Beningbrough Hall brings a dash of Italy to the gentle Yorkshire meadows of the River Ouse. In the early 1700s John Bourchier returned to his native county from a Grand Tour of Europe full of ideas for a fashionable new house. The imposing red-brick mansion he had erected by 1716 has many of the features of a Baroque Roman palace, such as the curious 'ears' to the stone window surround over the entrance door, and the paired brackets supporting the eaves. Beningbrough came to the National Trust in 1958, but, without most of its contents, it was for many years a cheerless place. In the late 1970s the Trust undertook a major restoration programme to breathe new life into the Baroque interiors. To deal with the lack of contents, The National Trust went into partnership with the National Portrait Gallery who provide most of the portraits in the historic rooms

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