Vita Sackville-West wrote this very interesting book in 1923 about the history of her family and their home, Knole. The grand house dates from 1456 but changed hands several times until 1586 when Queen Elizabeth I gave Knole to her cousin, Thomas Sackville. It has remained in the possession of his family ever since.

The house claims seven courtyards said to correspond to the days of the week; fifty-two staircases, corresponding to the weeks in the year; and three hundred and sixty-five rooms although Sackville-West never verified those details. One of the galleries, ninety feet long, has an oak floor, not made from oak planks but solid tree trunks split in half, flat side uppermost.

Sackville-West's pleasure in the house is apparent. It was her responsibility to "show" the house when she lived there alone with her grandfather who like many in the family, was unsociable. Her descriptions are vivid: "the chapel smoulders with colour".

Family history has been preserved in great detail through diaries, accounts and other records covering everything from 17th century banquet menus to medical procedures, from gardening accounts to receipts for paintings by artists such as Gainsborough and Reynolds.

Since reading this fascinating account, I have added Robert Sackville-West's book Inheritance : the story of Knole and the Sackvilles to my library. It will be interesting to compare them but I doubt the younger Sackville-West can match Vita's eloquence. ( )

To Shannon