Knole is today one of the largest privately-owned houses in England, visited by thousands annually and housing one of the country's finest collections of second-hand Royal furniture. An affectionate celebration of staircases that lead to nowhere-in-particular, it's a pleasure to follow Robert Sackville-West, a knowledgeable and entertaining guide, on this fascinating, masterful, four-hundred-year tour through the memories and memorabilia, political, financial and domestic, of his extraordinary family.
The Story of Knole and the Sackvilles
Hardback
Publication Date: 03/05/2010
For the past four hundred years, since its purchase in 1605 by Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, the house at Knole, Kent, has been inhabited by fifteen generations of a single aristocratic family, the Sackvilles. Here, drawing on a wealth of unpublished letters, archives and images, the current incumbent of the seat, Robert Sackville-West, paints a vivid and intimate portrait of the vast, labyrinthine house and the close relationships his often colourful ancestors formed with it. Inheritance is the story of a house and its inhabitants, a family described by Vita Sackville-West as 'a race too prodigal, too amorous, too weak, too indolent and too melancholy; a rotten lot, and nearly all stark staring mad'. From Charles, 6th Earl of Dorset, a notorious carouser, minor poet, and friend and patron of John Dryden, to Vita Sackville-West, novelist, biographer and lover of Virginia Woolf, the history of the Sackville dynasty is one of extremes: vast wealth and financial ruin, personal tragedy and triumph, public rioting and cosy family dinners.
Knole is today one of the largest privately-owned houses in England, visited by thousands annually and housing one of the country's finest collections of second-hand Royal furniture. An affectionate celebration of staircases that lead to nowhere-in-particular, it's a pleasure to follow Robert Sackville-West, a knowledgeable and entertaining guide, on this fascinating, masterful, four-hundred-year tour through the memories and memorabilia, political, financial and domestic, of his extraordinary family.
Knole is today one of the largest privately-owned houses in England, visited by thousands annually and housing one of the country's finest collections of second-hand Royal furniture. An affectionate celebration of staircases that lead to nowhere-in-particular, it's a pleasure to follow Robert Sackville-West, a knowledgeable and entertaining guide, on this fascinating, masterful, four-hundred-year tour through the memories and memorabilia, political, financial and domestic, of his extraordinary family.
- ISBN:
- 9781408803387
- 9781408803387
- Category:
- Social & cultural history
- Format:
- Hardback
- Publication Date:
- 03-05-2010
- Publisher:
- Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Country of origin:
- United Kingdom
- Pages:
- 320
- Dimensions (mm):
- 234x153mm
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