My Favourite National Trust PropertiesMy favourite National Trust houses:
Knole, Kent
Given by Elizabeth I to her 'sweet Robin' the Earl of Leicester in 1561, and then to her cousin Thomas Sackville.
I like it because of its size (365 rooms), its wonderful deer park, and because of its association with Vita Sackville West and as the setting for Orlando by Virginia Woolf.
Ightham Mote, Kent
Because it's such a wonderful, secluded, hard to find place and because it was associated with my wife, Helen, who lived nearby in Ivy Hatch and did a special study on it for University before it was given to the National Trust (she had her own special key to get in the front door).
A wonderful moated medieval manor house similar to Ightham Mote in lots of ways but much easier to find.
Rievaulx Abbey, Yorkshire
A wonderfully secluded location in the North York Moors. You come across it suddenly as you come round a bend.
A wonderfully secluded location in the Yorkshire Dales.
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