HYLAND
one end, a magnificent ceiling and ancestral portraits,
including one of Thomas Sackville. In a 2010 interview
with the BBC, the present-day Sackville who presides over
Knole, Robert Sackville-West, the 7th Baron Sackville,
points out numerous charming, sometimes mysterious
details, as only an inhabitant since childhood can, that
are often mementoes of great events associated with the
house. Above the door is a portrait of Edward 4th Earl
of Dorset, in royalist finery, bearing a key. Said Robert
Sackville-West, "That key is the symbol of his office as
Lord Chamberlain to the royal household, and there in
the bottom left hand corner of the frame hangs the actual
key—we used to love that as kids." Robert Sackville-
West, also in 2010, published a revealing and entertaining
history of Knole entitled Inheritance: the Story of Knole
and the Sackvilles.
Knole, apart from Vita's legacy, is nothing if not literary in
intonation and history. There is the French Library, and
John
Miller
