Since its purchase in 1604 by Thomas Sackville, first Earl of
Dorset, the house at Knole, Kent, has been inhabited by thirteen
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drawing on a wealth of unpublished letters, archives, and images,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 colorful ancestors formed within 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 starkstaring mad." Where some reveled in the
hedonism of aristocratic life, others rebelled against a house
that, in time, would disinherit them, shutting its doors to them
forever. It's a drama in which the house itself is a principal
character, its fortunes often mirroring those of the family. Every
detail holds a story: the portraits, and all the items the subjects
of those portraits left behind, point to pivotal moments in
history; all the rooms, and the objects that fill them, are
freighted with an emotional significance that has been handed down
from generation to generation.
Now owned by the National Trust, Knole is today one of the
largest houses in England, visited by thousands annually and
housing one of the country's finest collections of secondhand Royal
furniture. It's a pleasure to follow Robert Sackville-West as he
unravels the private life of a public place on a fascinating,
masterful, four-hundred-year tour through the memories and
memorabilia, political, financial, and domestic, of his
extraordinary family.
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