Capture of the Westmorland

Carrying off the Colosseum: The ‘Westmorland’ and Architecture With Prof Frank Salmon, Head of the Department of History of Art, University of Cambridge Wed 18 July, 2–3pm The personal treasures that were being shipped by Grand Tourists on the ‘Westmorland’ included both real and fictitious drawings of Roman antiquities, as well as design drawings intended for building work back in Britain. This lecture will examine those drawings in the light of the wider culture of Neoclassical architecture and interior design in the second half of the eighteenth century.

In Conversation

New Discoveries – The Secret Cargo of Relics With Dr Catherine Whistler, curator of the exhibition, and Barry Williamson Thur 19 July 11.30am –12.30pm Just before the exhibition catalogue went to press, the Ashmolean was contacted by Barry Williamson who is an authority on the Arundell family history of Wardour Castle. The ‘Westmorland’ had a secret cargo, a box of saint’s relics carefully concealed in a plinth of coloured marbles. This was a gift from the Pope to Henry Arundell, eighth Baron Arundell of Wardour. The international research project had tracked these relics in Madrid in early 1789, but the trail had gone cold. Barry Williamson will talk about his discoveries in the family archives and his quest to find the relics.