Petworth House

Petworth House in Petworth, West Sussex, England, is a late 17th-century mansion, rebuilt in 1688 by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, and altered in the 1870s by Anthony Salvin. The site was previously occupied by a fortified manor house founded by Henry de Percy, the 13th-century chapel and undercroft of which still survive.

Today's building houses an important collection of paintings and sculptures, including 19 oil paintings by Turner (some owned by the family, some by Tate Britain), who was a regular visitor to Petworth, paintings by Van Dyck, carvings by Grinling Gibbons, classical and neo-classical sculptures (including ones by John Flaxman and John Edward Carew), and wall and ceiling paintings by Louis Laguerre. There is also a terrestrial globe by Emery Molyneux, believed to the only one in the world in its original 1592 state. [cite web|title=Petworth House: Globe|url=http://www.yeoldesussexpages.com/petworth/norgal.htm|publisher=Ye Olde Sussex Pages|accessdate=2008-02-07]

It stands in a 700 acre (2.8 km²) landscaped park, known as Petworth Park, which was designed by 'Capability' Brown. The park is one of the more famous in England, largely on account of a number of pictures of it which were painted by Turner. It is inhabited by the largest herd of fallow deer in England. There is also a 30 acre woodland garden, known as the Pleasure Ground.

For the past 250 years, the house and the estate have been in the hands of the Wyndham family — currently John Max Henry Scawen Wyndham, 2nd Baron Egremont & 7th Baron Leconfield, a direct descendant of Sir John Wyndham. He and his family live in the south wing, allowing much of the remainder to be open to the public.

The house and deer park were handed over to the nation in 1947 and are now managed by the National Trust under the name "Petworth House & Park". The Leconfield Estates continue to own much of Petworth and the surrounding area. As an insight into the lives of past estate workers the Petworth Cottage Museum has been established in High Street , Petworth, furnished as it would have been in about 1910.

Petworth House is home to the Petworth House Real Tennis Club. (Many such private estates held real tennis courts.)

Notes

References

*cite book|last=Turner|first=Roger|authorlink=Roger Turner (garden designer)|title=Capability Brown and the Eighteenth Century English Landscape|edition=2nd ed.|location=Phillimore, Chichester|publisher= [s.n.] |year=1999|pages=130–132
* [http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-petworthhouse.htm Petworth House & Park information at the National Trust]

External links

* [http://www.dicamillocompanion.com/Houses_hgpm.asp?ID=1599 Petworth House entry from The DiCamillo Companion to British & Irish Country Houses]
* [http://www.gravelroots.net/petworth/parkgall.html#here Petworth Park & House Photo galleries]
* [http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=petworth&page=3 Flickr images of Petworth]