Sissinghurst Castle

For our first home and garden visit, we drove to Sissinghurst, just a short distance from Ashford, the home and garden of Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson. The estate began as a Saxon pig farm (origin of the expression "Saxon pigs!"), but by the 16th century had a large Renaissance house, 38 fireplaces and a 120 foot long hall. The next few centuries were rough, however, the estate serving as a POW camp for French sailors in the Seven Years War (the French and Indian Wars to us Yanks) (known to the prisoners as Chateau Sissinghurst and thus Sissinghurst Castle) and even a poor house. When Sackville-West and Nicolson took over, it was a ruin. Now it is one of hundreds of jewels in the National Trust crown. Vicki was hissing "Sackville-Bagginses!" as we toured, but this was (as she knows) the Sackville-West of Bloomsbury and Virginia Wolff fame.

The Elizabethan tower at Sissinghurst

Sackville-West's study was in the tower; playing was a
recording of her reading her poem "Sissinghurst"

She collected glass, among other things

Part of the estate, from the tower; note the white Kent hops
hoods on a distant barn; for drying hops; for making beer

And a view of part of the gardens; Harold was a straight-line
classicist, she a Romantic; they often clashed over the
gardens' designs

Not the first, and not the last Wisteria
you'll see from us; Vicki loves them

Azaleas in bloom all over...but nothing compared to the
rhododendron riot we'll see in a few more days

Poppies

Irises

And others; it is really earlier spring here; Europe has had
a dreadful long winter and short spring; the good news for
us is that we haven't really missed anything!

One end of the library; they were both literary types, and
this room contained nearly 5,000 books; is someone out
there thinking about the effect of e-books on great house
architecture?

Vita Sackville-West; portrait in the library