Knole and the Sackvilles

by V. Sackville-West

Says St. Nicholas Without.

St. Nicholas Within

He put bad men in,

Says St. Nicholas Within.

Castle Bell

You’re a very bad parcel,

Says the bell of the Castle,

and so on, in the same vein.

His patronage of the actress Peg Woffington sets him in a more personal and amiable light. I have no evidence to prove whether he was following in the steps of his father; I only know that Peg Woffington’s portrait, like that of Nell Gwyn and of the Baccelli, is at Knole; that an old play-bill of hers was found behind the panelling in the Great Hall; that the duke gave her a command performance at Dublin; and, finally, that the following facetious petition—was it written by one of the duke’s disrespectful sons?—is among the Knole papers:

To his Grace LIONEL Duke of DORSET, Lord Lieu^t of Ireland