As yesterday was rain fron dawn to dusk, we decided a visit to Petworth House was the best option. A remarkable collection of artwork and treasures including the world's oldest globe from 1598 when Sir Walter Raleigh collaborated in its design. The carved room with the portrait of Henry VIIIth by Holbein studio and wood carvings by Gibbons is remarkable in its state of preservation.
Petworth House was owned during the Middle Ages by the Percy family, Earls of Northumberland. In 1682 the 10th Earl’s only child, Elizabeth, married Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset; her inherited wealth allowed the couple to set about remodelling the house in a French baroque style. Some of the foremost craftsmen of the day decorated the house, including the wood-carver Grinling Gibbons and the plasterer Edward Goudge. The park, with its serpentine lake, is the work of ‘Capability’ Brown and is arguably his finest remaining landscape. It houses one of the greatest picture collections in the Trust - includes works by Titian, Bosch, Claude, Ruisdael, Teniers, Van Dyck, Lely, Kneller, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Blake - and a magnificent collection of landscapes by Turner (a friend of the 3rd Earl of Egremont, whose collection of early 19th century British paintings is displayed in the North Gallery).
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