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Petworth House
My visit to Petworth House
My wife and I visited the House in July 1999 for the first time, and I can
honestly say that we shall be returning to this exciting and extensive site
again, and again. This brief outline of our visit shall be expanded
when we have the opportunity to return and re-live the atmosphere of each
individual room.
The car park is free and is but a short walk from the House through the
Pleasure Grounds, passing the Rotunda and Doric Temple along the way.
Once in the courtyard, you can enter the House which is to the right, or go
into the Servant's Block where the shop, restaurant, exhibition and archive
rooms, along with the other facilities.
We chose to enter the House first via the Oak Staircase and were greeted
by a Trust volunteer who punches your tickets and directs you to the first
area which is the Somerset Room. There are volunteers on hand in every
room who are very amiable and extremely helpful in helping you get the most
out of your visit.
The 2nd Earl's Statuary in the North Gallery
Also available are detailed guides for each room giving information on
every painting and object within that room. On walking through
the first few rooms, you realize that to take in so much art and beauty,
you would need to make repeated visits to appreciate it all. I would
advise you to purchase the main guide to Petworth House as this will have
all the information you would need on your tour and it is worth reading
in full at a later date. Some rooms are freely open and allow you
to walk around the whole area whilst others are roped in sections to prevent
(I presume), undue wear to the floor coverings.
When we reached the Grand Staircase it was not immediately apparent that
the walls were not made from carved stone, but painted with murals.
The work is so exquisite, that a sense of extreme pleasure greets
you when this is revealed and you wander around taking in the painstaking
detail the artist created. As we have arrived on a day when the bedrooms
were open to the public (Tuesdays and Wednesdays), we made our way up the
Grand staircase, somewhat slowly, to the bedrooms above.
From the splendour of the rooms on the ground floor, the atmosphere changed
to reflect the fact that the bedrooms are still in use and feel much warmer
than the rooms below. Although on a smaller scale than the ground
floor, the rooms and corridors here portray the private side of life in
a large house and bring a touch of realism to the tour. I would personally
like the thank Lord and Lady Egremont for the opportunity to see these rooms.
For a description of the bedrooms go to the Bedrooms
page. You return to the ground floor by the way you came, and descend
the Grand Staircase back to the Beauty Room and Marble Room and on to the
Little Dining Room.
From the Little Dining Room you enter the Carved Room and are greeted
by a wonderful scene of palatial quantities. The richness of the furnishings
are soon overcome by the mastery of the carvings which adorn the room in
a well balanced and complementary finish. The room itself gives an
air of warmth and relaxation, and I feel that this must be one of the best
loved rooms within this house.
On leaving the Carved Room you enter the Red Room (formerly the Turner
Room), which portrays the same richness of the former room but in a different
style of decor. Nothing can prepare you for the next part of the tour
and upon entering the North Gallery my voice was stilled and an excitement
welled up inside. Here before me was a veritable treasure trove for
the eyes and senses, glancing briefly around the South Corridor one could
just make out the delights yet to come through the arches of the former
cloister that was originally here.
Coming back to earth I began to survey each individual piece of art as
it was revealed to me. The sensuous line of every curve on every sculpture,
the vibrant colours and compositions on every painting. Even now,
as I type this recollection of my visit onto the webpage I can recall the
wonderful feeling I had whilst wandering through this collection.
It is not enough to see the individual pieces here on display, you have
to feel them, sense the life the artist breathed into each work, and to
do this you need to make repeated visits. The North Gallery will draw
me back to Petworth House many times before I can quench this feeling inside
of me, if I ever do so. I have seen many sites around the world and traveled to many places (over 100
countries and Islands), and this for me will remain one of the most memorable I have seen.
Taking the Chapel Corridor to the Chapel you pass by the sculpture of
'Pietà', after Michaelangelo's famous 'Pietà' (1497-c.1500; St Peter's,
Rome). The Chapel is one of the oldest parts of the building and it
feels old. It is quite stark in contrast to the opulence of the rest
of the House, although the decorative work here is just as beautiful.
That brings the tour of the house to a close and exiting via the way in,
we left the Oak Staircase and returned to the courtyard.
We next entered the Servants Block and worked our way through the kitchens
smiling at the once modern appliances and up to date tools of the time.
Admired the wonderful collection of copper and the areas of work where many
hands once produced marvels of gastronomy. There was an exhibition
of a modern artist on show and afterwards we wandered down to the shop which
has a full range of goods on offer, some relating to the House, others to
local produce and crafts. After this we decided we deserved a rest
and made our way down to the restaurant and had a slice of something wonderful
(cannot recall now) and a bottle of Victorian Lemonade, delicious.
After resting for a while we browsed the collection of books, manuscripts,
bills and maps situated in two of the rooms in the Servants' Block and left
to walk in the Park. Stopping for a brief visit to see the Fire Engine
House, we turned west and headed for the lake. You enter the west
front through a large cast-iron gate, which is immensely heavy, and should
be kept closed. Walking down to the lake we spotted the deer on the
right, just under the trees and carried on down to the waters edge.
We sat by the lake for a while before making our way back to the car. The
whole visit had taken some 4 hours from start to finish and was well worth
it. A great day out for the whole family and especially for those who appreciate
the arts. The external architecture is not over exciting but the internal
design is better and the sense of history the House exudes is wonderful.
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