Knebworth House.
Bulwer Lytton, Knebworth's most famous resident, wrote the following concerning his
feelings in regard to his Hertfordshire home "The place has something of the character of Penshurst, and its venerable avenues, which slope from
the house down to the declivity of the park, giving wide views
of the opposite hills, crowded with cottages and spires, impart
to the scene that peculiarly English, half stately and wholly
cultivated, character which the poets of Elizabeth's day so much
loved to linger upon. As is often the case with similar residences, the church stands in the park at a bow-shot from the
house, and formerly the walls of the outer court nearly
reached the green sanctuary that surrounds the sacred edifice.
The church itself, dedicated anciently to St. Mary, is worn and
grey, in the simplest architecture of ecclesiastical Gothic, and,
standing on the brow of the hill, its single tower at a distance
blends with the turrets of the house, so that the two seem one
pile."
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