The story
Petworth is first of all a great English country house in West Sussex, a late-17th-century mansion set in a deer park landscaped by Capability Brown, the most celebrated English garden designer. Its 3rd Earl of Egremont, George Wyndham, happened to be one of the finest art patrons of his day, which is why the house holds a serious picture collection, now cared for by the National Trust.
Egremont's guest for years was the painter J.M.W. Turner, who was given a room to work in and painted the park and its lake in shimmering light. Petworth still shows a group of his canvases where he made them.
The other wonder is the Carved Room, its walls foaming with limewood flowers, birds and lace carved by Grinling Gibbons in the 17th century, some of the most virtuoso woodcarving in Britain. Van Dyck and Titian hang elsewhere in the house.
