Dining Room

The Dining Room has been described as a meeting of minds from the 18th century; every figure represented in its more than twenty portraits and busts was acquainted with at least one of the others. Few rooms anywhere can boast such a galaxy of luminaries- both in terms of the sitters and the artists who painted them.

As well as family portraits by Raeburn, Romney and Gainsborough, the pictures include famous figures from politics (William Pitt, Henry Dundas), literature (Dr. Johnson, Edward Gibbon, George Selwyn), naval history (Admiral Rodney, Lord Nelson)- even music, in the pensive Raeburn picture of Neil Gow, the celebrated Scottish fiddler and the lovely portrait by Reynolds of the opera singer, la Contessa della Rena (who was also the mistress of at least two other figures in the room). Many of these pictures were bought by the 5th Earl of Rosebery for their interesting historical connotations, but the quality of the artists equals that in any national collection.