Bust of Rt Rev Henry Phillpotts DD, Bishop of Exeter.

By Henry William Pickersgill, RA (1782-1875).

Plaster, 1816.

Henry Phillpotts (1778-1869), often called "Henry of Exeter", was the Anglican Bishop of Exeter from 1830 to 1869. One of England's longest serving bishops since the 14th century, Phillpotts was a striking figure of the 19th century Church.

Lanhydrock was built in 1630-42 for the Robartes family who rose from merchants and bankers to the peerage as Barons of Truro and then Earls of Radnor. The house was partly destroyed by fire in 1881 and was rebuilt by Richard Coad, an ex-pupil of George Gilbert Scott. Almost all that survives of the 17th-century interiors is the 116-ft long gallery and its superb barrel-vaulted ceiling containing 24 main panels depicting incidents from the Old Testament. Meanwhile, Coad’s neo-Jacobean interiors are a splendid expression of late Victorian comfort and prosperity.

The earliest parts of Fyvie Castle date from the 13th century – some sources claim it was built in 1211 by William the Lion. Fyvie was the site of an open-air court held by Robert the Bruce, and Charles I lived there as a child.

Following the Battle of Otterburn in 1390, it ceased to be a royal stronghold and instead fell into the possession of five successive families – Preston, Meldrum, Seton, Gordon and Leith – each of whom added a new tower to the castle. The oldest of these, the Preston tower, dates to between 1390 and 1433. The impressive Seton tower forms the entrance, and was erected in 1599 by Alexander Seton. The Gordon tower followed in 1778 and the Leith tower in 1890.

Following Victorian trends, the grounds and adjoining Loch Fyvie were landscaped in the 19th century. The Scottish industrialist Alexander Leith (later Baron Leith of Fyvie) bought the castle in 1885. It was sold to the National Trust for Scotland in 1984 by his descendants.