Knole Castle

Knole Castle; sorry, no interior pix, but there's probably a

website...

Knole Castle was built originally as a palace for the archbishops of Canterbury (the meek shall inherit the earth, etc.) until Henry VIII "persuaded" them to hand it over, c. 1535. Sometime later, it came to the Sackville family, in whose hands it remains, along with the National Trust. In the 17th-18th century, one of the Sackvilles was Lord Chamberlain or somesuch...anyhow, the guy in charge of royal possessions, furniture, etc., who had first call on whatever the monarch did not want. The monarch at the time was William of Orange, who did not want to be reminded of the Stuarts, and so thousands of items of Stuart possessions went to Knole and remain there, now on display. It is, indeed, the largest collection of Stuart stuff there is, and includes some Tudor stuff as well. The three galleries of portraits, pretty much all Tudor and Stuart personages, are incredible, as are all the other royal-quality stuff from the age. The most stunning pieces, however, are the items of silver furniture in the King's apartment. Louis XIV initiated the fashion of having furniture made from silver (not solid, I assume...). All the French pieces eventually were melted down to finance wars, revolutions, 1947 Lafite-Rothschild, chateaubriand, etc. But a few pieces in England survive, and they are on display at Knole. Stunning.