Inside the Grand Tour: Step inside the stately homes powering a major new exhibition

Imagine your travel souvenirs being exhibited in a prestigious museum, hundreds of years after you brought them home. This might sound bizarre, but then the Grand Tour was a spectacular kind of gap year or extended holiday for Britain’s landed gentry, who spent months, or years, in mainland Europe buying up art and antiques, and getting a practical education on the road. 

Now some of their most impressive purchases, part of the collections at three stately homes in the UK, will go on display at the Mauritshuis in The Hague, as part of a blockbuster exhibition, The Grand Tour: Destination Italy. Holkham Hall, Burghley House, and Woburn Abbey (the latter closed for renovation until spring 2026) are all lending artefacts, gathered by their ancestral owners in the 18^th century, from places like Rome, Florence and Venice.

Ariane van Suchtelen, curator at the Mauritshuis, explains the appeal: ‘We’ve chosen works from three places that are seen as England’s great treasure houses. In the 18^th century, their owners took the Grand Tour as young men who were coming of age, travelling from Britain to Italy. They built up art collections, especially linked to Roman antiquity.’

The three Grand Tour houses and their art collecting owners

• Holkham Hall, North Norfolk – a Palladian-style stately home, built by Thomas Coke, 1^st Earl of Leicester, whose Grand Tour lasted from 1712-1718. His great nephew and heir, Thomas William, also went on a tour. 
• Burghley House, Lincolnshire – a grand 16^th-century property. The 5^th Earl of Exeter, John Cecil, was an early Grand Tourist: he travelled three times with his wife, firstly in 1679. Later the 9^th Earl, his great, great grandson Brownlow Cecil, made two pilgrimages as a widower, starting in 1764. 
• Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire – originally a Cisterian abbey, then largely rebuilt in the 18^th century. The 4^th Duke of Bedford, John Russell, took a Grand Tour in 1731, followed by Francis Russell, Marquess of Tavistock, who spent six months in Italy in 1761.

Inside Holkham Hall

H&A visited Holkham, one of the locations loaning a selection of paintings, books and sculptures, to see these works in person before they head to the Netherlands. 

‘Holkham is special in relation to other country houses, because the house and collection are intertwined, and the Sculpture Gallery became a template for other English country houses,’ says its head of collections, Katie Holmes. ‘Very few things have been sold since they were acquired, so it’s how it was then. This is the perfect time capsule of the Grand Tour.

‘It’s also the first time the story of the collection is told to include books, paintings and sculptures abroad. We’ve previously loaned some individual works, but this exhibition is comprehensive.’

What was the Grand Tour?

Though its origins lie in the 16^th century, the Grand Tour became a rite of passage for upper-class men (and, latterly, women) in the 17^th- early 19^th centuries, from the UK, the Netherlands and beyond. Accompanied by a guide (or cicerone) and often a tutor, accountant and servants, they headed to classical destinations such as Paris, Geneva, Rome, and Venice. Though routes varied, Italy was usually the pinnacle of these journeys, as the birthplace of the Roman civilisation. 

The aim of a Grand Tour was to soak up history, architecture, languages and the arts, with a side order of fine food and wine, entertainment, and the occasional sporting action – it wasn’t unusual to practice your fencing abroad. Manners and diplomacy were also importantly developed, to prepare these titled figures for high-profile aristocratic life. Some people took the whole family on the trip (as the 9^th Earl of Exeter did), and ladies often accompanied their aunts, but other venturers found this was an opportunity to let loose without their relatives’ influence. 

As well as trusting their own instincts and whims, our tourists often used dealers, guides or influential ex-pats from their home country to help them buy the best antique and contemporary pieces. Holkham’s Thomas Coke, the 1^st Earl of Leicester, was just one example, as Katie Holmes explains, ‘In 1714, he met William Kent, a copyist, dealer and painter, in Rome. Kent then introduced him to artists like Carlo Maratta and Pietro da Pietri.’ 

The idea was for travellers to gradually build up a collection, transport it back to their grand country estates, and show off their refined taste. In the case of Thomas Coke, there was a need to fill rooms in his Norfolk house, but he did buy extra pieces like a carriage. 

Though most tourists had come of age (at least 21 years old) when they left home, Coke’s six-year trip began when he was just 15. Holkham still retains the accounts book from his time abroad, written by accountant Edward Jarrett, which tells us who paid what and when.

Art collected on The Grand Tour

Key contemporary artists to buy from included Canaletto and Pompeo Batoni. Cityscapes, which were a Dutch invention, were incredibly popular. In 1731, Lord John Russell (later the 4^th Duke of Bedford), of Woburn Abbey, commissioned 24 Venetian views from Canaletto; the £188 he paid then translates to an incredible £38,000 in modern money. 

