Knole, from the Garden.
Visitors are generously admitted into the more interesting and attractive of the apartments; and they are full of treasures of Art—not of paintings alone, although of these every chamber is a storehouse, but of curious and rare productions, from the most elaborate and costly examples of the artists of the Middle Ages, to the characteristic works of the English artisan during the reigns of Elizabeth and James, when a vast amount of labour was bestowed upon the commonest articles of every-day use.
In the Porter’s Apartments, adjoining the entrance, is what may be called the Retainers’ Armoury—an apartment lined with old flint and steel muskets of formidable bore, cutlasses, skull-caps, and other warlike implements, including some fine halberds. It is said that Cromwell, on taking Knole House, carried away several waggon-loads of arms. Even now the position is so strong, that a garrison of five hundred men, loopholing the walls, and taking the defensive measures prescribed by the military science of the day, would be able to make it a “tough job” to turn them out. The curious brick loopholing of the wall of a large building, looking like a barn, at the north-east corner of the pile, seems as if it had been prepared for the use of archers. In a court-yard near, the wall has been raised, and that at a period which is widely removed from the date of its erection. In the lower and thicker portion is a window of the style introduced in the reign of Henry III. Close by, in the upper and receding portion, is an opening with the flat, four-centred arch of the Tudor times.
The first court entered by the visitor is the Green Court, in which are the famous figures of the “Gladiator,” and of “Venus rising from the Bath.” Around this court are Lord John’s Apartments, the Greenhouse, the Bishop’s Stables, and various offices. The next court is known as the Stone Court, from which Knole House itself is entered. From the Great Hall a fine old staircase leads to the Brown Gallery.
The Brown Gallery is oak-panelled, and contains a large number of portraits—copies, principally, in one style, apparently by one hand, and in similar frames: they are chiefly of the worthies of the age of Elizabeth and James, and form a series of much interest. In this gallery, also, are many of those “easy-chairs” of the same epoch, for which the house at Knole has long been famous, and which have been so valuable to artists. It is a long and narrow apartment, panelled, roofed, and floored with oak. Here the antique fastenings to the doors and windows are preserved in their early purity; the stained windows are fresh, as if painted yesterday; while the historic portraits give vitality to the striking and interesting scene, and seem to remove two centuries from between the present and the past.
The Brown Gallery.
From the Brown Gallery a passage leads to the Chapel, fitted up with tapestry, with stained-glass windows, and the other accessories of a place of worship. The Chapel is of stately proportions, and flooded with a golden light, admitted through the eastern window, which is full of old yellow stained glass. It is kept in perfect order for daily service; but the appearance of English texts, written in that imitation of old English which has lately become prevalent, seems to jar with the traditional Catholicity of the spot. The private gallery is, in fact, a large room, in which the members of the family can be present at the worship, unseen by the servants or any other attendants. The gallery is hung with some very fine tapestry, of a bold style of execution, and in excellent preservation. The subject is not explained by the tradition of the spot. It appears to refer to the legend of St. Veronica, as the marvellous sudarium, or handkerchief, bearing the impression of the features of Christ, is displayed in one scene, to the astonishment of a truculent personage in an enormous crown, who appears repeatedly in various parts of the canvas, and no doubt represents “the Emperor”—a title of singular elasticity in monkish stories. The Chapel is directly connected with the home chambers of the family: these are hung with rare pictures by the great old masters, filled with objects of virtu gathered in various countries by several members of the race, and distributed with judgment and taste.