princely estates: petworth houseWhile Petworth House is characterized by the beauty of its scenery,

princely estates: petworth houseWhile Petworth House is characterized by the beauty of its scenery, the magnificence of its park, the number of its charitable institutions, and more recently by the treasures of art collected in Petworth House, the history of the place itself possesses at least, as much interest as usually attaches to other towns, with which it may be fitly compared. There is, too, another circumstance, which may commend its antiquities to every lover of English History, - the fact that it has been connected, for many centuries, in an undisturbed line of succession, such as few places can lay claim to, with one of the most potent and distinguished families which the Baronage of England can treat of. Adequately to describe the interior of Petworth House would require from a critical pen a volume much larger than the present. Its marbles, its sculptures, more than 600 in number, executed by more than 200 artists, and its wondrous wood carvings, deserve a special historian. Here are glorious Claudes, and genuine Holbeins and Vandykes, with productions of nearly every other master both ancient and modern, including several of Turner, marked by the usual exaggerations of that great artist. It will probably be found that when adverse criticism has done its worst, common candour will allow that few collections of art in Europe amassed by a private family, can vie with the glories of “princely Petworth.”— Petworth: A sketch of its history and antiquities, Frederick Henry Arnold— A Compendious History of Sussex, Marc Antony Lower -- source link

More pics about