A friend and I visited Petworth House today. She grew up near Chichester and spent most of her life in Sussex but had never been inside. Today I had the pleasure of accompanying her as we walked around. It is an impressive place. Some of the paintings are vast - my friend and I were chatting to the room volunteer who confirmed that the particularly large one we were looking at doesn’t get moved from its position, other paintings move around it.

Tall arched window overlooking green trees and a tower

The scale of the place is ridiculous. Just look at the height of this window!

Large blue and white porcelain sculptures displayed in Petworth's Marble Hall

A tall floral porcelain vase in the Carved Room, with Grinling Gibbons' wood carvings behind

Detail of a colourful floral porcelain vase in the Carved Room

There is an exhibition Expressions in Blue: Monumental Porcelain by Felicity Aylieff being shown there at the moment which adds something to the experience. Some of the pieces are plain blue and white, while others are covered in bright floral enamel taking their cue from Grinling Gibbons’ wood carvings in the Carved room. These coloured ones were our favourites. These over-sized ceramics were why I thought this might be a good time to bring my friend. She’s partially sighted and so the sheer scale of these were helpful for her to get an idea of.

A tall floral porcelain vase decorated in colourful patterned petals

Petworth's grand painted staircase with a red patterned carpet runner

The sheer scale of this piece in the stair well was incredible. I mean the staircase itself is incredible, my entire house could fit into that space.

Each of the rooms in Petworth has a set of red books. Each book is full of information about all the paintings and statues in the room. This allowed my friend to find a picture that she could get an idea of, and then I could describe it and read the information about it. I did keep being asked by other people to look things up for them so I’m not sure if people thought I was a volunteer, or that I just looked helpful!

A large full-length portrait of a woman in a blue and gold dress

Portrait of Sarah Jennings, Duchess of Marlborough, by Sir Godfrey Kneller with legs tucked behind her

After our recent trip to Parham House we were interested in finding portraits of people who had history with the house, and the Beauty Room was a particular highlight. The information panel explains how the paintings started off as full-length portraits of the ladies, but the 3rd Earl of Egremont decided he didn’t need to see their legs and so asked for them to be shortened. Fortunately, the workmen making the change decided to fold the lower portions behind the canvas rather than cut them away entirely. This allowed them to be restored to their former glory almost two centuries later.

A skylight above the main gallery room, with a marble statue holding a spear below

My friend was particularly taken with the ancient statues deciding that she could find a space for one in her garden. We did chuckle about how the roman artefacts might need to earn their keep were we to get hold of one for her, perhaps holding a trowel and a kneeler in their hands!