Sevenoaks - Knole

Must-see attractions nearby: Knole Emmetts Garden Hollanden Farm Park Ightham Mote Lullingstone Roman Villa Chiddingstone

Queen Elizabeth I gave Knole away to her cousin Thomas Sackville, first Earl of Dorset, who had it considerably enlarged in 1603. Since that time, the house, now the property of the National Trust, has remained practically unaltered both externally and internally. The state apartments, first and foremost the royal bedroom, the ballroom and the Venetian ambassador's room, house an impressive art collection, including almost a dozen pictures by Reynolds, as well as works by Hoppner and Gainsborough, magnificent furniture decorated with gold brocade and pure silver, wonderful Persian carpets (1580), Mortlake tapestries and valuable porcelain. The writer Victoria Sackville-West (1892-1962), who was born at Knole, immortalized the house in her "Edwardians" of 1930; Virginia Woolf chose it as the setting for her novel "Orlando" (1928). A tour of the house is not complete without a stroll through the magnificent parkland with its peacefully grazing deer.