The Staircase.
The Crimson Drawing-room contains pictures by Reynolds, Wouvermans, Parmigiano, Vandyke, Holbein, Lely, the Carracci, Titian, Berghem, and others.
The Retainers’ Gallery, a gallery that runs the whole length of the house, is on the topmost floor. From its peculiarly picturesque character it has been drawn or painted by nearly every artist whose pencil has found work at Knole: we engrave one portion of it.
The collection of fire-dogs at Knole is singularly rich; they adorn every room throughout the mansion, the greater number being of chased silver. The chairs and seats of various kinds, to be seen in all parts of the house, are, as we have intimated, so many models for the artist.
The Retainers’ Gallery.
The Great Hall has its dais, its Minstrels’ Gallery, and even its oak tables, where retainers feasted long ago. In a window of the Billiard-room is a painting on glass of a knight in armour, representing the famous ancestor of the Sackvilles; and in the Cartoon Gallery are, also on glass, the armorial bearings of twenty-one of his descendants, ending with Richard, the third Earl of Dorset. Of the several Galleries and the Drawing-rooms it is sufficient to state that they are magnificent in reference to their contents, and beautiful as regards the style of decoration accorded to each. There is, indeed, no part of the building which may not afford exquisite and useful models to the painter—a fact of which the noble owners are fully aware, for to artists they have afforded repeated facilities for study. It will not be difficult to recognise, in some of the best productions of modern art, copies of the gems which give value and adornment to the noble House of Knole.
The beeches of Knole have long been famous: they are of magnificent growth, gnarled by time into picturesque forms, sometimes singly, here and there in groups, and occasionally in long and gracefully arched avenues: of the latter is the Duchess’s Walk. The gardens, too, are laid out with much taste. The park is, indeed, one of the grandest and most striking, if not the most extensive, in the kingdom.