Day 4: Knole & Sissinghurst (Friday)

Morning: free until around 10 when bus leaves for Knole  

We are arranging to spend more time at the "stately homes" in  Kent than shows on the printed itinerary.  You will not have time to visit the Tate Gallery this morning, but there are other times when you could (e.g., day 8).

 
Afternoon: bus to Knole, England’s largest private mansion, childhood home of Vita Sackville-West, and a setting for Woolf's novel Orlando.  The house is set on 1000 acres in the county of Kent. The National Trust site about Knole
Heritage Trail site about Knole
Houses in Kent site about Knole

 

Then a guided tour of Sissinghurst Castle, Sackville-West’s adult home, famous for the gardens she designed and planted with her husband Harold Nicolson. The castle’s exhibit hall contains a treadle-operated hand-press from the Hogarth Press given by Virginia to Vita in 1930.

Above, the view from Vita's study in the Tower (left).

 

 Link to a site about the castle.

National Trust site about Sissinghurst

Link to online guide to Sissinghurst Castle Garden

Link to a site about the gardens

Another online tour of the garden (lots of pictures)
Evening: free (good theatre night) Sites for checking out what's on in London and buying tickets.

Return to England in the Footsteps of Virginia Woolf