When they commissioned portraits, many tourists asked to be inserted into classical scenes. As for earlier works, they looked to the likes of Van Dyck and Peter Paul Rubens, plus highly collectible Roman sculptures. 

Here are our highlights from Holkham Hall, Burley House, and Woburn Abbey being featured in the Mauritshuis exhibition:

Holkham Hall 

• The Marble Head of the Goddess Roma (c130-140CE) mounted on a post-antique bust, stands out because its current form came about in the 18^th century. It speaks to the classical obsession at the time, and the way that artists and collectors embraced a contemporary twist on antiquity.
• Claude Lorrain’s View of Seaport and Amphitheatre, c.1652, is an idyllic scene. 'Lorrain created idealised Roman worlds,' says Ariane van Suchtelen. Thomas Coke was an enthusiastic collector of Lorrain’s work.
• Manuscripts c.1465-1470 add a further layer of interest; they form part of Holkham’s library, which has 10,000 books alongside one of the world’s most significant private manuscript collections. 

Burghley House

• The 9^th Earl of Exeter bought a white marble head of Medusa, by Joseph Nollekens: a 1764 copy of a Roman sculpture. Neoclassical sculptor Nollekens lived in Rome for eight years and sold works to many Grand Tourists. 
• A biblical scene by Denys Calvaert, The Annunciation (c1585), is a brilliant example of antique art bought during the trip. It's packed with dynamic energy and vivid colours. Two portraits by Paolo Veronese, of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (c1585), stand out too, with their contrapposto positioning. 
• There’s also a portrait of the 9^th Earl, by Angelica Kaufmann, from the same year; Kaufmann, a child prodigy, worked in both London and Rome. Her impact on Rome’s art scene was such that a bust of her is in the Pantheon.
• See our guide to Burghley House for more details of this fascinating property. 

Woburn Abbey

• Two Canaletto paintings (c1730-1740), bought by the 4^th Duke of Bedford, are the prizes here. They show the Piazza San Marco and the Grand Canal in Venice, both still must-see sights for any visitor to the city. 
• They’re closely followed by a 17^th century reproduction of a Michelangelo statue, Samson Slaying the Philistine.
• A Joshua Reynolds portrait of Francis Russell, Marquess of Tavistock (1739-1767), shows him surrounded by his Grand Tour souvenirs, such as a bronze statuette of Samson – almost like a show and tell, or today’s Instagram influencer shopping hauls. We’ve located a copy by James Watson, for sale through Isaac and Ede (£1,200). 

With these artworks usually spread across the great halls, galleries and sculpture rooms of these three grand estates, the exhibition gives us the chance to see the collected pieces work alongside each other, no longer separated by distance or ownership. 

The world, and the travel industry, has changed immeasurably since these Grand Tourists began their journeys. We might see the more recognisable scenes in a new light – how does Canaletto's view of Venice feel to viewers in 2025, given that Venice is sinking and is battling overtourism? 

Key insights into the Grand Tour

• Famous British figures who took these tours included politician Charles James Fox; author, philosopher and activist Mary Wollstonecraft; and Frederica Murray, Countess of Mansfield, who kept a diary of her travels aged just 19. 
• Grand Tourists also popped up in literature, with Mark Twain and Lord Byron both writing about their adventures, and Charles Dickens and Margaret Mitchell adding them in book plots.
• The practice of touring was affected by the French Revolution in 1789 and even more so by the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). It finally died out as rail travel became popular, making a Grand Tour less exclusive or justifiable. 
• Small souvenirs included miniature models of Roman marble tombs, obelisks and micro mosaics. In recent years, examples of these have sold for thousands of pounds or dollars at Sotheby’s. 
• A set of 1830s travel journals by Miss Ann Lloyd (later Lady Cullum) sold at Sworders for £650 in 2023. It describes her route from Munich to Parma, with stopping points including Berne and Mantua. Though travelling with her aunt, she met her future husband, Sir Thomas Cullum, on the journey. 

The Grand Tour: Destination Italy exhibition runs at the Mauritshuis, in The Hague, from 18^th September 2025 – 4^th January 2026. Ariane van Suchtelen’s book, The Grand Tour: Destination Italy, will be published on 1^st November 2025 to accompany the exhibition. 

Holkham Hall artworks, © with the kind permission of the Earl of Leicester and the Trustees of the Holkham Estate. Main image credit: Mauritshuis, at Holkham Hall.