Yesterday, I had a lovely day – exploring the National Trust property of Kingston Lacy in Dorset.  It is a beautiful, family home, built to resemble an Italian Palace.

It was, of course, the Egyptian collection that I went to see.  We started our visit with the gardens and the obelisk.  It was lovely to see and admire, although the inscriptions on the base of the monument were not really visible which is a shame, as that is what I wanted to see – what Thomas Young saw when working on translating the code of hieroglyphics.

The Egyptian collection, whilst billed as ‘the largest private collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts in the UK’, was not as large as I had anticipated, and there was a lack of information, and what there was, was just black and white printed pages in a plastic folder.  I felt that was not up to the usual standard of the N. T and it let the display down somewhat as I couldn’t answer questions which came to mind, neither could the very helpful lady on duty in the room.

Never-the-less, it was an interesting collection with several stela with lovely fine reliefs on them. It was great to be able to peruse what was there, and I would recommend a visit.

Overall, the visit was great:  the grounds are lovely, and inside the house I was enchanted – there is something different about the feel to this very elegant and interesting home – lots of grand windows with lots of grand vistas. The collection of art, furnishings and artefacts was beautiful and fascinating.

We returned home having had a really enjoyable day, to tuck into a supper with friends – good food, wine and conversation –
so all senses nicely satisfied.
A good time was had by all.