Now conveniently close to the M5 motorway, Knightshayes is a country pile built in 1869 for the Heathcoat-Amorys, a family of industrialists and, more recently, politicians.    Most National Trust properties are hung on a peg, and in this case it is a square one: William Burges, architect, interior designer, and gothic challenger to classical orthodoxy. At Knightshayes, his marvellous -- or wacky -- ceilings alone are worth the money.    The NT have done their best to enhance the Burges-ness of Knightshayes, recently going as far as implementing Burges designs that were not used at the time. They have also begged and borrowed several pieces of Burges furniture, of which the most interesting is a large painted bookcase (made 1859-62) and on loan from the Ashmolean. It is somewhat reminiscent of Burges' 'Philosophy cabinet' (see The Pre-Raphaelites and Other Masters, p. 241), but this one incorporates figurative panels by many 'guesting' artists: Burne-Jones, John Anster Fitzgerald, Holiday, Marks, Thomas Morten, Poynter, Charled Rossiter, Smallfield, Simeon Solomon, Fred Weekes, Westlake, Yeames, and maybe Rossetti.    Make sure you ask for the folder, which gives the attributions of individual panels.    We might expect solid colours in this fresco-like context, but Poynter cannot resist painting transparent draperies, and gives us 'Rhodopsis', a female Pharoah giving orders to her pyramid-building gaffers. Fitzgerald ('Syrens') and Weekes ('Harpies') follow Poynter's lead by showing how they can compress several nudities into a small space by folding and twining their arms and legs. These are some of the more interesting panels, but the most startling are Marks' 'Pieredes', with women's torsos stuck on to birds' bodies and playing musical instruments; and his 'Arachne', a woman with spider's legs who could easily be 'concept art' for a computer game that would keep you awake at night.    In one of the bedrooms there is a pair of much smaller Burges glass-fronted cabinets, decorated by Poynter (but rather dull -- there are no figures), which match the 'Yatman cabinet' (1858) in the V&A. There is also a Burges lookalike, the 'Princess cabinet', painted by Day to illustrate the inevitable Tennyson poem, 'The Princess' (1847), which also spawned, indirectly, the Savoy opera Princess Ida.    There are several interesting Victorian pictures at Knightshayes, and some rather undistinguished Edwardian portraits. However, a selection of quattrocento fragments gets most of whatever limelight is left over from the Burges cabinet, and not a lot of information is available about the 19th-century paintings.    The outside of the house, the grounds, and the views therefrom are also worth seeing; and the usual NT conveniences are available (including an excellent selection of plants for sale). Website Map

Works at Knightshayes by Edward Frederick Brewtnall Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale Arthur Hughes Edmund Blair Leighton Henry Stacy Marks Henry John Stock