Today we went with my parents to the Knole house in Sevenoaks. It was a very nice fortified estate with a huge deer park around it. It was an estate that originally was started by an Archbishop of Canterbury. Apparently, though, King Henry VIII liked it so much that he forced the Archbishop (Cranmer) to hand it over to the king and he passed it on to Elizabeth and she gave it to Thomas Sackville, her cousin and counsellor. It has been in the Sackville family ever since. Apparently Thomas was the Lord High Treasurer for both Elizabeth I and also King James who followed. Since James replaced the Tudors he didn't care for reminders of the Tudors and Thomas was allowed to take any extra furnishings that were unwanted by the king. So, Thomas took as much furniture as he could and put it in Knole. 
It is now the largest collection of original Tudor furniture in the world. The furniture is now highly faded, but one armchair they were restoring and found that its interior was stuffed with the scraps from the original manufacture fabric. They used some of these scraps to cover the arms of the chair to show how much the colors had faded over the 400 years.
It is now the largest collection of original Tudor furniture in the world. The furniture is now highly faded, but one armchair they were restoring and found that its interior was stuffed with the scraps from the original manufacture fabric. They used some of these scraps to cover the arms of the chair to show how much the colors had faded over the 400 years.The place is filled to the brim with paintings, portraits, in addition to this furniture. There was even an ancient billiards table. Of course, we weren't able to take any pictures inside, which really stinks. I walked around the house about 5 times as Makenna lead me around on my leash. She was very good actually and didn't throw a fit at all. She showed me this one room that had the silver mirror and table that were amazing. The place had a huge amount of silver and porcelain in it as well.
The Sackville's still live there in apartments, but allow the public to come in and visit the more regal areas. The place also has a huge deer herd. The deer are quite small and very friendly, though they would not get too close to us. Makenna had fun chasing them around. There was a couple of males that have antlers like a moose, but are only may 1/5th the size. I've attached a video below. My dad said they were called fallowed deer, whatever that means, just the name of the breed I guess.
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