Knole

A few days, later I took a 25-minute train trip south of London to another historic stately home, Knole — all 365 rooms of it.

It was that first Sackville, ancestor of the current residents of Knole, who modeled the house on palaces he had seen in Europe, transforming it into a residence fit for entertaining the royal court.

Almost the first thing a visitor sees in the entrance hall at Knole is a life-size sculpture of a reclining nude, a famous Italian ballerina known as La Baccelli.

After setting a torrid pace with affairs in London and Paris, where he was said to be a favorite of Marie Antoinette, that 3rd duke settled down at Knole with an aristocratic wife, Arabella Cope.

It’s still there, cared for by the National Trust, which recently completed a multiyear restoration of Knole.