Petworth August 2019

Early in August we took a drive to Petworth - only 26 miles from home. Best to get there early as National Trust parking areas fill up fast. As you can see, if you like to get out and about it's really worth your while joining the NT - along with entry to the area also comes free parking, clean toilets and really good cake. Just one visit a month to a place like Petworth (there are hundreds of places around the UK) and you've got value for money.

On the long walk up from the car park the Doric Temple comes into view. Built in 1744 it was moved by Capability Brown to its present location around 1752. His real name was Lancelot but his nickname came by his habit of presenting clients with the idea that their gardens had the 'capability for improvement'. He was born to working class parents in the early 1700's. The gardens that he designed and built back in the 1700's endure till today and are distinctly recognisable - no formal lines and patterns, just enhanced natural features. He came in for heavy criticism for these ideals, but here we are 300 years later, still admiring his work.

The Shepherd's hut was probably not in the original plan though. For those with a garden larger than a postage stamp, they're very popular today.

Main entrance to the house is through the courtyard alongside the servant's quarters.

And some enviable espalier ...

Our tour started in the servant's quarters, still in authentic condition.

In one of the rooms was an exhibition of Peter Thuring's photographs of the wood carvings by Grinling Gibbons. The original carvings are in the Carved Room. The photographs are black and white to show the carvings as they would have been carved back in the 1690s. Age has darkened them from their original light cream, but the b&w photographs eliminate the discolouration of the wood.

At last, into the main house, through the back entrance.

Built in 1682 when heiress Elizabeth Percy, daughter to the 11th Earl of Northumberland, married Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset.

The upstairs part of the house is only accessible with a private tour as Petworth is still the private home of Lord and Lady Egremont, but as we had a Maya in a pushchair (buggy in English parlance), it was downstairs for us.

There's an impressive collection of sculptures and paintings in the North Gallery.

I'm a bit of a geography nut and maps and globes really do it for me, so this Emery Molyneux globe (d.1598.9) was a highlight. Thought to be the earliest English made terrestrial globe still in existence, it has coloured lines which show voyages made by Francis Drake and others.

The series of allegorical murals on the ceilings and walls of the Grand Staircase were painted by Louis Laguerre around 1714. 300 years on, they are still magnificent.