Envy

Mono Monday: Envy / Gratitude

This is Kingston Lacy, the family seat of the Bankes family who had originally lived at Corfe Castle until the English Civil War caused its destruction at the hands of the Parliamentary forces. The Bankes were an important aristocratic family in Dorset who fought on the side of the Cavaliers. 

The Banks family had originated in Yorkshire but Sir John Banks had been appointed Lord Chief Justice by Charles I and was wealthy enough to have been able to afford to buy Corfe Castle as his original family seat.   While Sir John was busy fighting for his King, his wife Mary Banks was left in charge of Corfe Castle which was twice besieged. With the eventual destruction of Corfe the family needed a new seat, and in due course they bought the estate at Kingston Lacy and built the house in the 1770s.

A wealthy politically well connected family, there seems little doubt that they would have been widely envied.  The Duke of Wellington and William Pitt the younger were amongst those to visit Kingston Lacy.  In the early 1980s the house was left to a grateful National Trust by Ralph Bankes - the largest ever bequest to the Trust.

We stopped in to visit earlier today on our way back home from the weekend at Swanage.  The house and grounds are a delight, and we will definitely go back to visit again, when time allows.