Lanhydrock, the seat of the Robartes family for almost three hundred and fifty years and beautifully situated on the slopes of its park, in the valley of the River Fowey, was given to the National Trust by Gerald (1883–1966), 7th Viscount Clifden in 1953.
It is deceptively only half the original seventeenth-century building, as a fire of 1881 caused new redevelopment in the high-Victorian style. Many of the family portraits in the surviving Long Gallery are overshadowed by the Genesis narrative of the 24 reliefs in the plaster ceiling.
The best of the Victorian introductions are: 'The Four Eldest Agar-Robartes Children' by Anna Lea Merritt (1844–1930), painter one of the most celebrated pictures of the late Victorian period, 'Love Locked Out' (at the Tate Britain); 'Girl with a Violin' by Henry Harewood Robinson (1884–1896) and the 'Virgin and Child' by the belated pre-Raphaelite follower, John Melhuish Strudwick (1849–1937).
A Cornish Coastal SceneSamuel John Lamorna Birch (1869–1955)
National Trust, Lanhydrock
The Honourable Arthur Victor Agar-Robartes (1887–1974), and the Honourable Edith Violet Kathleen Agar-Robartes (1888–1965), as ChildrenJames Sant (1820–1916)
National Trust, Lanhydrock
The Honourable Francis Gerald Agar-Robartes (1883–1966), 7th Viscount Clifden as a ChildJohn Hanson Walker (1844–1933)
National Trust, Lanhydrock
Portrait of an Unknown Young ManCharles Jervas (c.1675–1739)
National Trust, Lanhydrock
Portrait of an Unknown ManCharles Jervas (c.1675–1739)
National Trust, Lanhydrock
Thomas Charles Reginald Agar-Robartes (1844–1930), 2nd Baron Robartes and 6th Viscount ClifdenHenry Weigall (1829–1925)