Inheritance

Since its purchase in 1604 by Thomas Sackville, 1^st Earl of Dorset, the house at Knole, Kent, has been inhabited by thirteen generations of a single aristocratic family, the Sackvilles. Here, drawing on a wealth of unpublished letters, archives and images, the current incumbent of the seat, Robert Sackville-West, paints a vivid and intimate portrait of the vast, labyrinthine house and the close relationships his colourful ancestors formed with it.

Inheritance is the story of a house and its inhabitants, a family described by Vita Sackville-West as ¿a race too prodigal, too amorous, too weak, too indolent and too melancholy; a rotten lot, and nearly all stark staring mad''. Where some revelled in the hedonism of aristocratic life, others rebelled against a house which, in time, would disinherit them, shutting its doors to them forever. It''s a drama in which the house itself is a principal character, it''s fortunes often mirroring those of the family. Every deta