Rare Ellen Terry dresses go on display together

The beetle-wing and banqueting dresses are both on display at Smallhythe Place

Two dresses worn by a Victorian theatre idol have gone on display together for the first time in decades.

Ellen Terry wore both costumes playing Lady Macbeth at the Lyceum Theatre in London in 1888.

The green beetle-wing dress has been returned to the former home of the actress, Smallhythe Place in Kent, to be exhibited alongside a newly-restored cream and gold banqueting outfit.

A National Trust spokesperson said the dresses were "lavishly decorated" and on display together "for the first time probably since the 1990s".

The "iconic" beetle-wing dress is back at the Kent National Trust property for the first time in five years, after being on display in Boston in the United States and at Tate Britain in London.

It is decorated in over 1,000 beetle wings and was "intended to evoke fear, and the effect of a serpent’s scales".

Ellen Terry wrote at the time in a letter to her daughter: “I wish you could see my dresses. They are superb.”

Susannah Mayor, senior collections and house officer at Smallhythe Place, said: “It is impossible to overstate the immense adoration for Ellen Terry or the eagerness with which audiences awaited her shows, with her costumes as much a part of the production as she was.

Ellen Terry wore the banqueting dress for a production of Macbeth in 1888

“You really can liken it to the media frenzy and attention that greets stars today turning up for film premieres or fashion events."

The second gown, worn for the banqueting scene in Macbeth, is on display for the first time since extensive conservation.

Ms Mayor said: “Costumes like these, lavishly decorated and with crochet and embroidery, are fragile and in the decades that have passed they need meticulous conservation.”

Dressing Lady Macbeth: An Exhibition runs at Smallhythe Place until 3 November.