at Kingston Lacy (2013)
Scandal

William’s personal life was beset with scandal. In 1820, he was forced to pay damages to James Silk Buckingham for libel after accusing him of stealing and publishing his research.

Then, in 1823, he was subject to a suit for criminal conversation, that is, adultery, with Anne Hobart, Lady Buckinghamshire.

But by far the most serious scandal revolved around repeated accusations of homosexuality, which was at that time a capital offence. In 1833, he was found not guilty after character references from, among others, the Duke of Wellington, but when further allegations were made in 1841, William fled the country.

Exile and death

William lived in Venice for the rest of his life, leaving his estates in the hands of his brother George. But he continued to transform Kingston Lacy from a distance under the supervision of his widowed sister, Lady Falmouth.

He commissioned Carlo Marochetti to create bronze sculptures of Chief Justice Bankes, Dame Mary and Charles I for the Loggia.

The sculptures of Dame Mary Bankes and Charles I  in the Loggia at Kingston Lacy
The sculptures of Dame Mary Bankes and Charles I
in the Loggia at Kingston Lacy (2013)
William died in Venice on 15 April 1855 and was buried in the family vault at Wimborne Minster, Dorset.

Headshot of Rachel Knowles author with sea in background(2021)
Rachel Knowles writes clean/Christian Regency era romance and historical non-fiction. She has been sharing her research on this blog since 2011. Rachel lives in the beautiful Georgian seaside town of Weymouth, Dorset, on the south coast of England, with her husband, Andrew.

Find out more about Rachel's books and sign up for her newsletter here.

If you have enjoyed this blog and want to encourage me and help me to keep making my research freely available, please buy me a virtual cup of coffee by clicking the button below.

 
Notes
(1) From a letter written by Lord Byron to John Murray, 19 October 1820 from Byron’s Letters and Journals, ed Leslie A Marchand (1976)
(2) From A Journal of the Conversations of Lord Byron with the Countess of Blessington (1893)
(3) A loggia is a roofed gallery, often on a upper storey overlooking a courtyard, which is open to the air on at least one side.

Sources used include:
Baigent, Elizabeth, Bankes, William John (1786-1855) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn Jan 2008, accessed 3 Oct 2013)
Blessington, Countess, A Journal of the Conversations of Lord Byron with the Countess of Blessington (1893)
Byron, George Gordon, Baron and Marchand, LA (ed) Byron's Letter and Journals (1976)
The National Trust, Kingston Lacy (guidebook) (1994)

Photographs © RegencyHistory.net