Kent – Knole House

Without primogeniture we would not have had the delightful grounds at Sissinghurst. So that is one tiny plus point to an arcane law that still exists for some English titles. Having spent the last half hour trying to work out if Vita could inherit Knole House if she were alive today, it appears that this requirement for the male line still exists for certain hereditary titles and so, in the twenty-first century, it’s possible that she could not.

I’m personally ambivalent about the aristocracy but when an only child who absolutely loves the place where she was born and raised, must give it up to someone who has never seen it and doesn’t care about it, but happens to be male, then the law is an ass. As much as I love Jane Austen, I have no wish to see some of her characters in the world of today.

Knole still contains a Lord Sackville, who has picked up his title by several hops and sideways skips due to the nobility’s aversion to the female of the species. In fact, Knole has been in the Sackville family since 1603 when King James I gave this grand pile to Thomas Sackville. The King had it to give as his great-uncle Henry VIII decided to take it from his Archbishop, because he enjoyed the hunting there and because it was a handy place to stash inconvenient daughters.

It’s an incredible looking building both inside and out. There are sumptuous rooms on display: grand bedrooms; ballrooms; galleries, etc. And the walls contain layers of history, and some of it quite salacious. I would have liked, however, to have seen what the kitchens had been like, or how Vita might have lived, as I suspect the place has had a lot of sprucing up done to it now that the National Trust co-own it. There are some nice rooms in the tower that were used by Edward ‘Eddie’ Sackville-West, the cousin that Vita had to relinquish the house to. It has two main rooms and a small bathroom and loo, as well as steps to the top for some stunning views. The Trust volunteer explained:
‘Eddie was um a homosexual, so the family made him live in the tower.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes, because he often had parties.’
‘Ah, you mean because of the noise.’ 

Eddie had apparently been given the Gatehouse Tower rooms to have his own space, especially as he didn’t much care for the main buildings. And his parties consisted of a few famous names from the arts. As well as his cousin, who popped in from Sissinghurst, he was well acquainted with Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster and Aldous Huxley to name but a few. 

The house took a good hour and a bit to walk around as it is fascinating, and rather large. Which meant that we didn’t end up exploring the outside much. Knole House sits in around one thousand acres of deer park, but the deer seem to be so tame that they come right up to you, so who needs to yomp over acres of land anyway? We finished off with a bite to eat in their café and then wended our way back to our barn.

This is only our second full day, yet it feels like we have been here a while. As we have driven along the winding roads, the tunnels of trees are a regular joy. The oast houses probably aren’t drying hops anymore but their distinctive conical roofs and metal cowls are sprinkled around liberally, and the white weatherboarded houses are ubiquitous on the landscape. It feels a little bit surreal at times, like we’re driving through a film set, but it is rather beautiful.