Description

This vast late 17th-century mansion is set in a beautiful 700-acre deer park in West Sussex, landscaped by "Capability" Brown and immortalized in Turner's paintings. The house contains the National Trust's finest collection of pictures, with numerous works by Turner, Van Dyck, Reynolds, and Blake, ancient and Neo-classical sculpture, fine furniture and carvings by Grinling Gibbons. The servants' quarters contain fascinating kitchens (including a copper batterie de cuisine of more than 1,000 pieces) and other service rooms. Petworth is the second title in a new series of guidebooks published for the National Trust, featuring some of its most important, popular and prestigious properties. The National Trust is one of the largest landowners in the UK. It protects and opens to the public over 350 historic houses, gardens and ancient monuments throughout England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. There was a popular television programme on Petworth House on BBC2 and BBC4 in 2011 which brought many extra visitors to the property.