Please help acquire this significant painting for Dorset County Museum

This portrait, and accompanying collection of manuscripts, books and cuttings relating to William Barnes, are being offered to the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society from a private family collection for £3,000.

All donations are welcome. Please speak to a member of the Museum team at Reception or contact Jenny Cripps on 01305 756823.

Thank You For Your Generous Support

Dorset was Giles Dugdale's beloved home for many years. As a young man, he had read for the Bar at Trinity College, Cambridge.  But his heart was not really in his studies and he chose to relinquish a legal career in favour of a literary one.

It was reading Llewelyn Powys' essay on 'The Grave of William Barnes' that first inspired Dugdale's interest in the Dorset dialect poet.  With a nod to Powys' work, Dugdale then published a selection of Barnes' poems and biographical notes in a volume 'Poems Grave and Gay' in 1949

Dugdale's admiration of Barnes grew with his knowledge of the poet's works, sustaining him through his later life. In 1953, two years before his death, Dugdale wrote what is considered to be the seminal Barnes biography, 'William Barnes of Dorset', securing the legacy of both the subject and his biographer.

Dugdale's other interests included art, architecture and archaeology, and he was an important member of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society.

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