Knole House adjoins the pleasant and picturesque town of Sevenoaks. The principal approach is by a long and winding avenue of finely-grown beech-trees, through the extensive Park—the road, sloping and rising gradually, and presenting frequent views of hill and dale, terminated by the heavy and sombre stone front of the ancient and venerable edifice. Passing under an embattled Tower, the first or outer quadrangle is entered; hence there is another passage through another tower-portal, which conducts to the inner quadrangle, and so to the

for which Knole—one of the stateliest of the Baronial Mansions of England—has long been famous. No precise date can be assigned to the structure; it is certain that so far back as the Conquest there was “a residence” here; we have, however, no authentic records of its occupants until early in the reign of John, when “the Manor and Estate” were held by Baldwin de Bethune, from whom they passed by marriage to the Mareschals, Earls of Pembroke, one of whom—a “rebellious Baron”—forfeiting, the lands were bestowed upon Fulk de Brent, a low soldier of fortune—“a desperate fellow,” as Camden terms him, whose arms had been useful to the King and his son, Henry the Third. Upon the subsequent disgrace of this mercenary, the lands reverted to the Earl of Pembroke; from whom they passed to the Bigods, the Grandisons, the Says, and—in the reign of Henry the Sixth—to James Fienes, summoned to Parliament in the twenty-fourth of that Monarch’s reign as Lord Say and Sele; and murdered in Cheapside by order of “Jack Cade.” His son and heir conveyed the estates to Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, who having “rebuilt the Manor-house, and enclosed a Park round the same,” bequeathed it, in 1486, to the See. Knole thus became the dwelling-house of the several Archbishops until the twenty-ninth of Henry the Eighth, when Cranmer, “willing to surrender a part of the possessions of the Church to preserve the remainder,” granted Knole and its appurtenances to the King. By Edward the Sixth they were given to the Dudleys: on the failure of the attempt to place Lady Jane Grey on the throne, they reverted to the Crown. By Queen Mary they were presented to Cardinal Pole. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, after having been held for a brief time by the Earl of Leicester, they were bestowed upon Thomas Sackville, created Baron Buckhurst and Earl of Dorset. In this family they have ever since remained; the present owner of the noble Mansion and Estates being the Countess Amherst, relict of the sixth Earl of Plymouth, and daughter of the third Duke of Dorset, co-heiress, with her sister the Countess De la Warr, of her brother, the fourth Duke, who died “of full age, but unmarried and without issue,” in 1815.[59]

Knole House is full of highly honourable and deeply interesting associations with the past. Seen from a distance, the Mansion appears irregular; but, although the erection of several periods, and enlarged, from time to time, to meet the wants or wishes of its immediate occupiers, it exhibits few parts out of harmony with the whole; and presents a striking and very imposing example of the earlier Baronial Mansions, such as it was before settled peace in Britain warranted the withdrawal of all means of defence in cases of attack from open or covert enemies.—The neighbourhood, as well as “the House,” is suggestive of many sad, or pleasant, memories: from the summits of knolls in the noble and well-stocked Park, extensive views are obtained of the adjacent country; scattered about the wealds of Kent are the tall spires of scores of village churches; Hever—recalling the fate of the murdered Anna Boleyn and the destiny of the deserted Anne of Cleves; Penshurst—the cradle and the tomb of the Sidneys; Eridge—once great Warwick’s hunting-seat; the still frowning battlements of Tunbridge Castle;—these and other objects, within ken, demand thought and induce reflection; both of which obtain augmented power while treading the graceful corridors and stately chambers of the time-honoured

Mansion. The walls are hung with authentic portraits of the great men of various epochs, who, when living, flourished here; not alone the noble and wealthy owners of the old Hall, but the worthies who sojourned there as guests—to have sheltered, aided, and befriended whom is now the proudest, as it will be the most enduring, of all the boasts of lordly Knole.[60]

Visitors are generously admitted into the more interesting and attractive of the apartments; and they are full of treasures of art,—not of paintings alone, although of these every chamber is a store-house, but of curious and rare productions, from the most elaborate and costly examples of the artists of the middle ages, to the characteristic works of the English artisan during the reigns of Elizabeth and James, when a vast amount of labour was bestowed upon the commonest articles of everyday use. The collection of Fire-dogs at Knole is singularly rich; those which adorn “the Cartoon Gallery” supply us with our initial letter; but every room throughout the Mansion contains a pair equally curious and fine—the greater number being of chased silver. The chairs and seats of various kinds, to be found in all parts of the House, are so many models for the artist. The best are placed in “the Brown Gallery”[61]—a long and narrow apartment, panneled, roofed, and floored with oak; here the antique fastenings to the doors and windows are preserved in their early purity; the stained windows are fresh as if painted yesterday; while the walls are covered with historic Portraits, giving vitality to the striking and interesting scene—and seeming to remove two centuries from between the present and the past. Similar wealth (wealth in the best and truest meaning of the word) is

to be found in every chamber. The Great Hall has its “dais,” its “Minstrels’ Gallery,” and even its oak tables where retainers feasted, long ago. The bed-rooms are distinguished as, “the Spangled,” “the Venetian,” “the King’s,” &c. &c. Of the last named we give an engraving. The furniture here is entirely of silver; the state bed is said to have cost £8000. The room was prepared and furnished for the reception of James the First. The Portraits scattered through the various apartments are, many of them, of rare value. They include the principal nobility and statesmen of the reigns of Henry the Eighth and his children. Among the other pictures are choice examples of Titian, Corregio, Vandyck, Rembrandt, and Reynolds. In a window of the Billiard-room is a painting on glass of a knight in armour, representing the famous ancestor of the Sackvilles; and in the Cartoon Gallery are, also on glass, the armorial bearings of twenty-one of his descendants, ending with Richard, the third Earl of Dorset. Of the several “galleries,” and the drawing-rooms, it is sufficient to state that they are magnificent in reference to their contents, and beautiful as regards the style of decoration accorded to each. There is, indeed, no part of the noble building which may not afford exquisite and useful models to the painter; a fact of which we understand the noble owners are fully aware, for to artists they have afforded repeated facilities for study. It will not be difficult to recognise, in some of the best productions of modern art, copies of the gems which give value and adornment to the noble House of Knole.