Killerton House

The reception room of the house is laid out as it might have been during the War when the house was occupied by two evacuated schools.  His how the school secretary's desk might have appeared.

One of a number of second world war posters to be seen.

 Sir Thomas Dyke Acland commissioned portraits of the members of  Grillion's Club, a London dining club  which he helped to found in 1813.  They include Lord Shaftesbury, Lord John Russell, and W E Gladstone.

The upstairs of the house is given over to a fashion through the ages exhibition.  These silk brocade shoes with matching pattens were from between 1720 and 1740.  Such shoes were often made from the same silk as the dress and were fitted with buckles varying from steel to silver set with diamonds.

Killerton House had been in the Acland family since the early seventeenth century and when the Civil War broke out John Acland declared himself for the King, even tough the rest of the Exeter area was strongly parliamentarian.  For this the king rewarded him with a Baronetcy in 1644.

The 'Great Sir Thomas', Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, the Tenth Baronet painted in 1818.  He did much to improve the grounds and house.

The study.

Sir Francis Nicholson (14 November 1753 – 6 March 1844) was a British artist. He worked in watercolour and oil, and is mainly known as a landscape artist. This self-portrait was painted when he was 89 years old.